Split gearing, another technique, consists of two gear halves positioned side-by-side. Half is set to a shaft while springs cause the other half to rotate somewhat. This increases the effective tooth thickness so that it completely fills the tooth space of the mating gear, thereby getting rid of backlash. In another edition, an assembler bolts the rotated fifty percent to the fixed half after zero backlash gearbox assembly. Split gearing is normally found in light-load, low-speed applications.
The simplest and most common way to lessen backlash in a set of gears is to shorten the distance between their centers. This moves the gears into a tighter mesh with low or also zero clearance between tooth. It eliminates the effect of variations in center distance, tooth measurements, and bearing eccentricities. To shorten the center distance, either change the gears to a fixed distance and lock them set up (with bolts) or spring-load one against the other so they stay tightly meshed.
Fixed assemblies are typically used in heavyload applications where reducers must invert their direction of rotation (bi-directional). Though “set,” they could still need readjusting during assistance to pay for tooth use. Bevel, spur, helical, and worm gears lend themselves to fixed applications. Spring-loaded assemblies, on the other hand, maintain a continuous zero backlash and are generally used for low-torque applications.
Common design methods include brief center distance, spring-loaded split gears, plastic material fillers, tapered gears, preloaded 
gear trains, and dual path gear trains.
Precision reducers typically limit backlash to about 2 deg and are used in applications such as instrumentation. Higher precision models that achieve near-zero backlash are found in applications such as robotic systems and machine device spindles.
Gear designs can be modified in many ways to cut backlash. Some methods change the gears to a set tooth clearance during preliminary assembly. With this approach, backlash eventually increases because of wear, which requires readjustment. Other designs use springs to hold meshing gears at a continuous backlash level throughout their services life. They’re generally limited to light load applications, though.