Custom Gear Blanks

29 Apr.,2024

 

Custom Gear Blanks

Gears are toothed, mechanical transmission elements used to transfer motion and power between components. The automobiles, aircraft, and heavy-duty industrial machines that make life convenient aren’t possible without gears.

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Gear Cutting: Definition, Processes, and Types

Gear cutting is a group term used to describe several processes that are used to create gears out of gear blanks. The gear-cutting process involves the cutting or abrasion of material from a gear blank to create a gear. Different types of gear cutting include: grinding, shaping, finishing, broaching, hobbing, and milling. Each of these processes has its characteristics.

This article will discuss what gear cutting is, how it works, and the types.

What Is Gear Cutting?

Gear cutting is the process in which a gear is cut using a milling machine, as opposed to the gear being cast or stamped. Gear cutting can be achieved using a few different processes including: grinding, shaping, broaching, hobbing, and milling. 

How Does Gear Cutting Work?

Gear cutting has a few different methods, but they all work on a similar principle. A gear blank, which is a block shape resembling the final shape of the gear, is given gear teeth using either cutting or abrasion. Cutting uses a special cutting tool mounted on a milling machine which cuts one tooth at a time, whereas the abrasion method uses a shaped grinding disc to abrade away material. 

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What Is the Purpose of Gear Cutting?

Gear cutting is used to create a series of different gears, which mesh with one another to transmit a rotational force. Most gears are used in the transmission of mechanical power. Several gear-cutting techniques offer the ability to create different gear types. The different gear types have different characteristics including: increased power transmission, reduction in friction, reduction in noise, or low cost.

What Are the Uses of Gear Cutting?

The use of any form of gear cutting is to create a gear. The different types of gear cutting have different uses. For example, gear grinding is used for high-precision gear cutting, while gear shaping is used for medium production runs for high consistency. Meanwhile, gear finishing is used to increase the precision of other gear cutting methods, gear broaching is used for the quickest production, gear hobbing is used for the best speed and accuracy, and gear milling is used for low-volume custom gears. 

How Does Gear Cutting Differ From Types of Milling?

Some gear-cutting methods are forms of milling, so they do share some common ground. However, there are also differences which are listed below:

  1. Milling usually produces one cut at a time, whereas gear cutting can make multiple cuts at once.
  2. Milling tolling is often more expensive than gear cutting.
  3. Milling has a much wider array of uses as it can cut holes, slots, undercuts, fillets, chamfers, and surface cuts. Whereas gear cutting specifically relates to the formation of gear teeth.
  4. Milling often requires deburring, whereas gear cutting often does not. 

Milling is by far the most common machining application due to its versatility and necessity in the creation of so many different parts for different applications, whereas gear cutting is limited only to the production of gears. 

What Are the Processes of Gear Cutting?

There are a few ways in which gears can be cut. The most common are discussed below:

1. Gear Grinding

Gear grinding uses an abrasive wheel to remove material from a gear blank. The abrasive wheel will rotate at high speed and make contact with the gear blank, imparting its profile into the gear. Gear grinding does come at a high tool and energy cost, and is slower than other methods. However, this process is very precise. Figure 1 is a photo of gear grinding, the pink wheel is the grinding disc which images with the gear blank on the right of the picture:

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