Gear Cutting
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Gear cutting encompasses a range of processes essential for creating functional gears. Among the most common methods are hobbing, broaching, and machining. Additionally, shaping, forging, extruding, casting, powder coating, heat treating, flame hardening, carburizing, and lapping are integral techniques in the gear cutting realm.
Broaching
When dealing with large gears or splines, the vertical broach reigns supreme. This apparatus comprises a vertical rail carrying a single-tooth cutter tailored to shape the tooth profile. Some machines are equipped to cut to a specific depth on the Y-axis and automatically index the rotary table, making them ideal for producing the largest gears.
Broaching is particularly effective for cutting teeth on the inside, although it tends to be costly due to the necessity of different broaches for varying gear sizes. Consequently, it finds its niche in high-production runs.
Hobbing
Hobbing stands as a pivotal method wherein a hob is employed to carve teeth into a blank. The cutter and gear blank rotate simultaneously, transferring the hob’s profile onto the gear blank. This process, utilized extensively across all production scales, excels in medium to high-volume scenarios.
Machining
Gears undergo cutting or grinding on milling machines and gear cutters, utilizing numbered gear cutters and any indexing head or rotary table. The choice of gear cutter corresponds to the tooth count of the gear to be crafted. Machining helical gears on manual machines demands the use of a true indexing fixture, ensuring precise rotation and linear movement for impeccable results.
Various types of gear hobs and cutters contribute to the creation of gears, including rack shapers, helical cutters, planetary gear cutters, herringbone gear cutters, spiral bevel gear cutters, straight-tooth gear cutters, and spline cutters. Form cutting emerges as a popular technique, involving the rotation of a cutter around the periphery of a blank gear to achieve the desired tooth pattern and fit.
Shaping
Traditionally, gear cutting through shaping involves mounting a gear blank in a shaper and utilizing a tooth-shaped tool to carve the desired tooth profile. This method, suitable for cutting internal splines as well, represents a time-tested approach to gear fabrication. Another technique involves a pinion-shaped cutter in a gear shaper machine, where a gear blank is cut by a gear-like cutter. Ensuring parallel rotating axes between the cutter and the blank, this method excels in both low and high-speed gear applications.
Finishing
Upon completion of the cutting process, gears undergo finishing touches through methods like shaving, burnishing, grinding, honing, or lapping. These refinements not only ensure precise tolerances but also offer options for achieving high mirror or reground finishes, guaranteeing gears within “0” tolerance.
Grinding
Grinding, a crucial step in gear production, involves surface finishing using abrasive materials. Gears requiring grinding and carburizing undergo processes like surface grinding, lapping grinding, internal and external grinding, blanch grinding, and other specialized techniques. Our rebuilding and reconditioning services offer cost-effective alternatives to purchasing new equipment.
Spray Metalizing
Metalizing presents a sprayed process for restoring worn areas on various machinery parts. In traverse hardening systems, workpieces progress through induction coal, followed by quench spray or ring application. This method, extensively used in shafts, drive shafts, trunnion rolls, excavator bucket pins, and rotating equipment production, extends equipment lifespan and wear resistance. By adjusting speed and power, we can tailor hardening along the entire shaft length or specific areas, including steps in diameter or splines. Our expertise covers rotating welding, metalizing, heat treating, and flame hardening, ensuring your equipment’s longevity and performance.
Metal Hardening
Metal hardening encompasses various heat treating processes aimed at enhancing the durability and performance of metal parts. Induction hardening, a prevalent method, involves heating a metal part through induction heating and subsequently quenching it. Case hardening offers another option, selectively hardening specific areas of a part while applying physical barriers to prevent undesired carburization and hardening.
Temper processing serves to reduce the hardness of worn-out equipment, offering techniques like age hardening, annealing for machining, full annealing, regular tempering, stress relief, and temper annealing.
Flame hardening delivers exceptional results for challenging workpieces. Our arsenal of hardening machines, equipped with customized coils and patented multi-frequency technology, tackles even the most intricate hardening tasks with precision and efficiency.
Nitriding, a surface-hardening heat treatment, introduces nitrogen into the surface of steel after machining or grinding, typically at temperatures ranging from 500 to 550°C (930 to 1020°F) while in the ferrite condition. Unlike carburizing, which alters surface composition by adding carbon into austenite, nitriding adds nitrogen into ferrite. Nitriding boasts excellent dimensional control and minimal distortion, offering benefits such as high surface hardness, increased wear resistance, improved fatigue life, enhanced corrosion resistance, and resistance to heat-induced softening up to the nitriding temperature.
- Electroless Nickel
- Titanium Nitride
- Chrome Plating
- Boron Coating
- Nicarb Coating
- Thermo Fusion
- Stellite 12
- Electro Hard Facing
- Nickel Plating
In addition to these specialized hardening techniques, we provide all types of rotating welding, metalizing, heat treating, and flame hardening services. Whether you need to enhance wear resistance, improve surface hardness, or protect against corrosion, our expert team is here to assist you.
Machinery Repair
Hanson Gear Works takes pride in our state-of-the-art machinery repair services. We specialize in rebuilding and refurbishing a wide range of equipment, including:
- Ball Screws and Nuts
- Spindle Arc Chucks
- Spline Shafts
- Ball Splines
- Head Stock Rebuilding
- Brass Nut Repair
- Re-threading and Re-cutting on Feed Screws
- Heat Exchangers
- Pumps
- Gears and Gearboxes
- Moyno Shafts
- Dies for the Stamping Industry
- Rams for Pressing
- Feed Screws for Meat Processing Plants
- Electric Motors of all Makes and Models
- Blower Crank Shafts
- Piston Shafts
- Re-cutting of Splines
- Keyway Cutting
- Various Cutting Equipment
- Broaches
- And more
Regardless of the make, model, or manufacturer, we can rebuild worn and broken equipment to meet or exceed OEM standards. Our facilities are equipped with advanced machinery and staffed by experienced technicians who can handle O.D. – I.D. grinding, gear hobbing, CNC equipment, and more.
Why pay 100% to the manufacturer for new equipment when we can rebuild and extend the lifespan of your existing machinery? With our expertise, you can save up to 50% over many years while enjoying reliable performance and functionality.
Contact us today to learn more about our hardening procedures, machinery repair services, and how we can help optimize the efficiency of your equipment.
Why chose us?
- State-of-the-art technology for precise gear cutting
- Expert technicians ensure original gear performance
- Prompt service with significant cost savings
- Trusted, cost-effective solutions for all gear cutting needs