Bevel gears are used extensively in a wide variety of industries and mechanical operations due to the most important advantage they offer: smooth and low-noise power transmission between non-parallel shafts at almost any angle or speed. However, due to the mathematical complexity of their design, manufacturing these gears is not an easy process.
A TS16949 certified bevel gear manufacturer starts production from a forging, bar stock, or any other formed product such as a casting, depending on the strength requirements of the finished bevel gear. A forged blank is used when a superior strength to weight ratio, as well as better impact and fatigue resistance is necessary.
The forging, casting or bar stock is machined into a blank. Threads and splines maybe added on to the blank if the design so requires, and other machining processes such as turning, milling, drilling and tapping etc. are carried out prior to teeth cutting.
Next, the bevel gear teeth are cut into the blank. There are two main manufacturing methods to cut bevel gear teeth, and the tooth length and depth forms vary depending on the process adopted. The Gleason system uses the single indexing or face milling procedure, where every gap is milled separately, and the gear then rotated by the width of that tooth space. Bevel gears produced via this method have a tapered tooth depth and tooth thickness, and the curvature along the face width is that of a circular arc. This results in a coniflex gear, where the ends of the teeth curve slightly inward, allowing for greater tolerance of minor errors in shaft alignment as compared to straight cut teeth.
Oerlikon and Klingelnberg method uses the face hobbing process or the palloid manufacturing process, where the gear rotates constantly during the milling process. This continuous indexing method produces bevel gears with a constant tooth depth and tapered slot width and tooth thickness. The face width of the tooth is curved like an extended epicycloid. Bevel gears with involute tooth length can only be produced via the face hobbing method.
Depending on the end use of the bevel gear, either method may be used to cut teeth.
Next, the gear is subjected to heat treatment – usually case carburizing and hardening, resulting in a surface hardness of 60-63 Rc. The pinion is normally up to 3 Rc harder than the gear to equalize wear and tear. Nitriding, flame hardening and induction hardening are rarely used in bevel gear heat treatment, to avoid significant tooth distortion.
The required finish machining operations are then carried out, such as turning outer and inner diameters, grinding and other special machining procedures.
The last important procedure involves the hard cutting of the bevel gear. The gear is finished first, and the pinion teeth are modified for optimum tooth contact along the profile and length of the tooth, by changing the curvature radius of the cutting blade. Once the tooth contact requirements are optimized, the gear is mounted for final inspection, including dimension checks, magnaflux or other specific inspections.
AmTech International bevel gear manufacturing services provide high precision crafting to maximize the functionality in powertrain / power transmission applications. Learn more about the different types of bevel gear supplier services we can offer you.
A Spiral Bevel Gear are used to transmit power between shafts that are at a 90-degree orientation to each other. Also, these custom parts are engineered with precision teeth which have a unique curve and are oblique in shape. The teeth have one concave, one convex side, feature a curve and have a spiral angle. This spiral angle is located from the tooth trace and pitch cone, resembling a helix angle that is located in teeth of helical types.
Since spiral bevels are not offset, less sliding occurs within gear teeth. This results in a low temperature operation with more efficient functionality than hypoid gearing types. Also, since there is a large amount of tooth surface this allows for greater interlocking during the rotation process. Because of this overall efficient operation, our custom spiral bevel gears are perfect for high speed, high torque transmission and power generation application types.
Spiral Capabilities:
– M2 to M15
– Maximum outer diameter is 600mm
Zerol bevel gears are basically the same type of product as spiral types. The only important variation is the spiral angle of the zerol bevel teeth are machined to zero. Also, the teeth are manufactured to have a gradual curve with both a convex concave side. Also this type of gear operates in a similar fashion to a gearbox’s straight bevel gear, but are cut and finished with high precision equipment for extremely tight tolerances and surface finishing.
Straight Bevel Gears have a straight tooth geometry, which if extended, would pass through the point of intersection of their axes. The teeth are produced from forged alloy steel for maximum strength and case hardened for increased durability.
Capabilities:
– M1.3 to M8.5
– Pitches as coarse as 2.5 diameter or as fine as 48 D.P.
– Maximum outer diameter is 216mm
– Ratios from 1:1 to 1:10
The miter gear parts are used to minimize backlash, which is excess movement between the screw and nut. The specialized products are custom designed and configured in varying dimensions, with many selections teeth quantity, bore sizing and angle pitch. The anti-backlash category of gearing products are manufactured with high grade materials that include: stainless steel, aluminum, brass, polyurethane graphite, Delrin and rolled steel. This type of solution is most ideal for applications where extremely precise operation is required, such as in industrial automation, robotics and high capacity antennas.
These OEM geared parts can be supplied with custom material specs, bore dimensions, module, pitch and tooth styles.
