Due to their most significant benefit—smooth, low-noise power transmission across non-parallel shafts at practically any angle or speed—bevel gears are widely utilized in a range of industries and mechanical activities. However, making these gears is a difficult operation because of the mathematical complexity of their design. Depending on the strength requirements of the finished bevel gear, TS 16949 certified bevel gear manufacturing begins with the fabrication of a forging, bar stock, or any other formed product such as a casting.
When a higher strength to weight ratio, as well as improved impact and fatigue resistance, are required, a forged blank is employed. A blank is machined out of forging, casting, or bar stock. Prior to cutting the teeth, other machining operations like turning, milling, drilling, tapping, etc. may be performed on the blank to add threads and splines if the design calls for them.
The teeth for the bevel gear are then carved out of the blank. The two primary production processes for cutting bevel gear teeth each have different tooth lengths and depth shapes. The gears produced by the Gleason system have tapered tooth depth and tooth thickness, and the curvature along the face width is that of a circular arc. This approach uses the single indexing or faces milling procedure, where each gap is milled independently. As a result, a coniflex gear is produced, which allows for greater tolerance of tiny faults in shaft alignment than a gear with straight-cut teeth.
The face hobbing procedure, also known as the pallid manufacturing process, is used in Oerlikon and Klingelnberg’s approach, and it rotates the gear continuously while milling. The bevel gears made using this continuous indexing technique have consistent tooth depth, tapered slot width, and uniform tooth thickness. The tooth has a curved face width that resembles an elongated epicycloid. Only the face hobbing technique is capable of producing bevel gears with involute teeth. Either technique may be used to cut teeth on a bevel gear depending on its intended application. The gear is next heated, often through carburizing and hardening, which produces a surface hardness of 60–63Rc.
To balance wear and Tᴇᴀʀ, the pinion is typically up to 3 Rc harder than the gear. To prevent considerable tooth distortion, nitriding, flame hardening, and induction hardening are rarely employed in the heat treatment of bevel gears. The necessary finish machining processes, such as turning the outer and inner diameters, grinding, and other specialized machining techniques, are subsequently completed.
The rigorous cutting of the bevel hear is the final crucial step. The pinion teeth are adjusted for optimal tooth contact, along with the profile and length of the tooth, by altering the curvature radius of the cutting blade after the gear is finished. The gear is mounted for final inspections, such as dimension checks, magnaflux, or other specialized examinations, once the tooth contact requirements have been optimized. High precision crafting is offered by Amtech International’s bevel gear manufacturing services to optimize performance in powertrain/power transmission applications. Find out more about the many bevel gear supplier services we can provide for you.
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