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CHAPTER 6
Casting
Although the casting process is used most
often to make blanks for gears which will have
cut teeth (Fig. 1 and 2), there are several variations of the casting process that are used to
make toothed gears with little or no machining.
Normal
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Fig. 1
Fig. 2
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out of materials which are so hard that teeth cannot be readily produced by machining (Ref 4).
The process can be used with a variety of steels,
bronzes, and aluminum alloys. With machinable
materials, the process is still useful if the gear is
integral with some complicated shape that is
very difcult to produce by machining.
Large quantities of small, low-cost gears are
made by the cold chamber die casting process
(die cast gears are usually under 150 mm (6 in.) in
diameter and from 10 to 48 diametral pitch, DP).
Complicated gear shapes which would be quite
costly to machine can be made quickly and at low
cost by the die casting process. The main disadvantage of the process is that the low-melting
point metals suitable for die castingaluminum,
zinc, and copperdo not have high enough hardness for high load-carrying capacity.
Many different types of gears can be die cast,
such as spur, helical worm, clusters, and bevel
gears. Applications for these types of gears
include toys, washing machines, small appliances, hand tools, cameras, business machines,
and similar equipment.
Forming
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
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2036
3860
6272
7490
92120
Source: Ref 6
mm
in.
0.511.98
0.381.57
0.251.02
0.250.89
0.250.64
0.0200.078
0.0150.062
0.0100.040
0.0100.035
0.0100.025
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Forging
Forging has long been used in the manufacture of gears. This is particularly true for the
production of gear blanks which would subsequently be cut/machined into the nal desired
conguration. Gear blanks have been produced
Fig. 7
Fig. 6
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Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Near-net shape automotive ywheel made by highenergy rate forging. Dimensions are given in inches.
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Precision Forging
The term precision forging does not specify a distinct forging process but rather describes a philosophical approach to forging. The
goal of this approach is to produce a net shape,
or at least a near-net shape, in the as-forged condition.
The term net indicates that no subsequent
machining or nishing of a forged surface is
required. Thus, a net shape forging requires no
further work on any of the forged surfaces,
although secondary operations may be required
to produce minor holes, threads, and other such
details. A near-net shape forging can be either
one in which some but not all of the surfaces are
net or one in which the surfaces require only
minimal machining or nishing. Precision forging is sometimes described as close-tolerance
forging to emphasize the goal of achieving,
solely through the hot forging operation, the
dimensional and surface nish tolerances
required in the nished part.
In recent years, computer-aided design and
manufacturing (CAD/CAM) techniques have
been applied to various forging processes (Ref
7). This computerized approach is applicable to
precision hot forging of spiral bevel, spur, and
helical gears in conventional presses in that it
allows the die designer to examine the effects of
various process variables (loads, stresses, and
temperature) on the die design.
Precision hot-forged gears have the same
advantages over cut gears as other molded gears
(cast, P/M processed, injection molded) in that
there is little or no material lost (Fig. 10). This is
a cost savings from the standpoint of both the
cost of the material itself and, more importantly,
the cost of machining. In addition, precision
forged gears also have the advantage over cut
gears of increased load-carrying capacity. This
added strength in the form of increased fatigue
strength is due to the difference in grain ow between gears cut from bar stock and forged gears.
The grain ow in cut gears is determined by the
hot rolled orientation of the bar stock and has no
relationship to gear tooth contour. On forged
specimens, the grain ow follows the tooth contour in every gear tooth. Figure 11 compares
the fatigue properties of cut and forged gears
(Ref 8).
Near-Net Shape Quality Gears. The majority of forged gears produced today are nearnet shape congurations. Gear teeth are forged
with an envelope of material (stock allowance)
around the tooth prole. This envelope is subse-
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fatigue data for (a) cut gears and (b) near-net shape
forged gears. Source: Ref 8
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quently removed by the forging house or the customer purchasing the forged gears.
The manufacturing process begins with steel
bar stock, usually turned and polished to
improve the surface, and cut to the exact weight.
The exact weight is critical because the amount
of steel must completely ll the die to produce
the complete gear prole. Prior to forging, billets are heated between 925 and 1230 C (1700
and 2250 F) in an electrical induction furnace
that is controlled by an optical pyrometer to 14
C (25 F).
In a single stroke, standard mechanical forging presses, ranging from 14,235 to 53,375 kN
(1600 to 6000 tonf), form near-net shape gears
with the complete allowable stock allowance.
The purpose of this rst operation, which forms
a pancake, is to break the scale off of the billet
and size the outside diameter to just under the
size of the root diameter in the gear die. Next, an
operator positions the billet into the nish die.
After forging, a hydraulic knockout system
immediately extracts the gear from the nish die.
After the raw forged gear is hydraulically
ejected from the die, it is placed in a trimming
nest where the hole is punched. It is then allowed
to cool to ambient temperature, which usually
takes up to 24 h. Once cooled, it is ready for nish machining.
Fig. 12
Examples of near-net shape forged gears. (a) Spiral bevel gear with a 0.5 mm (0.02 in.) stock allowance developed for use
on gears with a DP less than 7. (b) Coarse-pitch (less than 5 DP) spur gear with a stock allowance of 1 to 2 mm (0.04 to
0.80 in.). Source: Presrite Corporation
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