Gear Making and

Basic Design
GEAR MANUFACTURING
METHODS

 CASTING
 FORMING
 STAMPING
 POWER METALLURGY
 EXTRUSION
 ROLLING PROCESS
 PLASTIC MOLDING
 MACHINING
FORMING GEAR TEETH

Characteristics: In all tooth-

forming operations, the teeth on the
gear are formed all at once from a
mold or die into which the tooth
shapes have been machined.

The accuracy of the teeth is

entirely dependent on the quality of
the die or mold and in general is
much less than that can be obtained
from roughing or finishing
methods.
 Casting
Sand casting, die casting and investment casting are the casting processes that
are best suited for gears
The characteristics of sand cast gears are:

• Cheaper low quality gear in small

numbers
• The tooling costs are reasonable
• Poor Surface finish and dimensional
accuracy
• Due to low precision and high backlash,
they are noisy.
• They are suited for non- critical
applications
Casting (Sand casting)
Applications: (without finishing operation)

Sand casting is used for gear manufacture which are

used in variety of applications such as for toys,
small appliances, cement-mixer barrels, hoist
gearbox of dam gate lifting mechanism, hand
operated crane etc.,

Materials:

The materials that can be sand cast are C I, cast

steel, bronzes, brass and ceramics.

The process is confined to large gears that are

machined later to required accuracy.
Casting (Die casting )
Characteristics:
• The characteristics of die cast gears are:
• Better surface finish and accuracy (tooth spacing
and concentricity)
• High tooling costs
• Suited for large scale production Applications

Applications:
Gears that are die cast are used in instruments,
cameras, business machines, washing machines, gear
pumps, small speed reducers, and lawn movers

Materials:
Materials used to manufacture these gears are zinc,
aluminium and brass. The gears made from this
process are not used for high speeds and heavy tooth
loading. They are normally applied for small size
gears.
Casting (Investment casting)
Characteristics:
• The characteristics of gears that are manufactured
by investment casting are:
• Reasonably accurate gears
• Applicable for a variety of materials
• Refractory mould material
• Allows high melt-temperature materials
• Accuracy depends on the original master pattern
used for the mold.

Materials:
Tool steel, nitriding steel, monel, beryllium copper are
the materials that can be investment casted for the
manufacture of gears. The process is used only if no
other process is suitable since production cost is high .

Complicated shape makes it economical to produce by

investment casting process.
Sintering Process
The powder metallurgy technique used for gear
manufacture

Characteristics:
• Accuracy similar to die-cast gears
• Material properties can be Tailor made
• Typically suited for small sized gears
• Economical for large lot size only

As shown, for the components manufactured by

P/M technique, secondary machining is not
required. Figure shows cluster gears, different
types of gears that can be combined and keyways
can be built-in.
Material Utilization Of Forged
And Sintered Processes
Injection Molding:

Injection molding is used to make nonmetallic gears in

various thermoplastics such as nylon and acetal. These are
low precision gears in small sizes but have the advantages
of low cost and the ability to be run without lubricant at
light loads.

Applications:
Injection molded gears are used in cameras, projectors,
wind shield wipers, speedometer, lawn sprinklers,
washing machine.

Materials:
The materials for injection molding components are
Nylon, cellulose acetate, polystyrene, polyimide,
phenolics.
Extruding:

Extruding is used to form teeth on long rods, which

are then cut into usable lengths and machined for
bores and keyways etc. Nonferrous materials such
as aluminum and copper alloys are commonly
extruded rather than steels. This result in good
surface finishes with clean edges and pore free
dense structure with higher strength.

Applications:
Splined hollow & solid shafts, sector gears are
extruded and various gears

Materials:
Aluminum, copper, naval brass, architect-ural
bronze and phosphor bronze are the materials that
are commonly extruded.
Stamping:

Sheet metal can be stamped with tooth shapes to form low

precision gears at low cost in high quantities. The surface
finish and accuracy of these gears are poor.

Applications:
Stamped gears are used as toy gears, hand operated
machine gears for slow speed mechanism.

Precision stamping:
In precision stamping, the dies are made of higher precision
with close tolerances wherein the stamped gears will not
have burrs.

Applications:
Clock gears, watch gears etc.
Working Gear Nomenclature

Tip Diameter
Reference Diameter
Base Diameter
Root Diameter
Face Width
Tooth Thickness
Reference Pitch
Center Line
Pressure Angle
Backlash
Tooth Depth
Addendum
Dedendum
Center Distance
Tip and Root Clearance
 Gear Nomenclature
Gear Symbols and Nomenclature
Gear Calculation
Gear Calculation

Gear Milling or Forming

Gear Shaping
Gear Hobbing
Gear Finishing
Gear Calculation

Reference Line
Pressure Angle
Normal Reference Line
Pitch
Tooth Surface
Root Surface
Top Land
Gear Calculation
Reference Line
Pitch
Tooth Thickness
Addendum
Dedendum
Tooth Depth
Tooth Tip
Tooth Root
Gear Calculation
 Gear Calculation
Diameter of Gears (Size)
The size of gears is determined in accordance with the reference
diameter (d) and determined by these other factors: the base circle, Pitch,
Tooth Thickness, Tooth Depth, Addendum and Dedendum.

Reference Diameter (d) = zm

Tip Diameter (da) = d + 2m
Root Diameter (df) = d – 2.5m

Addendum
Dedendum
Root Diameter
Reference Diameter
Tip Diameter
Diameter of Gears Cont.
 Basic Gear Calculation
Center Distance and Backlash

When a pair of gears are meshed so that their reference circles are in contact, the
center distance (a) is half the sum of the total reference diameters.

Center Distance (a) = (d1 + d2) / 2

 Basic Gear Calculation
Center Distance and Backlash
Gear can mesh, however it is important to consider a proper backlash (play) so that
the gears can work smoothly. Backlash is a play between tooth surfaces of paired
gears in mesh.
Mating gears also have a clearance (play) vertical to tooth (whole) depth. This is
called Tip and Root Clearance (c), the distance between tooth root and the tooth tip
of mating gears.

Tip and Root Clearance (c):

 Basic Gear Calculation
Cont.
 Basic Gear Calculation
Cont.
Gear Machining
 Form milling:

Form milling by disc cutter: Form milling by end mill cutter:

The disc cutter shape conforms to the gear The end mill cutter shape conforms to tooth
tooth space. Each gear needs a separate spacing. Each tooth is cut at a time and then
cutter. However, with 8 to 10 standard cutters, indexed for next tooth space for cutting. A
gears from 12 to 120 teeth can be cut with fair set of 10 cutters will do for 12 to 120 teeth
accuracy. Tooth is cut one by one by plunging gears. It is suited for a small volume
the rotating cutter into the blank production of low precision gears. The form
milling by end mill cutter

To reduce costs, the same cutter is often used for the multiple-sized gears resulting in profile errors for
all but one number of teeth. Form milling method is the least accurate of all the roughing methods.
 Gear shaping:
 Gear shaping used a cutting tool
in the shape of a gear which is
reciprocated axially across the
gear blank to cut the teeth while
the blank rotates around the
shaper tool. It is a true shape-
generation process in which the
gear-shaped tool cuts itself into
mesh with the gear blank as
shown in figures.

 The accuracy is good, but any

errors in one tooth of the shaper
cutter will be directly transferred
to the gear.

 Internal gears can be cut with this

method as well.
 Gear Hobbing:
 Hob teeth are shaped to match the
tooth space and are interrupted
with grooves to provide cutting
surfaces. It rotates about an axis
normal to that of the gear blank,
cutting into the rotating blank to
generate the teeth.
 It is the most accurate of the
roughing processes since no
repositioning of tool or blank is
required and each tooth is cut by
multiple hob-teeth, averaging out
any tool errors. Excellent surface
finish is achieved by this method
and it is widely used for
production of gears.
 Gear Shaving:

 Finishing Process

 Shaving is similar to gear

shaping, but uses accurate
shaving tools to remove small
amounts of material from a
roughed gear to correct profile
errors and improve surface
finish.
 Gear Grinding:

 Finishing Process
 In grinding, a contoured
grinding wheel is run over
machined surface of the gear
teeth using computer control.
With a small amount of metal
removal high surface finish is
obtained.
 Grinding is used to correct the
heat-treatment distortion in
gears hardened after roughing.
Improvement in surface finish
and error correction of earlier
machining are added
advantages. Grinding operation
for gears can be done by profile
grinding or form grinding
 Burnishing:
 Finishing Process

 In burnishing, a specially
hardened gear is run over rough
machined gear. The high forces
at the tooth interface cause
plastic yielding of the gear tooth
surface which improves finish
and work hardens the surface
creating beneficial compressive
residual stresses.
 Lapping and Honing:

 Finishing Process

 Lapping and honing both

employ an abrasive-
impregnated gear or gear-
shaped tool that is run
against the gear to abrade the
surface. In both cases, the
abrasive tool drives the gear
in what amounts to an
accelerated and controlled
run-in to improve surface
finish and the accuracy
Gear Cutting
 Gear Cutting
Metric Gears
Countries using metric system usually use
module system of gearing
Module (m) of a gear equal pitch diameter/reference
diameter (d) divided by number of teeth (z)
m is actual dimension

d
m
z
Metric Module Gear Cutters

Most common available in modules ranging from 0.5 to 10 mm

Available in set of eight cutters numbered from #1 to #8
Range of each cutter reverse of DP cutter
Table on next slide shows cutters available and rang of each
cutter in set
Metric Module Gear
Cutters
Milling Cutter Numbers
Module
Size (mm) Cutter No. For Cutting
0.5 3.5
0.75 3.75 1 12 to 13 teeth
1 4 2 14 to 16 teeth
1.25 4.5 3 17 to 20 teeth
1.5 5 4 21 to 25 teeth
1.75 5.5 5 26 to 34 teeth
2 6 6 35 to 54 teeth
2.25 6.5 7 55 to 134 teeth
2.5 7 8 135 teeth to rack
2.75 8
3 9
3.25 10
 70-39

Metric Example:
A spur gear has a reference diameter of 60
mm and 20 teeth. Calculate:

1. Module, m
2. Circular pitch, Pc
Conventional Machining

3. Addendum, ha
4. Outside diameter, da
5. Dedendum, hf
6. Whole depth, h
7. Cutter number
lide 39 aslimson@[Link]
4.11.2017
 70-40
Solution:
d 60
1. m   3mm
z 20
2. Pc m x  3 x 3.1416 9.425 mm
3. ha m 3 mm
4. da (z  2) x m (20  2) x 3 66 mm
Conventional Machining

5. hf m x 1.25 3 x 1.25 3.75 mm

6. h m x 2.25 3 x 2.25 6.75 mm
7. Cutter number (see previous table) 3

lide 40 aslimson@[Link]
4.11.2017
Indexing
Indexing

 Indexing is the operation of

dividing the periphery of a
workpiece into any number of
equal parts.

 Positioning a workpiece at a
precise angle or interval of
rotation for a machining
operation
 Dividing Head

 Is a milling machine
attachment that provides this
fine control of rotational
positioning through a
combination of a crank-
operated worm and worm
gear, and one or more
indexing plates with several
circles of evenly spaced
holes to measure partial turns
of the work crank.
 Dividing Head

 One of most important

attachments for milling
machine
 Used to divide circumference
of workpiece into equally
spaced divisions when milling
gears, splines, squares and
hexagons
 Also used to rotate workpiece
at predetermined ratio to
table feed rate
 Working Principle of Indexing Mechanism

 The worm gear has 40 teeth

and the worm has simple
thread.

 If we revolve crank by 40
revolutions the spindle
attached with worm gear will
revolve by only one revolution
and one complete turn of the
crank will revolve the spindle
only by 1/40th revolution
(turn).
 Index Plate and Sector Arms

• Index plate
– Circular plate provided with series of equally
spaced holes into which index crank pin
engages

• Sector arms
– Fit on front of plate and may be set to any
portion of a complete turn
Simple Indexing

Work positioned by means of crank, index plate,

and sector arms
Worm attached to crank must be engaged with
worm wheel on dividing head spindle
40 teeth on worm wheel
One complete turn on index crank cause spindle and work to
rotate one-fortieth of a turn (ratio of 40:1)
Calculate number of turns of crank simply divide
40 by number of divisions to be cut
Simple Indexing
a) Divide 40 by the number of divisions to be done on the circumference of
workpiece. This gives movement of indexing crank.

N is the number of divisions to be made on the circumference of

workpiece.

b) If the above number is a whole number, then crank is rotated by that much
number of revolutions after each milling operations, till the completion of the
work.

For example, if we want to divide the circumference into 10 number

of parts.

That is the indexing crank is given 4 revolutions after each of milling

operation for 9 more milling operations.
 Simple Indexing
c) If indexing crank movement calculated by 40/N is not whole number, it is
simplified and then expressed as a whole number and a fraction.
d) The fractional part of the above number is further processed by multiplying its
denominator and numerator by a suitable commonumber so that the denominator
will turn to a number equal to any number of holes available on the any of
indexing plates.
e) That particular holes circle is selected for the movement of crank pin.
f) The numerator of the process fraction stands for the number of holes to be
moved by the indexing crank in the selected hole circle in addition to complete
turns of indexing crank equal to whole number part of 40/N.

Let us do the indexing to cut 30 teeth on a spur gear blank that means need to
divide the circumference of gear blank into 30 identical, parts. Crank movement is
calculated s given below.
Hole Circles