Gear cutting is a process of creating gears for machines so that they can operate perfectly. Gear is a vital part of a machine. They are made up of solid stainless steel or solid aluminum. The purpose of a gear is to provide power and motion or any of the two from one shaft to another. A gear is shaped in circles of different sizes and weights with countless numbers of teeth or spikes making one gear rotate another in a sequence. In this article, the readers and the viewers of the article will learn about the importance of gear cutter tools, and through this article, will learn how the gear cutting tools manufacturers.
How gears are manufactured?
The production of gears consists of three methods-
Casting-
The most common form of making gears through the casting method is sand casting. Through this method, gears are made rough and inaccurate. This process of manufacturing gear is beneficial for manufacturing small gear in small batches. Another form of creating or manufacturing gears is investment casting; under this method, gears do have a fine surface finish and accurate dimensions.
Molding-
Two processes at first the injection molding process is similar to casting where molds are used to prepare thermoplastic gear where melted plastic is inserted inside the molds until cooled down. These gears are used to carry low loads and produce a great form of accuracy and motion. Another process is shell molding, where the liquid form of stainless steel or aluminum is inserted in the molds.
Gear hobbling-
This is the industrial manufacturing process of making gears. Here in this process, the machine uses a cutting tool which sometimes is referred to as a hob to cut the gear teeth or spikes accurately from the block of metal. Production speed through the gear hobbling process is fast but is mainly used to create medium and large gears. Through this process gears like helical gears, spur gears, worms, etc are manufactured.
Metal removal-
Under this method blank metal circle is placed to remove the excess metal by cutting it to an accurate shape so that the teeth of the gears can be made.
Cost of the most used types of gears-
Spur gears-
Their role is to transfer power through parallel shafts. They are noisy because they operate on a single line of teeth. These gears take very less time to get manufactured and are easily available. They last for at least three years. The price of this gear is $ 4.37
Helical gear-
they come in pairs. The teeth of helical gears are angled along with the shaft which makes one helical gear come in contact with the other while operating. These gears can carry lots of load as compared to spur gears. These gears are more costly than spur gears or worms but are more efficient and quieter than them.The price of this gear is $ 3.36.
To conclude, the above-mentioned article defines the role of gear cutters.