No Fear of Gears : Production of Gears for Beginners

No Fear of Gears: gear production for beginners

The first session of a two-day Eurotrans training session entitled ‘No Fear of Gears’ took place in Zürich. More than 35 participants from seven different countries, including Belgium, answered the call of their Swissmem colleagues, with trainers from Switzerland and the UK.

In addition to the in-depth five-day Eurotrans training sessions, the goal of this session was to give workers from companies that produce gears, gearboxes and related systems an introduction to calculating, developing, producing and examining gears.

Day 1: Basics and maintenance

Without gears, cars, trains and other vehicles could not run. Without gears, machines could not operate and production would not be possible. It is therefore impossible to imagine a world without gears. The first day was dedicated to the various uses and classification of gears, their basic properties and the terminology needed to describe their geometry. The kinematics caused when two gears rotate in contact with each other was also addressed.

The lubrication of gears in operation is extremely important for a long lifespan. Various lubricants, their effect on gears and how they are used were also explained. The hardening of gears was also explained in more detail, a process that occurs between the soft and hard processing phases of gear production (see below).

Day 2: Production

On the second day, Dr. Robert Frazer, Professor at Newcastle University and a Senior Engineer of the Design Unit, gave a fascinating lecture on the errors that can occur in gears during their operation and how the quality of the gears produced can be measured. After all, more a gear is of better quality, the more cost-effective and more compact it can be produced. The gear will also produce less noise and vibrations, which is increasingly expected in current installations and a must in automobile industry applications.

The afternoon of Day 2 was fully dedicated to gear production.

The production process consists of a soft phase during which a casting is processed and milled until smooth surfaces are obtained. There are various processing methods that depend on the part to be processed, its size and the quantities that need to be produced.

The ‘soft’ surfaces of the piece are then hardened, and there are various methods to achieve this. The pieces can be heated in an oven with the addition of chemical substances such as carbon or nitrates and then cooled down in a coolant (e.g. oil), mainly done for larger parts. Induction or flame hardening processes are also applied for parts with a smaller diameter. Recently, laser hardening is also being examined, as it has the advantage of requiring less finishing. This technique also enables the processing of irregular and three-dimensional pieces.

After hardening, the casting is reprocessed in order to get its final shape, called the ‘gear finishing’ phase.

Afterwards, the gears, bearings, axes, and other parts are assembled into a gearbox, which is then used in its final application.

If you want to find out more about gears, let us know and we will keep you updated on future training sessions organised together with Eurotrans in Belgium or in other European countries.

Organisation: Swissmem & Agoria for Eurotrans