Whether you regularly place orders for new gears, or you’re completely unfamiliar with the process, chances are you harbor at least a few misconceptions about the ways that gears are actually produced. Gears are precision components, requiring dutiful engineering, planning, cutting, and shaping—and the conceptions most people have about the manufacturing process are based on a somewhat limited view on what gears are truly capable of.
These are some of the biggest gear manufacturing misconceptions we see on a regular basis:
- There’s a standard size. For the most part, there aren’t any standard sizes for gears. Yes, there are some dimensions that are common, but custom gears can come in all shapes and sizes, from tiny gears found in small devices to gigantic ones powering massive machines. Each gear must fit perfectly to power a system, so a standard size won’t cut it.
- There’s only one type of gear. Most people think of a standard gear shape when they think of generalized “gears,” but there are actually many different types of gear. There are spur, helical, bevel, and worm gears, not to mention sprockets.
- Gears are stamped out perfectly. Many manufacturing processes are a simple step of punching out or cutting out a shape from a base material. While gear manufacturing sometimes cuts base gears out of blanks, the full process usually involves a more intricate series of steps afterward, milling, grounding, and hobbing the gear to perfection.
- All gears are metal. Gears can be made of a number of different metals, so long as they have a high tensile strength and a level of malleability, but gears can also be made of plastic or theoretically, any material that fulfills those requirements.
- Duplicating gears is easy. Designing a replacement gear for a system is no mean feat; the gear must fit absolutely perfectly, and it takes some effort in the reverse engineering process to accomplish that.
You don’t have to be an expert in gear manufacturing to order and obtain the gears you need for your respective jobs, but knowing more about the process can give you more respect for the effort involved. If you’re interested in learning more about the process, or if you’re ready to place an order, be sure to contact us!