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Gears & Gear Rolling
Powder Metal Gears Over the past several years, MPP has developed considerable expertise in the design and manufacture of powder metal gears. At our Ford Road Division, we maintain a special Gear Laboratory, which is equipped with a wide range of instrumentation dedicated to the design and manufacture of powder metal gears. Increasingly, gear designers and product engineers are capitalizing on the flexibility and economic advantages of powder metallurgy for new and existing gear applications. Powder metal gears are found in automobiles, outdoor power equipment, power hand tools, appliances, office machinery, and many other applications. The powder metallurgy process is capable of producing close tolerance gears with strengths of up to 1240 MPs at economical prices in volume quantities. Spur, helical, bevel, face, spur-helical, and helical-helical gears are produced with powder metallurgy techniques. In comparison to the traditional gear manufacturing process, the powder metallurgy process offers several advantages, particularly the elimination of machining and scrap losses. Internal configurations (splines, keys, keyways) can also be formed simultaneously with the gear profile during molding, eliminating subsequent machining operations. General process advantages of powder metal gear manufacture include: - Economy in mass production
- Repeatability and uniformity of part features and dimensions
- Production of multilevel gears
- Close control of density or , conversely, porosity to suit a particular application
- Reduction or elimination of secondary operations
- Improved surface finishes on gear teeth by reducing or eliminating the machining (or "scoring") marks that can be left by conventional methods
- Self-lubricating ability from impregnation of oils and lubricants into the pores
- Noise reduction from the sound-dampening qualities of the pore structure of a powder metal component. High surface finish and tooth form consistency can also have an effect on overall reduction in noise in comparison to cut gear sets
- Weight reduction by incorporating weight-saving or lightening holes (or similar shapes) in the initial tool design
Gear Rolling Normally, the traditional "press and sinter" method of powder metallurgy gear production cannot produce the same level of gears as precision grinding, so the MPP Technology Center is currently working on a process to improve powder metal gears from their current AGMA 8 levels to greater than AGMA 10. This process is sometimes referred to as "gear rolling".
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