Gear – A Vital Mechanical Device having Applications across Many Industries

1. Gear – A Vital Mechanical Device having Applications across Many Industries Gear is a vital mechanical device used across many industries to effectively transfer energy into a movement that is essential for the functioning of the machines. Manufacturing the perfect gear that aptly meets the need of different industrial applications require both experience and expertise. Gears are basically wheels having teeth that are also known as toothed wheels and a rotating circular machine part with cut teeth. It is used in several mechanical devices and is generally used to change the speed, torque, and direction of a power source. It transmits rotation and power from one shaft to another, if they possess apt-shaped teeth. The gears are widely used in the mechanical industry because it handles motion and power transmission. Due to their mechanical characteristics, gears are used in several mechanical devices like instrumentation, equipment, clocks, etc., and in various motorized devices like automobiles, machines, motorcycles, etc. to increase or reduce speed and torque. Heavy-duty and powerful gear sets are used to drive machines in a variety of strenuous applications. For instance, in the construction industry gears are used in power cranes, shovels, and draglines whereas, in the mining industry, gears are used in large grinding mills as well as in crushing and pulverizing equipment and are used to drive rolling mills in the steel industry. Gear is manufactured through different methods like forging, fabricating, or casting. The initial process of producing a partially finished gear is known as blanking and the semi-finished gear is known as a gear blank. In the later stage of gear manufacturing, teeth are carved into the gear blank through diverse machining processes depending on its application. The quality of gear depends on the quality of the gear blank and on the accuracy of the machine used for teeth cutting. Every method of gear manufacturing comes with its own advantages and limitations that make one method more appropriate than the other for a given application.

2. The casting method is preferred by manufacturers if they have to produce gears ranging from 2 ft. diameter to 40 ft. diameter because it is difficult to produce gears over 18 ft. sizes with both fabricated and forged methods because of the design and manufacturing constraints. Every gear manufacturing method affects the size, shape, and metal composition. The gears should be accurate in form and dimension, have a high surface finish, should be hard and wear resistive at tooth flanks to deliver high performance and smooth running. To produce precision quality gears, manufacturers rely on gear shaping which is the most popular gear-cutting method. Manufacturers rely on it because of its accuracy and ability to work on heavy loads. The introduction of CNC machining has relatively eased the gear-shaping process. In this type of cutting method, a gear cutter is used to shape internal and external teeth on a gear blank. To manufacture industrial- grade gears, manufacturers rely on this gear-shaping method because there is never a compromise on precision.