Gear Material ----AISI 4140 through hardened grade 1

A manufacturing and assembly plan (with pictures and/or figures) that details how the
product will be manufactured and that estimates the per unit production cost. 8

Figure 1: AISI 4140 Round Bars

All gears start as a long solid round bar of the required material (AISI 4140 in this case) as shown in
the image above. The long round bars are then cut into shorter cylinders. These cylindrical blocks are
known as gear blanks. Gear blanks are made simply by cutting the round bar into pieces with lengths
that are equal to the required thickness of the gear. From here, several processes can be used to
form the gear teeth.

Teeth forming

There are many ways of forming the teeth of gears such as sand casting, permanent mould casting,
die casting and centrifugal casting and many other ways. These gears will be manufactured by
milling. The gearbox uses a total of four gears but two of them have the same dimensions therefore
only three cutters will be used for the entire tooth manufacturing process.

Figure 2: Sample Cutter

This manufacturing method (milling) will be achieved through the use of the cutter above.
Depending on the quantity of gears that need to be produced one of two instruments will be used ,
the lathe or a CNC milling machine. CNC is expensive but very efficient and therefore only if a vast
number of gears has to be produced will CNC milling be used. The manufacturing process works as
follows. A hole that has the diameter of the shaft is drilled through the gear blank and the gear blank
is attached to a shaft that goes into the milling machine. The hole tolerances should be observed to
maintain the function of the gearbox. Once the gear blank is secured, a cutter is also installed on the
top part of the milling machine as shown in the picture below. The machine is then started and as
the cutter rotates the gear blank is moved laterally so that the teeth can be cut into it. After each
tooth is cut, the gear blank has to be rotated (it rotates automatically on the CNC) and the cutting
process occurs all over again.

Figure 3: Milling in Operation

For this project, milling is best because

The inserts rotate as they cut

Faster cutting speeds allow faster feed rates
Rotating inserts last longer
Intermittent cuts do not create problems
There is less wear of machinery

After the milling process the teeth may need to be further machined and grinding shall be used to
produce a fine tolerance.

The end product looks like this

Figure 4: Complete Helical Gear