Spur, helical, bevel and worm gears cut, ground and inspected in-house. A gear manufacturing project gets quoted within 12 hours, with ±0.005 mm held on the features that carry the load.
Most gear problems are decided before the first cut. These are the four that come back most often.
The part checks fine at the cutter and comes back out of tolerance from the furnace. Distortion moves the flank, backlash opens up, and the gearbox whines at speed. If grinding happens before hardening, there is no way to pull the profile back.
A drawing that lists only module, tooth count and pressure angle leaves backlash to the shop floor. Two suppliers cut the same gear and neither meshes with the mating pinion. Center distance and operating temperature decide backlash, not habit.
A hobbed sample passes the bench test, then the production route needs a different process and the numbers shift. Root fillet, lead crown and chamfer all change between cutting methods. The sample is valid only if it is cut the same way as the run.
When a gear fails in the field, the report arrives with no lead data, no profile trace and no material certificate. Root cause work stops at the door. A gear without measured evidence is a guess with teeth on it.
Tooth geometry, material condition and finishing method are chosen together, because each one moves the others.
Hobbing covers most external spur and helical gears, and it is fast enough for both a single prototype and a 10,000-piece run. Internal teeth, shoulder-adjacent gears and close-tooth-count blanks go to shaping instead, because the cutter has to reach where a hob cannot.
We machine on 127 high-precision CNC machines with 16 simultaneous 5-axis centers, so a gear blank can be turned, hobbed and deburred in one setup where the geometry allows it. Fewer setups means the bore, face and tooth pattern stay concentric.
Through-hardened and case-hardened gears are ground after heat treatment so distortion is removed from the finished flank, not baked into it. Profile grinding holds the involute form and the lead line separately, which is what lets us correct one without disturbing the other.
Surface finish lands at Ra 0.8–1.6 μm on ground flanks as standard, and Ra 0.2–0.8 μm where a gear runs at high pitch-line velocity or needs low noise. For softer materials and non-critical drives, as-machined flanks at Ra 1.6–3.2 μm keep the cost down without hurting function.
Use this as a starting point. Final routing depends on tooth count, size and load.
| Gear type | Typical route | When it is the wrong choice |
|---|---|---|
| External spur, medium module | Hob, heat treat, grind flanks | Shaping when teeth sit next to a shoulder |
| Helical, quiet drive | Hob with lead crown, grind after harden | Hobbing only if axial load is low |
| Internal ring gear | Shape, heat treat, grind if hardened | Hobbing cannot reach internal teeth |
| Bevel and hypoid | Cut on dedicated bevel generator, lap pairs | Not for parallel-shaft layouts |
| Worm and worm wheel | Thread grind worm, hob wheel, lap set | Poor choice for high-speed reversing duty |
| Plastic or soft-metal gear | Hob or shape, no post-grind | Skip grinding, it loads the flank |
Cutting, heat treatment coordination, finishing and metrology stay in the same supply chain.
External teeth hobbed or shaped, then ground after hardening. Used in pumps, reducers, conveyors and transmission internals where the drive runs on parallel shafts.
Right-angle drives cut on a dedicated bevel generator and lapped as a set. Suited to differentials, hand tools and steering boxes where shaft angles meet off-axis.
Thread-ground worm paired with a hobbed bronze or steel wheel. Good for high ratio in a small envelope, such as indexing tables and light lifting gear.
Shaped internal teeth for planetary carriers and clutch housings. Bore and tooth pattern are held in one setup so the ring stays concentric to the housing.
Splines, serrations and integral pinions cut on the same blank as the journal. Journals, splines and teeth share a datum, which removes stack-up at assembly.
Turned and milled blanks, bearing bores and covers made to the same drawing package. One supplier means the mesh clearance is measured on real parts, not on paper.
| Item | Standard scope | On request |
|---|---|---|
| Material | 1045, 4140, 4340, 17-4PH, 303/316 stainless | Case-hardening grades, bronze wheel alloys |
| Heat treatment | Through harden, case carburize, nitride | Hardness and case-depth report |
| Tooth finishing | Ground flanks Ra 0.8–1.6 μm | Ra 0.2–0.8 μm for high-speed duty |
| Tolerance | ±0.005 mm on critical features | Feature-by-feature drawing review |
| Inspection | 100% inspection before shipment | Full dimensional and profile reports |
| Lot size | No minimum, 1 pc to 10,000+ | Repeat runs held on the same routing |
| Lead time | Parts ship in 3–5 days | Production start within 24 hours |
Fifteen years of cutting and finishing gears inside a broader CNC shop, so gear problems get solved alongside the housing and shaft that hold them.
Critical features are held at ±0.005 mm and checked on the finished part, not assumed from the setup sheet.
Three wholly-owned plants across 7,600 m² follow the same routing and inspection spec, so a repeat order matches the first one.
Blanks, bores, splines and covers are machined in house. That keeps the datum chain short and the mesh clearance predictable.
Raw material check, in-process monitoring and final inspection on every lot. Reports go out with the parts when the drawing asks for them.
One prototype or a 10,000-piece run uses the same routing, so the sample you approve is cut the way the production lot will be.
Transmission and driveline gears must hold profile after case hardening and pass IATF 16949 traceability. We grind after heat treatment and ship inspection records with the lot.
Reducers and conveyors run for years on the same gear set. Repeat orders need the same routing and the same mating pinion, so backlash stays inside the original window.
Indexing and harmonic-adjacent drives need low backlash and quiet running. We hold lead and profile separately and grind flanks to Ra 0.8–1.6 μm as standard.
Pump and actuator gears face continuous duty and thermal cycling. Material condition is chosen for the operating temperature, and hardness is verified before grinding.
A drawing with module or diametral pitch, tooth count, pressure angle, helix angle if any, and the tolerance callouts that matter. Material and heat treatment condition help a lot.
If the drawing only lists the mating pinion and center distance, send that instead. We can work back to the gear geometry from the mesh.
After, for any hardened gear where the flank tolerance matters. Grinding green then hardening leaves distortion in the finished tooth, and there is no stock left to correct it.
Grinding before hardening is only reasonable for soft gears that will not see a furnace at all.
Backlash comes from center distance, tooth thickness and operating temperature, not from a shop-floor rule of thumb. A pair that runs hot needs more cold backlash than one that runs at room temperature.
When both parts are made here, we grind them as a set and measure the mesh before shipment.
Ground flanks land at Ra 0.8–1.6 μm as standard. Where pitch-line velocity is high or noise is the constraint, Ra 0.2–0.8 μm is available.
As-machined hobbing without grinding sits at Ra 1.6–3.2 μm. That is fine for low-speed drives and cuts cost, but it is not a substitute for grinding on a loaded flank.
Yes. There is no minimum order quantity, so a single gear and a 10,000-piece run use the same routing.
That matters more than it sounds. If the prototype is cut one way and production another, the sample proves nothing about the run.
Common choices are 1045, 4140, 4340, 17-4PH and 303 or 316 stainless. Case-hardening grades are used where the tooth surface needs to stay hard over a tough core.
Worm wheels typically run bronze alloys against a hardened steel worm. Tell us the duty cycle and we will say if the material on the drawing is a poor fit.
Every lot gets a raw material check, in-process monitoring and a final inspection before shipment. Nothing ships on a setup assumption.
Dimensional and profile reports are available when the drawing or your quality system calls for them. Uploads stay confidential and an NDA can be signed on request.
A quotation and DFM analysis come back within 12 hours. Production can start within 24 hours of approval, and parts typically ship in 3–5 days.
Heat treatment adds a step outside the machining sequence, so it is worth flagging on the RFQ if the schedule is tight.
Upload the drawing and we will come back with a cutting route, a DFM note and a quotation.
12-hour quote100% inspectionNo minimum orderNDA on request
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