Diverse gear making: General Industry Coverage

As demand for vehicle transmissions and other systems requiring quieter, more compact and lighter gear mechanisms increases, gear manufacturers seek to continually boost productivity while lowering costs.

To enable manufacturers to quickly, accurately and completely produce those gears in a single machine, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., Tokyo, developed a technology to permit machining of diverse gear types, such as internally and externally toothed ones. By applying two different multiple-threaded grinding wheels, the technology enables mass production of complex gears, including internal ring gears and some external gears, such as stepped gears and pinion gears with shafts.

Courtesy of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

On the ZI20A grinding machine from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, an hourglass-shaped, multiple-threaded grinding wheel can produce external gears, whereas a barrel-shaped, multiple-threaded wheel can create internal ring gears.