Characteristics of materials and thermal treatments applied to gearwheels obtained by plastic deformation

A variety of materials are used in the manufacture of gearwheels. These materials satisfy various working conditions for gears. Such gears are made of metallic materials - ferrous, non-ferrous and from plastic materials. Among ferrous materials the following are used: irons; cast, forged and rolled steels; among non-ferrous materials the following are used: bronze, aluminium alloys, brass, etc., and of plastics the following are used: textolite, polyamide, polyacetal. In the practice of exploitation and in the process of special research it was established that the permissible load, according to teeth contact resistance, is generally determined by the hardness of the material. The highest hardness and respectively, the smallest sizes and reduced mass of the transmission can be obtained in the manufacture of steel gears via thermal treatment. It is obvious that by plastic deformation at cold it cannot be obtained gearwheels with complicated configuration as deformed plastic metal will form cracks caused by low plasticity. To improve processability by plastic deformation the mouldings for gearwheels are heated. With increasing the heating temperature, plasticity increases and resistance to deformation decreases. (paper)