Heat Treatment of Gears

 Heat Treatment of Gears Introduction Heat treatment is a critical and complex element in the manufacturing of gears that greatly impacts how each will perform in transmitting power or carrying motion to other components in an assembly. Heat treatments optimize the performance and extend the life of gears in service by altering their chemical, metallurgical, and physical properties. Heat treatments improve physical properties such as surface hardness, which imparts wear resistance to prevent tooth and bearing surfaces from simply wearing out. Fig 1. Heat Treatment Why Gears are Heat Treated? Heat treatments improve physical properties such as surface hardness, which imparts wear resistance to prevent tooth and bearing surfaces from simply wearing out. It also improve a gear’s fatigue life by generating subsurface compressive stresses to prevent pitting and deformation from high contact stresses on gear teeth. Fig 2. Heat Treatment of Gears Iron Carbon Diagram As steel and its al...