Steel Gears

Steel gears play a vital role in many of the important gear applications. Steel gears can be of plain carbon type and the alloy type. The carbon steels can offer the end user the advantage of low cost, easy machining and an ability to be easily hardened. However a major disadvantage being the power to fight corrosion. Alloy steels on the other hand covers a wide gamut from typically low-grade types to very special high grade alloys. They offer high strengths. Stainless steel gears have solved many of the problems associated with stripping and cracking.

Types of Steel Gears
Stainless steel gears are often heat treated. This is done to combine perfectly the features of toughness and tooth hardness. On that basis Steel gears can be:

Case Hardened Gears For making case-hardened gears, four general types of steel are used. They are a) straight-carbon b) nickel (c) chrome-vanadium (d) chrome-nickel steel. In each of these types there can be several modifications. But considering every thing the steels that has chromium area good option. It is worth while to note hear that prior to being carbonized, the carbon content of the steels that are mentioned here should be around 0.20 per cent. It should never exceed 0.25 per cent. This only can avoid brittleness in the gear teeth. The following image is of a Boring machine that is using helical case hardened steel gears.

(Boring machine that uses helical case hardened steel gears)

Tempered Gears Tempered gears in comparison to casehardened gears have uniform carbon content. Also they have an uniform hardness on the entire tooth section. Steels for tempered gears are of three types a) silico-manganese, b) chrome-vanadium c) chrome-nickel steel. It is the nickel steel that is generally used. The range of carbon content for the different types is between 0.40 to 0.60 per cent. The following image shows a pipe bending machine that utilizes tempered steel gears.

(Pipe Bending machine that uses Tempered Steel gears)

Application of Steel Gears
Steel gears are a very popular material for use in a variety of applications. The following are few of the popular applications.

Rolling shutters door operators
The following image shows a planetary gear box that is made of high carbon steel gears that has been heat treated.


Fishing products
Fishing baits use stainless steel gears to resist and fight corrosion.


Power Transmission
Power transmission equipment uses Planetary gear units that are typically made with carburized/hardened steel gears.

Properties of Steel Gears

• High strength
• Corrosion resistance
• Long life
• Reduces maintenance and wear
• Perfectly compatible for high strength operations