Steel castings for gears

Steel Castings for Gears

It is recommended that steel castings for cut gears be purchased on the basis of chemical analysis and that only two types of analysis be used, one for case-hardened gears and the other for both untreated gears and those which are to be hardened and tempered. The steel is to be made by the open hearth, crucible, or electric furnace processes. The converter process is not recognized. Sufficient risers must be provided to secure soundness and freedom from undue segregation. Risers should not be broken off the unannealed castings by force. Where risers are cut off with a torch, the cut should be at least one-half inch above the surface of the castings, and the remaining metal removed by chipping, grinding, or other noninjurious method.

Steel for use in gears should conform to the requirements for chemical composition indicated in Table 3. All steel castings for gears must be thoroughly normalized or annealed, using such temperature and time as will entirely eliminate the characteristic structure of unannealed castings.

Table 3. Compositions of Cast Steels for Gears

a C = carbon; Mn = manganese; and Si = silicon.

Effect of Alloying Metals on Gear Steels

The effect of the various alloying elements on steel are here summarized to assist in deciding on the particular kind of alloy steel to use for specific purposes. The characteristics outlined apply only to heat-treated steels. When the effect of the addition of an alloying element is stated, it is understood that reference is made to alloy steels of a given carbon content, compared with a plain carbon steel of the same carbon content.

Nickel: The addition of nickel tends to increase the hardness and strength, with but little sacrifice of ductility. The hardness penetration is somewhat greater than that of plain carbon steels. Use of nickel as an alloying element lowers the critical points and produces less distortion, due to the lower quenching temperature. The nickel steels of the case-hardening group carburize more slowly, but the grain growth is less.

Chromium: Chromium increases the hardness and strength over that obtained by the use of nickel, though the loss of ductility is greater. Chromium refines the grain and imparts a greater depth of hardness. Chromium steels have a high degree of wear resistance and are easily machined in spite of the fine grain.

Manganese: When present in sufficient amounts to warrant the use of the term alloy, the addition of manganese is very effective. It gives greater strength than nickel and a higher degree of toughness than chromium. Owing to its susceptibility to cold-working, it is likely to flow under severe unit pressures. Up to the present time, it has never been used to any great extent for heat-treated gears, but is now receiving an increasing amount of attention.

Vanadium: Vanadium has a similar effect to that of manganese—increasing the hardness, strength, and toughness. The loss of ductility is somewhat more than that due to manganese, but the hardness penetration is greater than for any of the other alloying elements. Owing to the extremely fine-grained structure, the impact strength is high; but vanadium tends to make machining difficult.

Molybdenum: Molybdenum has the property of increasing the strength without affecting the ductility. For the same hardness, steels containing molybdenum are more ductile than any other alloy steels, and having nearly the same strength, are tougher; in spite of the increased toughness, the presence of molybdenum does not make machining more difficult. In fact, such steels can be machined at a higher hardness than any of the other alloy steels. The impact strength is nearly as great as that of the vanadium steels.

Chrome-Nickel Steels: The combination of the two alloying elements chromium and nickel adds the beneficial qualities of both. The high degree of ductility present in nickel steels is complemented by the high strength, finer grain size, deep hardening, and wear-resistant properties imparted by the addition of chromium. The increased toughness makes these steels more difficult to machine than the plain carbon steels, and they are more difficult to heat treat. The distortion increases with the amount of chromium and nickel.

Chrome-Vanadium Steels: Chrome-vanadium steels have practically the same tensile properties as the chrome-nickel steels, but the hardening power, impact strength, and wear resistance are increased by the finer grain size. They are difficult to machine and become distorted more easily than the other alloy steels.

Chrome-Molybdenum Steels: This group has the same qualities as the straight molybdenum steels, but the hardening depth and wear resistance are increased by the addition of chromium. This steel is very easily heat treated and machined.

Nickel-Molybdenum Steels: Nickel-molybdenum steels have qualities similar to chrome-molybdenum steel. The toughness is said to be greater, but the steel is somewhat more difficult to machine.

Sintered Materials

For high production of low and moderately loaded gears, significant production cost savings may be effected by the use of a sintered metal powder. With this material, the gear is formed in a die under high pressure and then sintered in a furnace. The primary cost saving comes from the great reduction in labor cost of machining the gear teeth and other gear blank surfaces. The volume of production must be high enough to amortize the cost of the die and the gear blank must be of such a configuration that it may be formed and readily ejected from the die.