A gear is a circular machine element spinning with teeth that may be cut, or in the case of a cogwheel or gearwheel, they can be inserted. These teeth, known as cogs, mesh with another toothed part to transfer (convert) torque and speed. The fundamental idea underlying how gears work is comparable to how levers work. Cog is another colloquial term for gear. A power source’s speed, torque, and direction may all be altered via geared devices. As they are created for specific uses where a conventional-sized gear cannot fit, little gears are no different. Some of these include use in tiny electronics, toolkits, workout equipment, and medical gadgets. Read More…
Leading Manufacturers
Omni Gear & Machine Corporation
Joliet, IL | 800-876-7216Omni G & M Corporation is a leading gear fabricator specializing in precision machined and custom solutions in a variety of sizes and types. Please check out Omni G & M’s website or call a friendly personnel member today!
Commercial Gear & Sprocket Company, Inc.
East Walpole, MA | 800-491-1073Gears are what we do best, and we are experts in our field. We have three generations of experience backing our company, and we use all of it to benefit you in any way possible.
Gear Motions, Inc.
Syracuse, NY | 315-488-0100Gear Motions is a leading gear manufacturer specializing in supplying custom cut and ground gears. Our wide range of precision gear manufacturing capabilities and services deliver quality gears to meet almost any application.
Perry Technology Corporation
New Hartford, CT | 860-738-2525With a great variety of available tooling & quick tooling for unique tooth forms, rely on ISO & AS certified Perry for all your gear & spline requirements. Offering expertise with many CNC operations, we do hobbing, shaping, tooling, broaching, machining & inspection for an array of gears, splines, worms & wheels, serrations of all kinds! Call for all your gearing needs – reverse engineering too!
Forest City Gear
Roscoe, IL | 815-623-2168One of the top 10 machine shops in the U.S., family-run gear manufacturer Forest City Gear pursues excellence & innovation with tight quality control & the most advanced technology in the industry. Custom capabilities for spline gears, worms gears, sprockets & face gears are just the beginning. Over the past 60 years, Forest City has remained on the cutting edge of the gear manufacturing industry by constantly expanding our capabilities. Contact Forest City today to learn more!
Cleveland Gear Company
Cleveland, OH | 800-423-3169Cleveland Gear Company has specialized in worm gear technology including industrial gears, bevel gears, helical gears, worm gears and precision gears since 1912. Applications include steel production, electric power generation, and material transport. Fulfilling your exact requirements is what has and continues to make Cleveland Gear one of the top manufacturers of gearing and enclosed gear drives.
Materials of Small Gears
The following materials might be employed in the creation of a little piece of gear:
AVC, Nylon, Delrin, Silicon-Manganese, High-Temperature Steel, Manganese Steel, Steel, Special Bearing Steel, Aluminum, Cast Iron, 303 Stainless Steel, Molybdenum Steel, Nickel-Chromium Steel, 17-4 Stainless Steel, Carbon Steel, Chromium Stainless Steel, Chromium-Molybdenum Steel, Chromium-Vanadium Steel, Nickel-Chromium-Molybdenum Steel, or Bronze.
Types of Small Gears
Small gears can be categorized based on their use, pitch, and quality, much like their larger power transmission industry counterparts. Three major categories of miniature gears are used:
- Precision or instrument gears: This category includes gears typically of reasonably fine pitch and tiny in diameter (up to 120 mm). The major focus should be motion transmission, frequently paired with high-indexing accuracy and little backlash. Their accuracy ranges from extremely poor to very high.
- Low-power gears: These gears’ main functions, ranging from a few gfcm of torque to around 750 W (1 hp), are motion transmission and moderate or medium power needs.
- Horological gears: A unique class of tiny gears employed in clocks and watches are not covered here.
Construction of Small Gears
- Various techniques are employed to make gears of all shapes and sizes, both large and small.
- Since it is used to produce several units of a single type of gear in identical shape and size, gear forming is perhaps the most used procedure.
- For almost all manufacturers, the process begins with creating a mold of the necessary gear by client specifications and needs. From there, the process can employ a variety of different forming techniques.
- Construction techniques include Injection molding, roll forming, forging, casting, and several other techniques.
- Cutting the gear is another step in the process, which may be accomplished using various techniques such as broaching, shaping, lapping, hobbing, and milling.
- After your gear has been formed and cut, it must go through what is referred to as the finishing process where it will be polished.
Working of Small Gears
- In a small/big gear setup, the large gear will not have finished a full rotation hen the tiny gear has made one.
- As a result, the smaller gear rotates more quickly than the bigger gear since it completes more rotations in a given time.
- When two gears are near one another, the teeth of one gear exert force on the teeth of the other gear.
- Since the shaft axes of the two gears are connected by a line created by the contacting teeth, this force will have both a radial and circumferential component.
- In calculations, the radial component pulls the shaft in one direction and has no effect on how the gears work; the circumferential component is essential.
- Thus, the rotation of the gears is caused by the circumferential component of force.
Miniature Gear Specifications
- Use: pumping, cutting, and various other tasks are performed by tiny gears in biomedical equipment
- Number of Teeth: up to 20 teeth at 0.05“ diameter
- The minimum diameter is 0.05.“
- Diametral Pitch: 250 DP and above
- Face Width: 0.01 or fewer inches,/li>
- Tolerances: the micro gear designs are durable in keeping very tight tolerances. Up to +/-0.0001“
- Quality Control: compliant with MIL-I-45208A, MIL-STD-45662A, and ISO 9001:2000 standards for general military quality control
- Wait Time: the usual lead time for orders of small gear is eight weeks
Advantages of Small Gears
- Viable when less torque is needed
- Cost-savings when a reduced gearbox ratio is needed
- Potential for additional savings by using a smaller gearbox
- Fewer requirements for a smaller design envelope
- Lessened backlash in a linear gearbox
- Enhanced rigidity of the linear gearbox
- An increase in the system's resonance frequency
Applications of Small Gears
- Small instrumentation gears and custom gears are in demand from the biomedical industry and other sectors.
- Low-power gears include a wide range of medium-duty gear applications in commercial goods such as toys, small industrial machinery, household appliances, and power-driven hand tools.
- Applications for precision gears include computer drives, automated control systems, servomechanisms, and instrument drives.
- Small-precision applications like watches frequently employ horological gears.
