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Gear configurator
Configure individual gears very easily online
A machine without gear is hardly imaginable. In every transmission, in every clockwork—gears are used in countless areas for power transmission. Their complexity is comparable to that of screws: They’re big and small, thick and thin, they come in different diameters and their teeth can be straight or slanted, finer or coarser. Gear requirements can be just as variable as their shapes. In vintage cars, for example, custom plastic gears are frequently installed, so they’re hardly kept in stock, which makes them difficult to reorder. In these cases, the gear configurator from PROTIQ can help: With the online tool, you can create gears in just a few minutes according to your specific needs and commission their production directly with 3D printing. Thanks to the rapid manufacturing method (in other words, the time-saving and flexible part production by means of additive manufacturing processes) the production pays off even at a batch size of one since no special tools have to be made in advance, which is the case with injection molding, for instance. This means 3D printing is a vehicle for cost-effective production of individual parts or small batches. What’s more, the end product can be completed and delivered within a few days using direct manufacturing from 3D CAD data.
Advantages of the gear configurator
- Maximum design flexibility thanks to 20 different parameters
- Selection from three basic geometries, each of which has two characteristics
- Order 3D-printed end products directly and have them delivered
- Cost-effective production thanks to 3D printing: economical from an order quantity of just one
- Completion only takes a few days
- Choice of tool steel 1.2709, plastic (PA6X) and brass
© Steve Bergmann
Design your individual gear step by step
The configurator offers three basic geometries: a spur gear, a ring gear and a toothed rack. All three versions can be provided with straight or slanted toothing. A total of 20 parameters can be selected for the creation of your individual gear. You can configure either a single part or a pair, which corresponds to two spur gears, a ring gear and a spur gear, or a toothed rack with spur gear. In addition to tool steel 1.2709, there are two innovative materials available exclusively from PROTIQ: brass and a plastic we specially developed for the configurator (PA6X).
The only 3D printing supplier for gear configuration consisting of different materials
When it comes to plastic gear production, a wear-resistant material with a smooth surface is needed. Conventional materials (such as PA12) which, for example, are particularly popular for the production of high-precision injection-molded components do not offer these properties. PROTIQ came up with a solution: With PA6X, we developed a material which made us the first company in the world to be able to produce particularly robust plastic gears. Another advantage: Thanks to the new material, manual postproduction is no longer necessary for the product. Besides plastic and tool steel, you can also choose brass as the material for your gear. For a long time, this material wasn’t considered workable because of its different melting and evaporation temperatures in 3D printing. PROTIQ developed a special process control and is currently the only company in the world that makes brass products using additive manufacturing processes. Brass is a popular material especially in combination with steel: Since it’s softer than steel, brass has a self-lubricating effect which eliminates the need for extra lubricant. This makes the material particularly suitable for gears since they often come into contact with steel in machines and transmissions.
