Gear cutting is a process of manufacturing gears from gear blanks. Different gear cutting processes are shaping, milling, hobbing and broaching. Finishing processes for cut gears are shaving, burnishing, grinding, honing or lapping. A cut gears supplier uses various gear cutting machines to manufacture standard metric or imperial gears. For manufacturing a cut gear with non-standard dimensions, the cut gears suppliers use customized milling or hobbing cutters.

You can buy various types of cut gears including spur, helical, crown or worm gears. Depending on the type of tooth profile, cut gears could be either straight cut gears or spiral cut gears.

Some important parameters you must consider before buying a cut gear are:

1. Loads acting on the gear
2. Power transmission ratio (or gear ratio)
3. Dimensions of the cut gears: diameters, no of teeth and module
4. Requirement of heat treatment for the cut gears
5. Requirement of custom cut gears

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Buy a cut gear from reputable cut gear manufacturers

Once you identify your power transmission requirements, check out standard industrial gears available in the market.

I recommend: Boston Gear supplies cut gears for various applications such as material handling equipment, industrial mixers, conveyors and indexing tables. American Precision Gear Company offers spur gears, helical gears, worm gears, bevel gears and rack and pinions to various industries such as aerospace, defense and biomedical industry.

Buy cut gears from reputable gear distributors or retailers

You can compare different cut gears based on their features and prices at distributors or retailers' websites.

I recommend: Industrial Drive Components, a reputable distributor of power transmission components, supplies a broad array of gears for various applications such as machine tools, medical devices and industrial transmission systems. MSC Industrial Direct is an industrial retailer that supplies gears from reputable gear manufacturers including Boston Gear and Browning. You can buy cut gears online at Young's Industrial, another industrial distributor. You can also get a list of cut gears suppliers at ThomasNet.

Buy customized gears from a reputable cut gears supplier

If standard gears available in the market do not meet your requirements, then buy customized cut gears. For critical gear cutting operations such as clock gear cutting or worm gear cutting, evaluate the services offered by metal cutting service providers.

I recommend: Omni Gear, a gear manufacturer, is capable of cutting gears as per customers’ requirements. You can buy customized cut gears from TEK Engineering, a custom gear manufacturer. Overton Gear can supply helical and spur gears with non-standard modules. Whether a heavy industrial application or a high precision requirement, Gear Motions can supply custom cut gears.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Ensure proper lubrication of your gear system to avoid wear and distortion of cut gears.
• •  Install cut gears properly as misalignment of gear shafts results in noisy operations and low transmission efficiency.
• •  When you are designing a gear transmission system, ensure that mating gears have same module.