Patent ID: 6134786
Filing Date: 2000-10-24
Classification: B22F,Y10T

Abstract:
A method of manufacturing a spur gear produced from a powder metal, said spur gear having a plurality of gear teeth, each said tooth having gear-tooth flanks, said gear having a longitudinal center line, said method operable to regenerate gear alignment to reduce misalignment between adjacent gear teeth flanks, to reduce misalignment between said gear teeth and to reduce lead line error of each said gear, said manufacturing method comprising:(a) pressing a powder metal preform of said spur gear, each said gear having a longitudinal center line and a plurality of gear teeth, each said gear tooth having a gear-tooth flank;(b) sintering said spur gear preform to generally solidify said powder metal preform;(c) heat treating said sintered preform to a predetermined minimum hardness;(d) providing a hardened hob and a stable hard-hobbing apparatus;(e) skiving said sintered and heat treated gear with said hardened hob on said hard-hobbing apparatus to remove between about 0.005 and 0.007 inch of material on each gear tooth flank, said skiving acting to regenerate the as-formed relationship among said gear teeth and between said gear teeth and said longitudinal center line of each said gear.