FFI Sustainable manufacturing of future transmission parts  SMART

Project time: 2012 – 2015

Budget: 19 484 900 SEK

Funding: FFI – Strategic Vehicle Research and Innovation

In this project, we focus on two methods to make gears more high-strength, namely to replace gear milling with gear rolling based on plastic forming and the introduction of clean steels with reduced inclusion content

New challenges towards more environmentally friendly powertrains in future commercial vehicles put demands on performance and manufacturing of gears. Higher strength requirements enable higher possible loads to be taken in transmissions of the same size as today or that transmissions can be made more compact. To take advantage of the progress of gear rolling, case hardening has to be improved so that the spread in form deviations are reduced. This can be done with better process planning methods taking into account the spread of the characteristics of incoming material and thus reduces the spread in production results.
It is possible to produce gears with high modules (eg. 4) by gear rolling method with commercial rolling machines. The quality of manufactured gears is yet not in target level for truck applications. We reach quality 11 (with no finishing) in our experiments but further improvments need more work and research. FEM is a very reliable tool in the process planning to be used for quality optimization. It is necessary to simulate the gear rolling process for a new component before investing in tools and pilot tests. With the current research results, the rolling will be expensive to reach the quality of 5-6 (after finishing process) for high modules (over 2.5 mm). The process can be used for small modules under 2.5 mm currently.
The difference in machinability of clean carburizing steels as compared to conventional carburizing steels with a sulphur content of S=0.02-0.04 wt.% is minor. Microstructural aspects are probably more important than the sulphur content. This is based on tests in rough turning and an experimental test that mimics gear hobbing. In case of the tool steel investigated alternate machining strategies may be required. Another tool grade in rough turning than the one tested would probably increase the performance significantly. Maybe more demanding is the probable need to introduce new tooling concepts in the gear hobbing process. The high speed steel substrate of conventional solid hobs becomes over tempered at the cutting edge by the higher temperature generated in the chip removal of the hot work tool steel. However, hobs made of coated cemented carbide are commercially available both with solid and indexable concepts. The machinability of clean steels can be characterized as follows: a) somewhat more adhesive in the tool-chip contact, b) somewhat more difficult chip breaking, c) somewhat more heat in the cutting zone with clean steels, d) the combination of the new generation of textured alumina CVD coatings of turning tool grades and clean steels with a minimum of abrasive oxides and a fined grained microstructure makes a tremendous potential in increased productivity and e) the minimal abrasive wear constituents of these steels makes a high and robust tool life also with PVD coated solid hobs.
Upon hardening martensite is formed, with a greater volume than the parent phase. This results in distortion, which is to some extent predictable and thus can be compensated for
in soft machining. Unwanted, non systematic, changes in shape that appears after heat treatment are complex and can be caused by many factors. All steps in manufacturing the steel and manufacturing of components are carriers of distortion potential showing as distortions after heat treatment. The effect of hardenability on distortion is significant. This project has shown that distortion of simple geometries as well as industrial components is affected by hardenability, i.e. alloying content. It is important to be consistent in method how to calculate the hardenability and to follow-up variations in hardenability for different heats. Also alloying elements that are not covered in hardenability models influences on distortions, e.g, (Al, Ti, Al/N). Hardenability dependent geometrical compensation in soft machining seems feasible for reducing the detrimental effects of distortion. The compensation has to be worked out from controlled production trials and most probably independently for every steel supplier. Hardenability data provided by the steel producers seems more reliable when compared to calculations done by common methods. There is a good potential to systematically study distortions through production monitoring. Identify relevant factors and keep as many of them as possible constant and only study variations in hardenability and chemical composition. Multivariate data analysis is a useful tool.

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