Lean and Innovative Transmission Component Manufacturing

Project time: 2011 – 2012

Budget: 5 251 100 SEK

Funding: FFI – Strategic Vehicle Research and Innovation

The project is mainly addressed to manufacturing of components and sustainable production engineering

Production engineering is one of 9 prioritized specializations within FFI. The main goal with this project has been to show the advantages and possibilities with gear made with powder metal technology (PM) compared to conventional manufactured gears from forged
steel. At start of the project 5 main activities were planned. All activities are fulfilled and they show good possibilities for PM-gears as for example lower material and part cost, less
energy consumption in production, reduced weight of component which also will reduce fuel consumption in vehicle. PM will also provide new design possibilities. The picture on front page is a gearbox for electrical cars which is originally designed with conventional machined and case hardened gears by Vicura . Vicura has a part of this project reengineered it with PM-gears. The prototypes Are manufactured by Swepart Transmission with blanks from Höganäs AB
1. End users have been visited and presentations have been made at beginning and during the project for example at the yearly FFI conference in Katrineholm. The knowledge about PM has increased as a result of the project and the potential with PM-gears have been visualized which has increased the interest for PM gears.
2. A conventional gearbox for a small car and a gear box for electrical cars originally designed with conventional machined and hardened steel gears have been reengineered for PM gears to show that PM-gears in many applications can replace conventional gears. Some prototype gear boxes have been manufactured with successful result.
3.  Conventional gears in a rally car has been replaced has been replaced by PM-gears to show that PM will work also in very demanding application. Item 2 and 3 shows that PM can replace conventional gears in high loaded applications as engines and gearboxes.
4. Both spur and he lical gears have been compacted, sintered, hardened and machined with good result.  We have found that some PM-qualities require different properties on the cutting tools compared to forged steel if they need to been machined before hardening. The wear of the cutting tool is increased but there is no problem with chip breaking. We have also found that the heat distortion is considerably less for PM-gears compared to gears from forging. This is a big advantage especially for thin section ring gears.
5. Product cost calculations are made for a number of different gears and the cost for PM-gears have a potential to be up to 30% cheaper compared to conventional machined gears from forged steel. In general the saving will increase for more complex geometries. We have in this project studied both engine gears and gears for manual transmissions and hybrid vehicles. Without strengthening methods as surface rolling or Hipping (Hot Isostatic Pressing) abouthalf number of the studied gears can be made by PM technology. Less heat distortion and better damping properties for PM-gears can be advantageous especially for electrical and hybrid applications where low noise is extremely important. We have in this project showed that PM-gears in many applications are a competitive alternative both technically and costly compared to conventional machined and hardened gears from forged steel. The interest from the automotive industry has increased during the project and we have received a number of inquiries for prototype gears made in PM.  Material tests, S/N-curves, is a time consuming but ongoing work. To be able to design PM-gears it is absolutely necessary to have available material data. Missing material data and design rules together with lack of experience for design with PM is limiting factor for introduction of PM-gears. There are also no production facilities available for manufacturing of large volumes of PM-gears. However, this project has shown a bright future for PM-gears.

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