A gear or shaft is a toothed wheel that meshes with another shaft’s teeth to continually transmit rotational power. Engineers can mix and match gears and shafts of different diameters to vary the force and speed of these components’ rotation.
Shafts have several important uses in the aerospace, agriculture, automotive, consumer products, transportation, oil & gas, mining, and industrial manufacturing fields. These tools generate and channel force in a wide range of mechanical equipment, from cars and planes to machines and appliances.
In this post, we explore a few aspects of the shaft manufacturing process, as well as how we use innovative techniques to manufacture shafts for the industries we serve.
How the Shaft Manufacturing Process Works
The most common process used to manufacture shafts is via CNC turning. Using this technique, workers or automated processes affix or clamp bars of materials to chucks and rotate them. While rotating, specialized tools use cutting and other subtractive processes to create and shape the end product.
FZE uses many different machining processes to create its shafts. Our facility houses a wide range of state-of-the-art equipment designed to optimize even the most complex aspects of the shaft-manufacturing processes. From custom tooling and fixturing to multi-axis equipment, we use all types of machinery to produce extremely precise shafts to tolerances within 0.0002” (0.00508 mm).
FZE’s Shaft-Manufacturing Capabilities
FZE works with over three dozen types of raw materials to produce high-quality shafts that adhere to client specifications. We build shafts from materials ranging from:
- Ferrous metals: standard carbon steels, stainless steels, Inconel and titanium
- Non-Ferrous metals: aluminum, brass, bronze and other exotic or precious metals
- Plastics and other polymers
- Graphite and other non-metal materials
We also work with a vast array of part sizes, with our capabilities listed here as they apply to the following dimensions:
- Diameter: We build parts as small as 0.10” diameter and as large as 15” diameter
- Length: Our parts range from 1” to 60” in length
- Face groove depth: We build shafts with face groove depths of no more than 1”
- Weight: Our typical shafts have a maximum weight of up to 1,000 lbs.
Machining Processes
We bring many types of machining processes to bear when it comes to shaft manufacturing. A sample of our production capabilities includes:
- Boring
- Drilling
- Turning
- Internal and external threading
- Internal and external spinning and teeth cutting
- Rotary Broaching
- And more
We also perform a diverse array of secondary services to fine tune the product to your specifications. Some secondary service options we provide include:
- Anodizing
- Plastic mold insertion
- Assembly
- Bending
- Broaching
- Heat treating
- Passivating
- Electro-Polishing
- Welding
Quality Shafts and Finishing Operations from FZE Manufacturing
FZE uses special shaft manufacturing techniques to maximize our efficiency without sacrificing product quality or your bottom line. Our experience in this field allows us unparalleled customization capabilities, which enables us to properly produce shafts for each client as needed.
For more information on how we can help you create shafts to your exact specifications, please don’t hesitate to contact us today.
