Customised drive solutions for the automotive industry
Expertise in gear system design and transmission development
We don’t offer you any off-the-shelf gearwheels, transmission components or drive systems. Instead, we offer a structured process that focuses to an equal extent on the detailed design of individual components and the holistic development of transmissions. In the process, our only aim is to offer you a drive solution that will best fulfil all of your requirements from a technical, economic and qualitative perspective.
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Our development service
From individual parts through to complex drive systems
Our development process and also our range of development services are specific to the customer. We develop customized gearwheels and transmission components, precision interlocking wheelsets and complete drive systems for you – according to your specific needs and tailor-made to your individual requirements for a variety of different vehicles.
Our development expertise
Modern technologies and years of experience
Plastic is an extremely powerful material – as long as the application is properly designed with the right type of plastic. We are well acquainted with the properties of technical thermoplastics – based on our practical experience and our own research. This enables us to design gear systems with micro and macro geometries that satisfy the highest requirements.
More than 60 years of experience
We have been producing gear parts from plastic since 1963 and are one of the pioneers in the precision injection molding of plastics. We are familiar with the advantages and idiosyncrasies associated with every type of gear and every material, and can use this wealth of experience to develop the right solution for your application.
Our own basic research
The dataset of characteristics and properties for materials relevant for gear systems is still incomplete when it comes to plastics. Therefore, we have developed our own gear test stand so that we can test a large range of different combinations of gear geometries and materials, thus creating our own dataset for an efficient and reliable development process.
Close cooperation with production
We not only develop gear parts but also the associated injection molding tools. This means that we focus on the design of injection molded parts from the outset. We not only consider the draft angles and injection points but also warpage and shrinkage characteristics during the development process.
Our development process
Our development process covers several stages – from the initial specification and design phase, the selection of suitable types of gearwheels and the design of the gear system through to the selection of materials and the design of the injection moulded parts.
Specifications
Creating a specification together provides the basis for the development process. In the first meeting between you and our development team, we get to know you, your application and your precise requirements for the new drive solution. The following criteria play a decisive role:
- Load spectrum of the torque and speed
- Transmission
- Efficiency
- Noise
- Installation space and weight
- Backlash
- Interfaces to motors, sensors, and control systems
We use this data and work together with you to develop a detailed specification profile that will serve as the basis for our product development process.
Design
Our development team will transfer your requirements into a first functional prototype during the design process. Fundamental decisions are then made at this stage:
- Which types of gearwheels are best suited to your application?
- Which materials could be used?
- How many development stages are required for the particular transmission?
We then use the answers to design the gear system.
Design of the gear system
We map out the macro and micro geometries in the design of the gear system and tailor them to your application. As there is currently only a VDI guideline and no calculation standard for the design of plastic gear systems, we base our work on our own empirical dataset that we have built up over many years.
By defining your specific priorities for the design process, we can optimize the gear system based on the following factors:
- Load-bearing capacity
- Noise performance
- Efficiency
- Space
- Weight
- Service life
Incidentally: The material-based design of the gear system is more than just the sum of our previous experience. It also relies on our own basic research. Using our own in-house plastic gear test stand, we examine the properties of various different materials and gear geometries – and thus continuously expand our dataset with every new development process.
Selection of materials
For many applications, technical plastics have now taken over from steel – if they have been properly selected and designed for the right type of application. Nevertheless, the empirical dataset of characteristics and properties for those materials relevant for gear systems remains sparse. We are well acquainted with the properties of various different polymers – based on our many years of experience and our own research that ensures our own dataset is constantly growing. We can work with:
- All types of thermoplastics such as POM, PA6/66, PA11/12, PA 4.6, PBT, PC, PEI, PPA, PPE, PPS and PFA
- A wide variety of fillers and reinforcing materials
- Highly temperature-resistant plastics such as PEEK
On this basis, we realize plastic gear components, plastic/metal composites and technical components with complex geometries.
Design of injection moulded parts
How can the desired gearwheel be produced later on? What is the best way for the plastic to flow into the tool? And how can the finished tool be removed? Precision injection molding gives us a lot of geometrical freedom but also has its own idiosyncrasies. We already start to consider the producibility of the parts during the first development steps, and also take the following factors into account at an early stage:
- Geometrical changes to the wall thicknesses and supporting ribs
- Draft angles
- Injection points
- Warpage and shrinkage characteristics of the plastic
Evaluation of the types of gearwheel
A transmission or gearbox is not only produced in many different stages, but also using various different types of gearwheel and associated housing parts. Our development portfolio covers the following variants that are evaluated for use in the specific application:
- Spur gears
- Planetary stages
- Helical gears
- Worm gears
- Special gears and special gearwheels
- Transmission components with complex geometries
Development of the transmission
The development of a transmission or gearbox covers all of the previous described, upstream development steps. To produce a complete transmission or gearbox, we provide you with all the necessary components:
- Shaft and shaft-hub connections
- Housings
- Bearings
- Lubricants
- Sealants
- All other transmission components
Production and evaluation of prototypes
We use prototypes to comprehensively test assemblies and actuators even before we produce the production tools. This allows us to jointly check whether our solution meets all of your requirements and gives us the opportunity to optimize the individual components for series production.
In order to shorten development times, we produce all of the components in the prototype in-house using the following technologies:
- 3D printing machine with FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) and ABS plus plastic
- 5-axis CNC milling machine for processing the metals and plastics
