Binder Jetting of Gears - Investigation of the Tooth Bending Strength for Gears made of 17-4PH Using Rotary Bending Specimens

Due to near netshape production, additive manufactured gears have a high potential to optimize cost and resource efficiency. Decreasing product lifecycles as well as increasing individualization of components demand high flexibility of manufacturing processes. The additive manufacturing process Binder Jetting (BJT) is intended to enable the production of individualized gears in small batch sizes. The gears meet all requirements regarding quality, strength, acoustics and cost-effectiveness. This report initially classifies the tooth bending strength results of 17-4PH BJT gears in comparison to conventionally cut gears. In addition, rotary bending specimens are manufactured (additively and conventionally) in order to derive a possible analogy of the bending stress to the nominal tooth root stress. The specimens may provide an economical alternative for the process design of BJT gears. A full SN-curve is derived for both, gears and rotary bending specimens. The knowledge gained significantly optimizes the process design for BJT gears.