The effect of heat treatment on Bevel Gears
Bevel gear is a vital type among all the various categories of gears. It is a gear where the axes of the two shafts cross and the tooth bearing faces of the gears themselves are conically shaped. This type of gears is most frequently mounted on shafts that are 90 degrees apart, but can be designed to work at other angles also.
The term “bevel gears” are used as a general description for the spiral and straight bevel gears and also hypoid gear sets. If the gear and the axes don’t cross but have a space, the gear is known as hypoid gear set. To make things simple, the blanks are still manufactured with a conical shape.

The heat treatment furnaces have much effect on the bevel gears. But what is actually heat treatment? It is a procedure where components made of solid steel are subject to treatment by heating to get necessary properties, e.g. normalizing, softening, hardening and stress relieving. Heating in the case of forging and rolling is excluded from this definition. Namely, the heat treatment is mainly a technique used to change the physical and chemical properties of a material.
The heat treating oven is used for soft cutting operation. Low carbon steel should be carburized on the surface by case hardening. The heat treatment is completed with the quenching operation that offers a surface robustness.
The heat treatment furnaces and the differences between the charges of blank material, have a considerable impact on the gear distortion. The distortion from heat treatment is critical to the final hard operation. Along with black body distortions, heat treating may also cause distortion. The flank length curvature is lessened and the spiral angle changes, and the pressure angle also changes. For accomplishing the best outcomes, you should pay attention to the handling and processing of the parts through the furnace.