Quote:
Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi
I've been meaning to run plate sprockets and gears on a sponsor's laser, do you have experience with any pros/cons of having them waterjetted vs laser cut?
Thanks,
Akash
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It really depends on the specific machine, and the knowledge of the person operating it.
First I'd say get some samples cut, and see for yourself. That trumps all advice I'm about to give.
We've had gearing water and laser cut on multiple different machines and different sponsors.
Most waterjets take a real quality hit on curved teeth as the cut is slowed down and excessive blowout seems to happen. The lower the toothcount, the more the teeth are curved. Even with this, pretty much every gear we've cut at 16DP or larger (including a 9T pinion) has run fine after some wear in. Our swerve also ran a 50T 20DP gear that ran fine.
When you get into huge gears, like the 300ish toothcount 24DP turret gear for Encore, the teeth are essentially straight and the smaller toothsize isn't really an issue.
Every waterjet gear we've cut has required some run/wear in, but has performed fine and lasted the season.
For Lasered gears, if they know how to run their machine right, you should get far better results that allow much more freedom in terms of small teeth and small toothcount. I did have one laser run that was just too gummed around the edges and was a total failure; this however was from a company that primarily worked in steel, and never worked on parts with fine detail.
As for sprockets, pretty much everything should work. For some waterjets you may want to artificially shrink the sprocket a few thou. Wear in will also be necessary (but can be done on the final vehicle of course) unless they are nicely tumbled or something. Laser should make beautiful sprockets.
In summary, we love it as a process. It's not the greatest method for small gears, and small teeth; but these are the easiest gears to cheaply get premade, so it isn't really an issue.