Material influence on mechanical properties of gears with alternative microstructures

Abstract

AbstractCase hardening represents the most important heat treatment process to increase the load carrying capacity of gear components. Beside predominantly martensitic surface layers with low proportion of retained austenite, there were investigated material structures with differing properties in preceding research work.In a previous publication, the results of three variants made of the material 20MnCr5, which is typically used for gears, were presented. The reference heat treatment was a conventional carburizing with subsequent case hardening. The second variant was also gas carburized, but with a high proportion of retained austenite. The last presented variant had a bainitic structure in the surface layer. The second and the third variant showed a similar tooth root bending strength compared to the reference. The numbers of the pitting resistance were significantly higher than for the reference variant.This paper presents the results of further investigations on the influence of different microstructures on the gear load carrying capacity. For this purpose, gears made of 18CrNiMo7‑6 were tested with regard to their load carrying capacity. 18CrNiMo7‑6 is a case hardening steel like 20MnCr5, too, which is often applied in big gear components. The tooth root bending strength was approximately constant, whereas the pitting resistance decreased compared to the corresponding variants of the material 20MnCr5. In comparison to the carburized 20MnCr5 reference variant, only the 18CrNiMo7‑6 variant with a large proportion of retained austenite showed a higher pitting resistance.The tooth root bending strength investigations took place in the cycle regime of limited life as well in the high cycle fatigue regime. The pitting resistance was only determined in the cycle regime of limited life.