PRECISION ASSESSMENT IN ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING OF PLASTIC GEARS

Abstract

In recent decades, a significant increase in the use of plastic gears has been observed. Thus, in terms of quantity, their production exceeds that of ferrous material gears. The advantages of additive manufacturing, linked to the elimination of injection mould costs, has allowed an explosive development of this technology in the field of plastic gear. The present study aims to assess the precision of additive manufactured (AM) plastic gears. Therefore, in a first step, the optimal thickness of the deposited material layer was determined, which would ensure the required accuracy in the shortest manufacturing time. Further, using this technological parameter, gears with different widths (6, 7, 8 and 10 mm) were printed and the influence of the width on the main indicators, which define the manufacturing accuracy of the gears, was evaluated. The results obtained are likely to complete the knowledge on additive manufacturing of plastic gears.