Gears for Industrial Reducers and Heavy-Duty Drives

Custom gear manufacturing by machining: gear cutting, grinding and case hardening of spur and helical gears up to 2000 mm in diameter, plus pinion shafts, worm pairs and gear racks, to ISO 1328 accuracy.

Custom Gear Manufacturing at Hydroforce

Hydroforce cuts gears on its own machining floor. Tooth counts, modules, profiles and helix angles come from your drawing, the blanks are turned on our lathes, the teeth are cut on our gear milling machines, and the finished wheel is measured on our Zeiss Contura before it leaves the building. Nothing in that chain is forwarded to a third party.

Gearing is one of the harder things a machine shop can take on, because a gear is not finished when it is the right size. It is finished when the tooth profile, the lead, the pitch and the runout all fall inside a grade, when the case is deep enough to carry the contact stress, and when the core underneath is still tough enough to absorb shock. Our CNC machining capability covers all four: turning, gear cutting, heat treatment and gear metrology, under one roof and one quality system.

This article covers gears we produce by machining. Sintered gears made by powder metallurgy follow a different route and are worth their own article.

Gear Types We Manufacture: Spur, Helical, Worm Pairs, Pinion Shafts and Racks

Our standard gear-cutting nomenclature:

• Spur gears. The workhorse of industrial reducers, from compact drive wheels to large-diameter wheels for low-speed, high-torque stages.
• Helical gears. Quieter running and higher load capacity than a spur wheel of the same size. Helix angle is cut to your drawing, in single or paired sets.
• Pinion shafts and gear shafts. The pinion and its shaft machined from one billet, so there is no keyed joint to work loose in a heavily loaded stage.
• Splined shafts. Involute or parallel-sided splines on drive and output shafts, machined together with the bearing and seal seats.
• Sprockets. Chain wheels for conveyor, transport and drive applications.
• Worm shafts, worm wheels and worm segments. Worm pairs for right-angle reducers, including bronze-rimmed worm wheels on steel hubs and bronze worm segments for limited-travel drives.
• Gear racks and rack-and-pinion sets. Straight and helical racks cut to length, supplied with the matching pinion.

Internal ring gears and bevel pairs are quoted per drawing after an engineering review. Send the print and we will tell you what we can cut in-house and what needs a dedicated process, before you commit to anything.

Gear Manufacturing Capability: Size, Module and Accuracy

The 2000 mm figure is the real constraint, not a marketing number. Large wheels are turned on our heavy lathes with the lifting and handling equipment already in place for 16 m shafts, which is what makes a two-metre gear a normal job here rather than a special project.

Gears for Industrial Reducers and Gearboxes

A reducer gear is judged by the drive it sits in. These are the sectors our gearing goes into.

Mining and Metallurgy: Crusher, Mill and Conveyor Drives

Crusher and mill drives punch shock loads straight into the tooth root. That is a case-hardening problem before it is a machining problem: a hard, wear-resistant case over a tough core, with a generous root fillet and no grinding burn. We also machine crusher components and mill parts outside the gearbox, so a drive rebuild can be sourced as one package.

Lifting and Material Handling: Crane and Hoist Gearboxes

Hoist and slewing gearboxes run intermittently, under high torque, often outdoors, and they must hold their load without argument. Gears for lifting equipment get full documentation: hardness on the case and in the core, gear geometry to ISO 1328, and material traceability to EN 10204 type 3.1.

Marine and Shipbuilding: Deck Machinery and Propulsion Drives

Winches, windlasses, cranes and capstans need gearing that tolerates salt air, cold starts and long idle periods. We already machine propeller shafts and deck-machinery components at up to 16 m length, and reducer gearing for the same equipment is cut on the same floor. Where a drive sits in a wet or wash-down position, we cut the gearing in stainless or bronze, from the same material range we already stock for marine components.

Power Generation: Hydro Turbine and Plant Auxiliary Drives

Hydro and thermal plants keep drives in service for decades, and a failed gear usually means an unplanned outage. Long-life gearing for the energy sector is a size-and-documentation problem: large wheels, verified material, and an inspection record that stays valid for the life of the asset.

Mobile, Agricultural and Construction Equipment Reducers

Travel drives, slewing reducers, PTO gearboxes and wheel-drive gearing for machines that live in mud and dust. This is the same customer base we already supply with custom hydraulic cylinders and hydraulic motors and pumps, which usually means the gear and the hydraulics on one machine can come from one supplier.

Gear Steels and Heat Treatment: Carburising, Nitriding, Quenching and Tempering

Gear material is chosen from the load case, not from habit. Typical grades for reducer gearing:

Carburised reducer gearing normally runs a case depth in the region of 1 to 3 mm with a surface hardness around 56 to 62 HRC over a core of roughly 240 to 300 HB. The exact figures come from your drawing or from the load calculation. In plain terms: the tooth surface is hard enough to resist pitting and wear, while the body underneath stays tough enough to survive shock instead of cracking.

Heat treatment happens as part of the job, not as an afterthought. Incoming material is inspected and the mill certificate is verified before a blank goes anywhere near a machine.

From Forged Blank to Finished Gear

The production route for a machined gear on our floor:

1. Material and blank. Forged or rolled blank, inspected on arrival, certificate verified against the specification.
2. Rough turning. Outside diameter, bore and faces roughed with machining stock left for the finishing passes.
3. Finish turning of the blank. Bore, faces, hub and shoulders brought to size. The bore and one datum face become the reference for everything that follows.
4. Gear cutting. Teeth cut on our gear milling machines to the tooth count, module, profile and helix angle on the drawing.
5. Heat treatment. Carburising and quench-and-temper, nitriding, or through hardening, depending on the specified route.
6. Grinding and finishing. Bore and datum faces ground back to reference after heat treatment, tooth flanks ground where the drawing calls for a ground finish, and deburring and edge preparation before inspection.
7. Final inspection and documentation. Gear geometry, dimensions, hardness and the inspection report.

Replacement Gears for Existing Gearboxes

A large share of gear enquiries arrive without a drawing, because the gearbox is twenty years old, the manufacturer no longer supports it, and the only reference is the gear that just failed.

We handle that case. Send us the worn gear, the mating wheel, or a sample, and we measure tooth count, module, pressure angle, helix angle, face width, bore and keyway on the Zeiss Contura and our gear measurement tools, then produce the manufacturing drawing and cut the replacement. Where the original failed early, we will say so and recommend a material or a case specification that lasts longer than the part you are replacing.

Gear Inspection and Quality Control: Profile, Lead, Pitch and Runout

Every gear leaves with its numbers on paper:

• Gear geometry to ISO 1328: tooth profile, lead, pitch deviation and radial runout
• Dimensional inspection on the Zeiss Contura CMM, with laser trackers and 3D scanners for parts too large for the table
• Surface hardness and core hardness recorded, with case depth verified on carburised gears
• Surface finish measured on profilometers
• Material certificate to EN 10204 type 3.1, verified at incoming inspection
• Magnetic particle inspection of tooth roots and fillets on request
• Full inspection report issued with the gear, under our ISO 9001:2015 quality system with TÜV and SGS oversight

Why Hydroforce for Reducer Gears

Turning, gear cutting, grinding, and gear metrology are coordinated under one quality system, ensuring every stage of production is carefully managed from start to finish. The team manufacturing your gear works from the same approved drawing, using established processes and consistent quality controls to deliver accurate, repeatable results.

For a single replacement gear, this means realistic lead times and clear communication throughout the process. For repeat production, it means consistent quality from the first component to the last. Whether you need a one-off gear or a production batch, we are happy to provide a quotation.

Request a Quotation for Custom Gears

Need a gear for an industrial reducer, a gearbox rebuild, or a full drive set?

Send your drawing to office@hydroforce.ee, or reach us through our contact page. No drawing? Send photos of the worn gear and its main dimensions and we will work from the part itself.

We will confirm what we can cut, recommend the material and heat-treatment route, and quote the gear with its inspection documentation included.