Gear Bunk Service Life Improvement in Oil Quenching Process

By the most important supply of issue for heat treaters is distortion of component once heat treatment. Distortion causes excessive noise within the gear drive train, and potentially early failure due to high residual stresses. It also contributes to high grinding costs. However, the supply of distortion and residual stresses are not limited to either the Martensite Start Temperature, the oil used, or the alloy content. There are variety sources of residual stresses, and not all of them are heat-treating related. Gear bunk used for planetary gear hot oil quenching process is failing prior to the expected life after nearly 100 working cycles. As we know that oil quenching is an important procedure performed in gear manufacturing. It is necessary to maintain the exact dimensions or gears even after the quenching process. Size and dimensions of gear bunk is crucial in the process. This project is limited to Improve or enhance the life of gear bunk used in oil quenching process in gear manufacturing. The study of existing quenching process is included in the project. The project will involve building the CAD models of existing design, performing FEA analysis for stress development in gear bunk, modifying the design of gear bunk using CAD and FEA techniques and improving quenching process cycle. The main motive of this project is to improve or enhance life of gear bunk under repeated oil quenching with high stresses process.