The Timken Company has announced the opening of a new 27,000 sq. ft. gear drive manufacturing facility in Houston, Texas.
The new state-of-the-art facility will feature new 5-axis machines that employ gear milling technology rather than the traditional hobbing process.
The new machines can perform up to six different operations used to produce helical gears, shafts and pinions. The new 5-axis machines are considered to have the potential to reduce the OE production cycle by weeks.
"The gear milling process … can reduce pure machine time of a standard-sized gear from 110 hours to 25 hours," said Boyd Swearingen, general manager of the new facility, as well as Timken Power Systems' business in the Gulf Coast, Latin American and Middle East regions.
Milled gear teeth are finish ground on a traditional Hofler form grinder. Before shipment, each gearbox is subjected to a full-speed no-load test to measure sound levels, temperatures and vibration.
"The new facility will be able to supply customers in the power generation, oil and gas, refining and pumping industries with reliable, high-speed gearboxes to keep their pumps, compressors and generators running in some of the most challenging operating environments in the world,” said Carl Rapp, vice president of Timken Power Systems.
“While low oil prices represent a near-term challenge to the industry, we expect sales for our new high-speed gear drives to continue to grow over the coming years."
The new facility is hoped to supply customers in the power generation, oil and gas, refining and pumping industries.
Food for thought: 5-axis machinery is capable of far more than simply creating gears and pistons in record pace. Deishin Seiki has famously used the technology to create a motorcycle helmet from a solid block of aluminum.