Gibbs guru

[gxxr]

Need someone who can do involute splines in Gibbs, been waiting a couple of months for someone to draw and cut out these clutch plates, project is at the stage where this is the major hold-up.

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/7816/002xo.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/405/002xo.jpg/)

Any takers?

[gerry]

What material are they made from?
is a lasercut finish good enough?

[gxxr]

Dunno material, according to the guy in Qld who appears to be the only one who can provide these obsolete plates, < special > and wants to charge accordingly.

There's a couple of NATA labs around who could probably do an analysis, but I'm thinking, spring steel. I've got some .028 4130, which is a touch under or can get .032 and grind to size, which I'm hoping will be good enough.

The intention is to laser. Dilemma is the drawing - and it's such a pissy resulting job for effort expended - the guy I'm using is under the pump with backlogs now, so if I can just hand him a file, 99% of the battle is complete.

Have heard there's potentially places that scan and then laser, cutting out the hard part....possibly not in the metalworking arena though.

[neet_wagon]

We have a robotic arm that works in conjunction with our CNC. Stick something in front of it and it will plot all the important points of the part, and upload it to a file on the computer that the CNC can use, and you can edit in Solidworks/etc.

I figure there'd have to be a patternshop, or similar in Sydney that could help you.

[gerry]

http://www.ronsongears.com.au/background.php

these guys have a cnc measuring machine.It would be more accurate than a scanner I would imagine.

[gerry]

http://www.harrop.com.au/capabilities.php

harrop seem to have a good turnaround and also understand automotive stuff

[gxxr]

Hmmm, always seems to be in Melbourne!

Hadn't considered those possibilities, expecting something time consuming measuring with pins.

Know of a few people in the gear cutting game who might have a suggestion locally, pretty sure their resources wouldn't stretch to CMM themselves, judging by their buildings, as I've only seen it at big operations.....usually at closing down auctions.

Cheers lads!

[gerry]

http://www.broens.com.au/broens_nf.html

these guys are in sydney.

An overnight bag will solve the melbourne problem.Harrop did some wicked turn around when we were setting up thier callipers last year.

[Buco_73]

I'm in Sydney, have a FARO CMM (accuracy +/- 0.025mm). Can CAD it up for you. With laser cutting you need to tell them you want a clean precise cut not a fast cut. For precision laser I use mastercut.com.au in QLD.

[gxxr]

Turns out, he's using a different package again for the laser - metalix, rather than VG used for the machining, so no idea about the compatibilities. Been promised it will be done one night this week, but have my doubts.

Buco, are you in the north west by chance? If it doesn't happen this week, might call on your services, the previous laser guy had the ability to use multiple CAD packages and might be the better option after all this.

[gmh265]

Laser works with very basic formats, such as .dxf, so pretty much any package should be able to do the job.

if you have any compatibility issues shoot me a PM..

[Momus]

You want involute splines but are going to laser cut the part?

Just draw the part, and dimension the splines and have them cut as a straight serration.

Rattling around on an old clutch hub they will work satisfactorily. I've done this for LSD plates which are much more highly loaded.

If you want to do them OE style, you will probably find that the internal gear form is 'Module', and was stamped anyway.
There is a gear cutter in Thomastown, Melbourne, Gear Design Service, who would do this work by generating the form, giving a high AGMA finish, but why do you need it really?

[gxxr]

Probably hoping for too much, yes!

Did think of wire cut, but based on past costs, that's a fair whack out of the ballpark. Do have a press as well that would be useful, if there was more than 50 odd drive and driven plates to justify the tooling.

Have found a solidworks drawing for a similar but different plate at any rate, the spline detail is another guy's best guess, will see if it can be manipulated.