Gear Hobbing & Shaping

Hobbing is regularly used to produce spur, helical, and worm gears—as well as splines—in materials ranging from carbon steel, stainless steel, and nonferrous metals. The versatility and simplicity of hobbing makes it an efficient and economical method of cutting gears and splines, compared to other gear forming processes. But it can still be quite accurate. Gear hobbing can be a finish operation where tolerances allow, and is also used as a preliminary operation for high accuracy finishing processes.

Systrand offers both dry and wet hobbing, and can provide cut or rolled chamfers. These can be processed in parallel to the hob cutting operation to save on cycle time and improve equipment efficiency.

Gear shaping is often used to cut spur or helical gears and splines where part geometry would not allow hobbing to be performed. We offer the full range of gear shaping processes, as well as the in-house expertise to meet your design requirements without any tradeoffs in quality, capability, or timing.

Systrand has 40+ years of precision machining experience. We’ve been supplying the auto industry with high-volume, high-precision gears since 2011. We’ve lived and breathed the NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) standards and requirements. We were among the first U.S. manufacturers to supply high-precision hybrid and electric (HEV/EV) gears. Today, we have millions of hybrid and electric vehicle gears in the field.

More importantly, we have the tools and processes in place to help you find the best manufacturing process for your gears. Our production and design teams benefit from the latest CAD/CAM software; 3D modeling; modern, flexible, and scalable CNC-based and manual machines; and performance-accelerating Zeiss coordinate-measuring machines (CMMs). In production, we can include an advanced 100% noise signature analysis on critical components, capable of isolating ghost order noise and other extremely subtle sources of unwanted vibration.

“Quality” isn’t just something for the Quality Department to worry about. It’s a commitment threaded through every office and workstation. At Systrand, we are a tier 1 supplier with IATF 16949 and ISO 14001 certifications. Our quality systems, processes, and entire organization are committed to ensuring quality for our customers.

Over four decades, we’ve invested and reinvested in the tools and talent that are vital to our customers’ success. That includes a world class operating system of monitored performance and a structured approach to problem solving proven to ensure reliable manufacturing.

These are metrics/results driven systems, built on Lean Manufacturing principles and Six Sigma methodology, and take into account activity-based costing and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) while maintaining low- to zero PPM. Those systems form a foundation from which we can pursue continuous improvements and cost savings for our customers.