Manufacturing Considerations Related to Aircraft Gearboxes,

The technology used in aircraft gearbox manufacturing, covers a whole gamut of methods, types of machining and chemical processing. While an aircraft gearbox manufacturer must aggressively ensure efficient productivity, his efforts are frequently negated by the requirements of the designer. As aircraft gear systems are required to transmit more power at greater speeds, the trend is to provide this performance with a minimum of increase in size and weight. This necessitates better dynamic capability, resulting from improvements in metallurgy, manufacturing equipment, techniques, and metrology since these improvements can be costly, it is encumbent on the designer to carefully consider his designs in terms of producibility. This can best be done in close liaison with the manufacturing engineer.