Re: low range gears
Posted: 19 Sep 2017 22:10
40 % of my business is the manufacture of gears for various industries.
The biggest obstacle to manufacturing the reduction box gear sets would be batch quantity.
Again one would want an agreement on a specific reduction percentage that would suit everybody, in the hope to obtain some economies of scale.
Further, its not a matter of just cutting the gears, as the tooth profile would have to be ground to eliminate backlash and to ensure silent operation as well as longevity.
There would be a couple of processes involved before final product, starting with correct material selection as well as specific heat treatment process.
Ideally I would want to do a spectrograph analysis of the material used to establish if an equivalent alloy is readily available.
My suspicion is that is would be superior to OEM transfer box gears due to higher torque loading.
Finally, the best possible route would be to have the complete set and reverse engineer it, a fancy term for copying.
Further, having looked at the assembly, I would be able to offer the rebuild of the transfer case including the relevant machining required for a professional conversion.
In looking at what is involved I guestimate around R 15 to R 20000.00 excluding the building of the box.
The building/assembly and testing of the box including machining of the casing would probably add another R 5000.00
Any incorrect meshing of the gears will result in premature failure.
My gut feel would be around 10 units to make it around pricing indicated.
5 units would probably push the pricing up to around R 25000.00
If someone is able to lay their hands on a set of the actual reduction gears I would be able to do a proper analysis and costing.
The above however is probably pretty close to upper range as to what it would end up being.
Timing would be around 6 weeks to manufacture, however would suggest a proto-type is made first for testing.
If one were to make 20 to 30 sets the pricing would probably halve.
Marks 4wd would specifically cost their products at a point which discourages one from going down the line of manufacturing your own, whilst still making a reasonable profit. Our exchange rate however provides a bit of room to look at it.
In all honesty though one would need at least five sets to make it worth while to investigate.
The biggest obstacle to manufacturing the reduction box gear sets would be batch quantity.
Again one would want an agreement on a specific reduction percentage that would suit everybody, in the hope to obtain some economies of scale.
Further, its not a matter of just cutting the gears, as the tooth profile would have to be ground to eliminate backlash and to ensure silent operation as well as longevity.
There would be a couple of processes involved before final product, starting with correct material selection as well as specific heat treatment process.
Ideally I would want to do a spectrograph analysis of the material used to establish if an equivalent alloy is readily available.
My suspicion is that is would be superior to OEM transfer box gears due to higher torque loading.
Finally, the best possible route would be to have the complete set and reverse engineer it, a fancy term for copying.
Further, having looked at the assembly, I would be able to offer the rebuild of the transfer case including the relevant machining required for a professional conversion.
In looking at what is involved I guestimate around R 15 to R 20000.00 excluding the building of the box.
The building/assembly and testing of the box including machining of the casing would probably add another R 5000.00
Any incorrect meshing of the gears will result in premature failure.
My gut feel would be around 10 units to make it around pricing indicated.
5 units would probably push the pricing up to around R 25000.00
If someone is able to lay their hands on a set of the actual reduction gears I would be able to do a proper analysis and costing.
The above however is probably pretty close to upper range as to what it would end up being.
Timing would be around 6 weeks to manufacture, however would suggest a proto-type is made first for testing.
If one were to make 20 to 30 sets the pricing would probably halve.
Marks 4wd would specifically cost their products at a point which discourages one from going down the line of manufacturing your own, whilst still making a reasonable profit. Our exchange rate however provides a bit of room to look at it.
In all honesty though one would need at least five sets to make it worth while to investigate.