Drive Gear Reverse Engineering for a Serbian Facility
Reverse Engineering and Manufacturing of a Drive Gear for an Industrial Facility in Serbia
At the end of 2024, our company received an urgent request from a service contractor in Serbia. A critical failure had occurred on an industrial production line due to severe wear of the drive gear in the gearbox assembly of a rotating drum. The equipment had been manufactured in the late 1970s by a European OEM that had long since discontinued this product line. Original spare parts were no longer available, and the delivery time for alternative replacements exceeded several months.
The customer provided our engineering team with the worn gear, an archived paper drawing, and a partial gearbox specification, requesting a complete reverse engineering process and the manufacture of a replacement component within the shortest possible timeframe.
Inspection and Assessment
Our engineering team visited the site to inspect the assembly, verify shaft mounting dimensions, measure the center distance, examine the mating gear, and analyze the wear pattern. The original gear was also digitized using a Creaform optical 3D scanning system to accurately restore its actual geometry. The inspection revealed that the gear had undergone multiple repairs, several teeth had been locally rebuilt by welding, and the tooth profile no longer matched the archived drawing.
Reverse Engineering and Manufacturing
Based on the 3D scanning data, our engineering department developed a precise digital CAD model, reconstructed the involute tooth profile, recalculated the gear mesh parameters, and prepared a complete set of updated engineering documentation. Although the archived specifications indicated a module of m=20, 19 teeth, and a 20° pressure angle, the actual geometry required adjustments to several design parameters.
The new gear was manufactured in-house from alloy structural steel selected for heavy-duty operation and high impact loads. The manufacturing process included CNC turning, gear cutting, heat treatment, precision finishing, dimensional inspection, and hardness testing of the working surfaces.
Result
The customer received a fully restored drive gear together with updated engineering documentation and a complete 3D CAD model for future maintenance. After installation, the production line was successfully returned to operation without any modifications to the gearbox or replacement of the mating components, eliminating extended downtime and significantly reducing costs compared to replacing the entire drive assembly.
