Michael Burnett, a technologist at the Timken Steel corporation, earned a Bachelor’s degree from Purdue University and a Master’s degree from the Colorado School of Mines — both in
Metallurgical Engineering before joining the company 35 years ago. He has since worked
primarily in a technical capacity developing and implementing advanced engineered steels and technologies for crankshafts, gears, bearings and other demanding applications, with an emphasis on improving both the manufacturing and performance characteristics.
Broaching is a machining technique commonly used to cut gear teeth or cam profiles for the high volume manufacture of power transmission parts used in vehicles (Refs. 1–2). This article shows how the right gear blank material can make all the difference if you want to get more parts out of each tool.