Review of recent developments in manufacturing lightweight multi-metal gears

This paper provides a review of recent developments in the manufacturing of lightweight multi-metal components, and in particular gears. The literature has shown that significant efforts have been made in manufacturing light gears and numerous technical challenges exist when designing for and manufacturing with dissimilar metals including challenges in heating technologies, mechanical performance, processing parameters, metal compatibility and the interface layer between adjacent materials, as well as difficulties in multi-metal simulations. Whilst the scope of multi-metal manufacturing is vast, the main concentration of this study is on the main stages of multi-metal gear production, and specifically on preform production, multi-metal heating, intermetallic bonding, and modelling of essential forming parameters. The effects of each of these methods as well as the numerous approaches studied in the literature are presented, with a recommendation being made as to a processing route that may lead to a robust multi-metal gear with minimal production line modifications to conventional steel gears.