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Automotive industryBranched internal channelsCross-drilled hole intersectionsBurr in the internal channelCleanliness requirementSeries production

The burr sits in the internal channel of the gearbox housing — where no mechanical tool can reach.

Cleaning gearbox housings and gearbox components

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1 · The challenge

Why gearbox housings are difficult to clean and to deburr

Gearbox housings are among the components we encounter most often — in both core areas.

Gearbox housings are internally branched and predominantly made of aluminum or aluminum die casting. In drilling, milling and thread cutting, the burrs form exactly where no mechanical tool can reach: in internal channels and at cross-drilled hole intersections.

What is at stake on the gearbox housing is not the appearance. A burr that comes loose in operation travels with the oil through the housing. That is why the deburring requirement for gearbox housings is regularly a cleanliness requirement — and is inspected as one.

In deburring, it is added that gearbox housings have many bores and many bore intersections and that the parts are heavy. Deburred by hand, every result is a different one — what works on a test part does not carry a production run.

Besides the housing, gearbox components and gears run through the same production, and on them the task presents itself differently: many parts of the same kind, and the contamination sits between the teeth. Guided through the system one at a time, no cycle carries the required number.

2 · Engineering considerations

What we base the system design on

Seven of the sixteen factors in the selection framework are the governing ones for the gearbox housing. They are considered together, not ticked off one after another — and none of them decides on its own.
  • 01

    Part geometry

    Gearbox housings are predominantly made of aluminum or aluminum die casting — a material that machines easily and breaks away in a ductile manner. Geometry, size and material come at the beginning of the system design; with gearbox components, whether an individual part is processed or a batch is added.
  • 02

    Internal geometry

    Internal channels and bore intersections decide the method on the gearbox housing: spraying creates a spray shadow, not every surface can be reached. The more complex the geometry, the sooner immersion and flooding come into question instead of spraying.
  • 03

    Workpiece fixture

    The parts carrier helps determine where spray shadow arises on the gearbox housing and whether the nozzles reach the component. For gearbox components in the cleaning basket, the same applies one level up: if parts lie unfavorably on top of each other, the same unreachable zones arise — only not through the geometry of the component, but through the position in the batch.
  • 04

    Residual contamination requirement

    What has to be verified on the gearbox housing stands at the beginning of the system design, not at its end — and here the deburring requirement is regularly a cleanliness requirement. The required residual contamination values act on the method, the filtration, the drying and the workpiece fixture at the same time.
  • 05

    Deburring requirement

    Whether the gearbox housing additionally has to be deburred is decided in the same technical clarification: where a burr is involved as well, water jet deburring is usually the better solution. A burr in an internal channel lies where no tool reaches mechanically.
  • 06

    Production volume

    Whether the task on the gearbox housing becomes a chamber or a continuous cleaning system is decided by the production volume — not by the component. Small to medium production volumes speak rather for a chamber cleaning system, high production volumes rather for a continuous cleaning system.
  • 07

    Cycle time

    It is the order of magnitude that decides, not the number of seconds: if several minutes per cycle are permissible on the gearbox housing, the chamber cleaning system comes into question; if production demands cycles in the order of seconds, rather the continuous cleaning system. If gearbox components are guided through the system one at a time, no cycle carries the required number — then the batch becomes the unit.
All sixteen factors at a glance

3 · The system concepts

Which system concepts and methods come into question

None of them follows from the component alone. What is shown here is the solution space — which concept it becomes arises from the factors above.

Chamber cleaning systems

ZK

For gearbox housings, the chamber cleaning system can make sense when changing, also more complex workpieces run in batches and several minutes per cycle are permissible. Gearbox housings are among the typical workpieces of this machine type.

Chamber cleaning systems

Continuous cleaning systems

ZD

If the production volume rises and production demands a continuous flow in the line, the continuous cleaning system comes into question for gearbox housings — the same component, another viable concept.

Continuous cleaning systems

Rotary indexing cleaning systems

If it is not the cleaning performance that is the bottleneck on the gearbox housing, but loading and unloading, the rotary indexing cleaning system can make sense: the process runs in fixed stations, loading and unloading take place at a single position. That presupposes a defined production process with a constant process sequence.

Rotary indexing cleaning systems

Basket cleaning

If gearbox components and gears run as a batch instead of one at a time, basket cleaning can make sense: the parts lie in the cleaning basket, the basket passes through the process stages. The basket is not a means of transport, but part of the process.

Basket cleaning

Water jet deburring

If the burr on the gearbox housing sits in an internal channel or at a cross-drilled hole intersection, water jet deburring comes into question: the water jet needs no path for a tool, only one for the process medium.

Water jet deburring

The principle

Why several solutions are possible for the gearbox housing

None of these assignments is a rule. Whether the task becomes a chamber or a continuous cleaning system is decided by the production volume — not by the component. Depending on production volume, cycle time, residual contamination requirement and material flow, the same gearbox housing can be better placed in a different system; there is no rule “component X, machine Y”. What you see here is the consideration, not its result.

4 · What else to consider

What else has to be clarified for the gearbox housing beyond cleaning

Three points that help determine the system design, although none of them concerns the cleaning itself.
  • 01

    Deburring and cleaning are one task here

    The deburring requirement for a gearbox housing is regularly a cleanliness requirement, and it is inspected as one. That is why we consider both together and not as two stations one after the other.
  • 02

    In deburring, reproducibility counts, not speed

    When deburring the gearbox housing, reproducibility is the actual argument: a programmed sequence delivers the same result on part one thousand as on part one. Whether this becomes a robot with the component, a robot with the nozzle or a stationary deburring machine is then decided by the cycle.
  • 03

    What governs is the component, not the branch of industry

    We encounter gearbox housings in parts cleaning as in water jet deburring, regardless of where they are installed later. What is decisive is not the industry, but what the component looks like inside.

Questions and answers

Frequently asked questions about the gearbox housing

Why are gearbox housings hard to deburr?

Gearbox housings are internally branched and predominantly made of aluminum or aluminum die casting. In drilling, milling and thread cutting, the burrs form exactly where no mechanical tool can reach: in internal channels and at cross-drilled hole intersections.

Why is the deburring requirement a cleanliness question here?

What is at stake on the gearbox housing is not the appearance. A burr that comes loose in operation travels with the oil through the housing. That is why the deburring requirement for gearbox housings is regularly a cleanliness requirement — and is inspected as one. We consider both together and not as two stations one after the other.

Which system comes into question for gearbox housings?

Whether the task becomes a chamber or a continuous cleaning system is decided by the production volume — not by the component. Depending on production volume, cycle time, residual contamination requirement and material flow, the same gearbox housing can be better placed in a different system; there is no rule “component X, machine Y”.

Why are gears treated differently from the housing?

On gearbox components and gears, the task presents itself differently: many parts of the same kind, and the contamination sits between the teeth. Guided through the system one at a time, no cycle carries the required number. In the cleaning basket, the same then applies one level up as with the housing: if parts lie unfavorably on top of each other, the same unreachable zones arise — only not through the geometry of the component, but through the position in the batch.

Does it matter in which industry the gearbox runs?

We encounter gearbox housings in parts cleaning as in water jet deburring, regardless of where they are installed later. What is decisive is not the industry, but what the component looks like inside.

Direct contact

AddressITR GmbH powered by Zippel
Hauptstraße 31
93186 Pettendorf
Pettendorf bei Regensburg
Phone+49 (0) 9409-777 3598
Fax +49 (0) 9409-777 3607
Emailinfo@itr-anlagenbau.com

Technically responsible for this page: Günther Zippel — International Sales & Technical Consulting