Sustainability-Conscious Powder Metallurgy Gear Manufacturing: an analysis of current manufacturing challenges

This paper aims at mapping the challenges of the state of the art of conventional and powder metallurgy (PM) gear manufacture in order to provide knowledge on what parameters need to be considered when modelling the cost and benefit analysis relating to sustainability. An exploratory case study was designed where a series of interviews aimed to identify the complete set of operational steps for both conventional and powder manufacturing of gears in depth, as well as challenges experienced by practitioners aligned to both manufacturing principles. The interview results identified three technical and four non-technical barriers to adoption of PM manufacturing technology for gears. Some of the existing strategies and solutions to the identified hurdles are presented. A gap is identified in the existing strategies and some suggestions in order to tackle the challenges and bridge the gap are put forward. (Less)