• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.283-289
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• 2010

Extrusion process in the bulk material for fabrication of miniature helical gears has problems such as a high forming load and short tool life because the cross-section is complex and asymmetry. To overcome these problems, in this study, miniature helical gears were fabricated by Zn-22Al powder hot extrusion. The included die angle for minimum extrusion load and improving die filling was determined by FE-simulation. The Zn-22Al spheroidal powder produced by gasatomization were compacted and sintered for extrusion experiment. The dimension of helical-gear is 0.3mm in module, 3.35mm in pitch diameter, $15^{\circ}$ in helix angle and the number of teeth is 12. All of the extrusion experiments were performed with internal helical gear die which was machined by precision electric discharge machining using the electrode. The experiment was conducted at $190^{\circ}C$ to $310^{\circ}C$ to obtain extrusive and mechanical properties. The extruded helical gears were analyzed through extrusion load, Vickers hardness and SEM images for each extrusion temperature. The powder hot extrusion process was successfully applied to fabricate a miniature helical gear.