In the precision rack and pinion market, Grade 6 or Q6 rack and pinion is the most common, but what exactly does this quality say?
In practice, this appears to differ per supplier. The only thing that all suppliers have in common is the length deviation per meter! For example, if you order a quality 6 rack, you do not know which thermal treatment and therefore hardness you will receive. Because the hardness is a measure of the feed force, this information is often even more important than the accuracy. Apex Dynamics rack and pinion gears in grade 6 are available in different versions, we will discuss them in this article.
If you want to know all the specifications you will find this in our catalogThe first 12 pages consist of technical specifications such as straightness, squareness, parallelism, hardening depth, symmetry, helix angle or pressure angle deviation, surface roughness and the demagnetization specifications.
Apex Dynamics has defined quality class 6 as pitch deviation per tooth < 8 um; Total pitch deviation < 34 um/m and a Helix angle deviation < 10 um. Our colleagues in the market sometimes use terms for the total pitch deviation such as < 15 um/300 mm or “Position Accuracy : 1”. A good basis to make it difficult to compare the racks with each other!
Apex Dynamics has several options with rack and pinion, read all about it here….