The Kleiss Difference is in the Prototyping

Timely and cost-effective prototypes to prove your design

Although all projects are different, prototyping is frequently necessary during product development to prove your design. Whether you need a rough prototype to evaluate the performance of specific features of your gear set, or require an injection-molded prototype for a more precise representation of the final product, Kleiss Gears guides you through the prototyping process.

Depending upon your timeline and budget, Kleiss Gears helps you determine the best method for prototyping your gears. We currently offer two methods for prototyping gears - injection-molded prototypes and cut prototypes.

 

Cut Prototypes

Cut prototypes are appropriate when you require a small quantity of the prototypes for testing as part of product development. Typically, we focus on a few specific features when cutting the prototypes to demonstrate the effectiveness of specific design requirements. Cut prototypes are typically less precise than injection-molded prototypes.

 

Injection-Molded Prototypes

Injection-molded prototypes start with prototype tooling. We typically use the same tool steel and removable gear rings and components for our prototype molds as we do for our production tooling - the difference is in the design of the base for the mold. The resulting prototype mold produces parts that are very close to full production quality and are quieter and more precise than cut prototypes.

The prototype molds are capable of molding 10,000-50,000 parts depending upon the part size, features and type of material. Many of our customers are able to begin production with their prototype mold, saving time and money when moving from prototyping to full production.

 

 

Prototyping Success

At Kleiss Gears, we were confident of our design and the chosen material (unfilled nylon 6/6) for this prototype gear for one of our customers in the automotive industry. It had the strength for the intended application, but we weren’t sure how it would wear and perform at very high and low temperatures.

Before investing in tooling, we hob-cut a few samples without concern for coring or any other features, since we were only interested in wear and survivability at temperature extremes. The pictured gears survived continuous loading for 2 million cycles at 260° F and 1 million cycles at room temperature with less than 30% wear on the cut pinion and virtually no wear on the gear. This provided an invaluable insight into the suitability of this material for the intended function.

 

 

 

Kleiss Gears, Inc., 390 Industrial Avenue, Grantsburg, Wisconsin 54840
715-463-5995
Please email sales@KleissGears.com with any inquiries.