The Kleiss Difference is in the Tooling

Your custom mold is cut for precision and made for longevity

Producing perfect polymer gears begins with precise tooling of the mold. For polymer gears, tooling is a critical step in the process of turning a great design into precise repeatable gears.


Kleiss Gears cavities are cut by Electric Discharge Machining (EDM). This ensures that the mold cavities are precise and are capable of handling the high temperatures that engineering polymers require for repeatable success. Because each cavity in a mold will form thousands or even millions of gears, complete attention is applied to its accurate development.

Characteristics of Precise Tooling

With years of experience molding gears, we have developed a thorough knowledge of the requirements
for precision tooling. Our tooling sets us apart from the competition with:

A three plate tool

Three Plate Construction:
Three plate tools allow your gear to be gated in the interior region of its body. Proper gating ensures that gear teeth are a significant step away from the turbulent region of injected plastic flow.

Shrinkage Compensation:
One of the most important aspects of creating tools for molding polymer gears is understanding how the finished gear will shrink in the mold as the material cools. Shrinkage affects the various features of the gears differently - understanding how materials shrink and how to precisely correct for it is integral to consistently produce perfect gears.

Removable Gear Rings and Components:
Since estimating the shrinkage is such an important aspect of injection-molding polymer gears, the gear cavity is replaceable to allow for cost efficient changes when re-cutting the insert to compensate for shrinkage.

High Temperature Capability:
Tooling is designed so that melt temperatures and pressures are uniform and circular about the axis of the gear resulting in better molded part dimensional stability.

Accuracy and Repeatability:
At Kleiss Gears, our molds ensure repeatability of the resulting gears with tolerances of 0.0254 mm (0.001 of an inch). Your three plate tools are accurate to 2 microns.

Perfect tooling produces perfect gears

Iteration Method:
This process includes mathematically calculating the shape of the gear cavity, molding the gear, measuring both, then recalculating and remanufacturing. The first sampling achieves optimal process; the second sample achieves the properly sized nominal part.

Tool Coordinator Ken Ruhn inspects a new gear

Total Portability of Your Project

At Kleiss Gears you own your mold and designs. While our molding quality is superior, if your business plan requires that you manufacture the gears elsewhere, we will help facilitate your move to another manufacturer anywhere in the world.

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