Anders Flodin is manager for application development at Höganäs AB Sweden. His background is in mechanical engineering, having received his PhD in 2000 on the topic of simulation of wear on gear flanks. Since 2000 Flodin has worked on various gear-related assignments in the
fields of aerospace, ship propulsion and automotive drivelines.
Powder metal (PM) gears normally sell due to the lower cost and their relatively high mechanical performance. The reason behind the lower cost is that most of the machining is omitted due to the net-shape forming process. So how net-shape are powder metal gears? In this article some hard-to-find information about the tolerances through the manufacturing steps will be presented.