Plastic gears can offer many advantages over metal ones. They are quieter, weigh less, have lower inertia, cost less and are more resistant in corrosive environments. With today’s stronger engineering polymers and advances in molding processes, the use of plastic gears has expanded from low power transmission applications into higher demanding ones. You can find plastic gears in diverse uses like laser printers, gear pumps, appliances, toys and many specialized areas, like automotives and military applications.
Gears are toothed devices, used in conjunction with another gear and component to transmit motion. By meshing two gears of different sizes, you can produce a variation in both speed and torque between the shafts. There are many types of gears, but spur, worm and helical are the most common ones. For plastic gears, some important specifications to consider are number of teeth, teeth ratio, pitch diameter, pressure angle, shaft length/diameter and power transmission requirements. Other parameters to review before you buy plastic gears are:
1. Get plastic gears online from suppliers that carry an extensive selection of different types and sizes.
2. Locate manufacturing services that custom design and fabricate gears to customer specifications.
3. Consider plastic hobby gears for your customer needs.
Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done
Find out where to buy plastic gears
Many times, you need a variety of gear types for your business. Whether looking for one specific plastic worm gear, metric plastic gears or for many small plastics gears, the best solution is to shop from suppliers that offer a good assortment in different sizes, diameter and types and who can provide technical assistance.
I recommend: Find metric plastic spur gears and worm gears and many other types of gears at
Quality Transmission Component. The company offers spur gears in sizes from module one to ten in nylon and acetal; worm gears are also available in nylon. You can place orders online as well as see the huge catalog with a technical reference section. Go to
Rush Gears Inc. for a vast selection of nylon plastic gears (worm, spur and others) in metric and inch sizes. You can get quotes, technical information and use engineering calculators.
MSC Industrial Supply Co. also carries an extensive selection of plastic spur gears. For small plastic gears, go to
W.M. Berg, where you can select small spur gears in molded acetal and other materials.
Get precision plastic gears from an experienced design team
Custom plastic gear design is an area of special expertise that requires a team capable of meeting and exceeding your design expectations. For complicated gear design applications, you need a company that can offer a wide range of services from design, tooling, molding and more.
I recommend: ABA-PGT Inc. manufactures precision plastic gears and provides complete gear train design, mesh analysis and more.
Performance Gear Systems, Inc. also manufactures and provides design and analysis services for your application needs. For complete information on custom gear design solutions, contact
Kleiss Gear Inc. They also provide examples of specific molded gear designs as well as technical articles.
Purchase plastic gears hobby supplies for your store
Toys, robots, science fair projects and many hobby projects need the use of plastic gears. If you run a hobby store, stocking up and having a good supply of gears on hand will ensure that your customers keep coming back for their hobby needs.
I recommend: Go to
American Science & Surplus for spur, bevel and combination gear sets and repair kits.
Edmund Scientific carries packages of gears in assorted sizes and colors.
A Main Hobbies and The
PRObelay Group also carry plastic gears for many hobby needs.
Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide
- For metric plastic gears, the term module denotes the center-to-center distance between successive teeth.
The official source of Plastic Gears is the Plastic Gears page at Business.com
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