Our Custom Gear Manufacturing Capabilities

Crown Hobbing

Forest City Gear has pioneered fine pitch crown hobbing, a unique technology we apply to fine pitch gearing. This process produces a barrel shape on the flank of the gear tooth that compensates for misalignment and reduces noise. This application is especially advantageous with high-speed spur and helical pinions.

Carbide Re-hobbing (commonly referred to as skiving)

Forest City Gear’s carbide re-hobbing process allows us to produce the highest quality gears at a lower cost than grinding. Carbide re-hobbing eliminates distortion caused by heat treating, allowing us to achieve gear quality of AGMA 9 or better. Gears that have been distorted or enlarged during heat treatment can be salvaged with this process.

Analytical Gear Inspection

Forest City Gear’s state-of-the-art analytical inspection equipment shows our commitment to quality. This equipment is capable of checking pitch, runout, lead, and profile error to ten millionths of an inch on spur, helical, worm and worm gears as well as on hobs and shaper cutters. We have performed analytical inspection on gears as fine as 96 diametrical pitch and with diameters up to 35 inches.

Hob Sharpening

Forest City Gear realizes the accuracy of a gear’s profile is determined by the quality of the hob being used to generate the teeth. Our modern hob-sharpening equipment allows us to re-sharpen hobs consistently to class AA tolerances.

Gear and Thread Grinding

Forest City Gear’s form grinder offers “Master Gear Quality” for single and multi-thread worms. This machine is capable of handling heavily modified profiles and crowned teeth to 370mm diameter and shafts to a meter in length. For spur and helical gears, we have ground master gears as fine as 80DP from solid or finished roughed gears achieving qualities as high as AGMA 14 or 15 (DiN 2-3) on some parameters, and even better occasionally.

Markets Served

  • Aerospace– Custom gear and spline manufacturing is done under the guidelines of ISO 9001:2008 and Aerospace AS 9100C utilizing the newest equipment, technology and inspection, coupled with continued education and training for all our workers. Our facility is unparalleled in the world. Our gears can be found in basic general aviation aircraft systems and support equipment throughout piston powered aircraft to turbine level commercial planes and the newest military jets. Whenever extreme accuracy is required, such as for the main fuel control, engine oil pumps and weapons targeting pod in the latest fighter jets, the gear world turns to FCG for our renowned reliability and consistency. Even our competitors know where to turn when they struggle.
  • Transportation & Racing– Whether it be locomotives, diesel fuel pumps for trucks, fly wheels, racing motorcycles, Nascar or Indy racing vehicles, brush hogs, or special accuracy rack and pinion mechanical and electrical steering drives – they roll better and faster with Forest City Gear teeth in the end product. By controlling involutes and index variation, FCG minimizes transmission errors like no other gear shop can, and maximizes your strength and staying power for those extra laps!
  • Medical & Dental– With our ISO 13485:2003 certificate in hand, we are one of the U.S. gear companies registered for medical gear work. When a patient enters a hospital or a clinic for diagnosis and treatment, they expect accurate diagnosis completed expediently and quietly to soothe their anxiety. Part of the recipe for this conclusion is the super accurate gears manufactured with uncompromising care and attention. You will find Forest City Gear products in blood pumps, kidney dialysis equipment, X-Ray and CAT scan machines, as well as artificial elbows.
  • Military & Defense– Defenders of American Liberty deserve the most accurate and reliable weaponry available to any fighting force. You will find our gears in the laser beam sighting mechanism for the A1A Abrams tank and in the latest military Howitzers. Our soldiers, sailors and pilots must succeed in neutralizing the enemy without error. It is our objective to provide excellent gears for missile guidance systems, the control instruments and other sophisticated devices that aid in ensuring our freedom.
  • Recreational– Whatever recreational equipment you produce – if it needs high quality gears, Forest City Gear can help. From paintball equipment to fishing…our gears will not interrupt your customer’s pastime. One of the most demanding products for which we deliver gears are bait casting reels. In the sensitive hands of expert bass fisherman, compromised quality is detectable. We simply won’t do that at Forest City Gear.

When it comes to fine and medium pitch custom gears, the world comes to Forest City Gear for the best. 

A Statement from the CEO

Applying an ever-expanding base of knowledge to every gear we produce is the cornerstone of our success. Producing good gears isn’t good enough at Forest City Gear. We’re not satisfied until we know we’ve made the best gear possible. It all meshes with a very simple, yet demanding mission statement:

EXCELLENCE WITHOUT EXCEPTION

Every production process we perform turns on this principle, and is backed by uncompromised auditing, testing, quality review and packaging…from initial blanks and tools to production and final inspection.

Achieving world class gear quality is the direct result of Forest City Gear’s investment in machines, employees, and management systems, which result in total customer satisfaction. We believe we have one of the best equipped gear shops in the world. This includes both equipment and employees, a legacy of Forest City Gear for over 50 years.

We manufacture custom gears for diverse industries and a wide range of product applications throughout the world. Our gears are in telescopes and tractors, artificial elbows and aircraft, military lasers and medical examining tables, printers and plotters, power tools and dental drills, as well as the space station to name just a few. We even make gears for our competitors.

When it comes to fine and medium pitch custom gears, the world comes to Forest City Gear for the best.

Sure, we are passionate about gear manufacturing, leading edge technology and customer satisfaction. That’s our blueprint for success every day for every order with every gear. World class quality medium and fine pitch gears are the result.

Thank you for visiting our website. It provides an introduction to our capabilities and the way we do business. But, if you are still out on a limb about a gear maker, we want you to visit Forest City Gear and see for yourself.

Fred Young