Gear protection from corrosion without oil & grease 1

[aliesmal110]

How can we protect a gear from wear & corrosion(especially under high humidity environment) without using oil bath or greases?(I mean something like kind of heat processing or surface treatment)
Thanks

 

[CoryPad]

Salt bath nitriding plus oxidation (also known as QPQ) can provide wear resistance and corrosion resistance to steel parts.

 

[tbuelna]

aliesmal110-

What type of gears are you using?
What are the dimensions of the gear set?
What are the gear materials? Do you have the option of using alternate materials?
What are the tooth contact stress levels?
What are the lifecycle requirements?
Are there any cost constraints?

Unless you provide specific details about your problem, all we can do is provide speculative responses. For example, CoryPad's excellent suggestion for using liquid salt bath nitrocarburize (quench/polish/quench) will produce a hard (but relatively thin) nitride case on steel with good corrosion protection and resistance to scuffing under marginal lubrication conditions. However, this does not mean you can operate a pair of nitrocarburized steel gears at elevated load/speed without any form of lubrication and expect them to survive for long.

Looking forward to your post providing more details.

Regards,
Terry

 

[verknde]

I fully agree with Terry. Basic questions must be clarified.
I would like to add the usage of special coatings. For example I remember the company Balzers Oerlikon, coating type Balinit C(R) "WCC" coating for the assembling of gear units and the dry usage without lubrication.
It is a coating combination of a very hard layer plus a final softer layer.
I am sure that other coating companies have similar coating solutions for those applications. The attached link shows some technical info about this coating type.

http://coating-guide.balzers.com/web/en/application/cutting/coating-summary/C

 

[geesamand]

Is the protection required for gearing in operation or storage?

David