W
hen a complicated casting for a major company is designed, it’s not a one-person job. Multiple teams, crews and departments are involved. Each has specific roles they need to fill with their respective areas of expertise,
which helps even more when challenges and hiccups arise. What happened when John Deere Waterloo Works built the drive housing
casting for the 9RX 4-Track shows the importance of that teamwork. Te engineering and casting sides of the company communicated frequently,
exchanged ideas and worked together to create a component that helped John Deere jump into a new market segment—four-track tractors. “In order for this to be a success it took a lot of collaboration between a lot
of different groups within Deere,” said staff engineer Jeff Lubben. “Machin- ing people, our foundry, our analysis group, design. In order to make this a success on the assembly line and for our customers it took a lot of work
from a lot of different folks.” Te drive housing carries the gear
train and supports the whole tractor and undercarriage for the track system. It also limits the articulation of the undercarriage and transfers the torque from the axle to the shaft, enclosing all the gear train.
Engineers at Deere determined a single large casting would achieve better gear alignment. The tractor has large spur gears, one of which is over 27 in. in diameter, and the gears were aligned so the critical bear- ing bores and shaft features were machined in one operation. Te designers also wanted to in-
Jul/Aug 2016 | METAL CASTING DESIGN & PURCHASING | 27
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
