Precision mechanical racks

With the increase of the civil and industrial automation sector, the use of racks has seen their numbers increase considerably in recent years both in terms of production volume and the expected characteristics of the pieces.

At Officine Meccaniche Zanatta we offer you a professional service of the highest level for the design and manufacture of the components you need, with precision racks and gears in simple, alloyed and stainless steels, but also in nylon and other materials, always with precise processing, also for applications intended for heavy-duty sectors and exposure to aggressive environments.

Industrial construction of precision racks

Racks are devices used to convert the circular motion of a gear into a horizontal or curved one, according to the selected profile and the conicity of the two elements. They are typically used to move gates, shutters and other semi-rigid elements as an alternative to smooth guides and the use of compressed air systems that are not always compatible with spaces used, bulk, dimensions and costs.

In addition, precision racks are used for the horizontal translation of worktops, and machine supports and as an alternative to rails, in particular for centring and motor movement of the step type, which offers inspiration and detail that cannot be reached by other means.

Our company offers you a strategy completely in the factory for the production of the precision racks you need for your applications. We can guarantee you processes ranging from grade 6 to grade 10, both for straight teeth components and those with a helical profile, for a better starting point.

Our technicians, if necessary, can guide you in the selection of products already in stock, available with minimum deadlines and with the possibility of preparing graded quantities with delivery horizons containing both custom and design, to optimise your prototypes, make upgrades or design a new machine.

What are the characteristics of precision racks

Inside our production plant, we make racks with material removal using CNC milling cutters, much more reliable than traditional machines, which often have precision problems.

We start with single blocks of steel with a flat or square profile, in which the removal takes place, through the use of numerical milling machines with tungsten carbide heads and other high-hardness alloys, always managed with the supervision of a human operator equipped with the necessary professional training to notice criticalities or anomalies, thus preserving the reliability of our machines and your products.

The processes are kept exclusive at low temperatures, through the use of synthetic-based lubricating oils, which performs both the function of removing the chip, which could make any attempt to obtain good precision futile and that of keeping the temperature low by forcing the material well below the maximum range of linearity of thermal expansion.

In this way, you can be sure that you do not have a tungsten carbide cutter block or a loss of sharpness, but above all the piece will perfectly comply with the design characteristics.

The removal takes place in several steps, with the use of milling cutters and subsequently by rectifying the profile using CNC machines, to allow the definition of better details than those that could be obtained with a rough passage.

In this way the precision racks are compatible with standard gears in the quality range from 6 to 10 and with custom gears, for example, if your project requires this type of approach. The available processes include, among others, round, straight and helical profiles, with the possibility of also introducing perforations and different solutions to lighten and fix the pieces.

In case you need in addition to rack also any other element, we will be happy to make it for you, thus allowing you to have an extremely silent mechanism, with an optimised starting point without getting lost in long outsourcing operations.

Our technology offers us the ability to respond exceptionally to any type of chemical and mechanical stimulus, based on the steel alloys you have selected, such as AISI 303, AISI304, 18NiCrMn5, 39NiCrMo3 and C45, or nylon for specific applications.
After carrying out all the operations of removing the excess material and finishing, the precision racks will then be passed to the care of our verification laboratory, which provides several tests on the single piece, whether it is a one-shot application or conspicuous elements of a lot for large productions.

You can also establish the degree of accuracy of the necessary checks, even deciding that all the components we produce must go through the instrumental check, to have an even higher certainty of offering your customers an impeccable product with declared tolerances.

Technical corrections for precision racks

If the rack, which can be made with a maximum length of 6 metres, should present discrepancies with the original design related to machining and these are due to recoverable factors, for example, a lateral deformation or a screw torsion, we will rectify them.

These are incidences that may be present due to the different thermal expansions of the steel’s crystalline grains. In this case, we handle all the recovery operations, using temperature-controlled techniques and annealing environments, to reduce the roughness of the cutting interface.

This step is essential both to reduce deviations and twisting and for example in the case where the rack must work immersed in an aggressive solution or liquid. Eliminating microscopic cracks on the metal prevents the material suspended in the lubricant from depositing and therefore the rack from losing functionality over time.
The milling operations have an accuracy of up to 0.01 mm/m and scrupulously respect the characteristics of the material.

Before starting any type of machining, our technicians carry out the tests to ensure that the amount of material removed necessary to create your design is compatible with the mechanical characteristics of the selected steel, thus avoiding having to intervene again later.

Therefore, any presence of deformation falls within the expected design characteristics and does not affect, after milling, the performance of the steel and the single piece. This is why we use reliable and high-level raw material suppliers, who guarantee that we can have access to the quantities we want and that we can therefore always submit extremely accurate estimates to you.

Total quality control for precision racks

All phases, from design to testing, take place inside our plants and our workshops, with a constant exchange between the technicians in the processing sector and those of the design office, to ensure a feedback mechanism necessary to propose the best result on the market.

In this way, it is virtually impossible for production errors related to procedural factors to occur. Our all-in-factory strategy allows us to have total control over the production, without having to wait for the technical times of other companies and the differences in tolerance towards quality standards.

In this way, we also avoid having to deal with the costs and recharges of a single step, but above all, we can objectively evaluate the limits and possibilities at our disposal.
What we offer you on the quote is really what you will have and the bargaining margins, for example in the case of large numbers, or post-production work can be much more interesting than those that would delegate the service to more external companies.

You can have a direct relationship, both with the staff of the CAD engineers and designers in the technical design office, and with the managers of the workshop room, for accurate feedback and to know any processing specifications that can be very useful during the project phase in your company.

Collaboration, exchange of information and quality materials are the basis of a high-performance product, which offers you the expected results at the expected costs, with an accurate post-sales service for grinding, reworking and special interventions, such as galvanic bath galvanising, or passivation of exposed surfaces.

Rely on us with the processing of your precision racks

If your company needs precision racks, even for the automation of gates or in the industrial field for critical areas of the petrochemical sector, contact us directly by email or by phone.

Our technicians will explain all the details you need for your decision and we can organise an informative meeting, also by videoconference, to evaluate together changes and interventions on your project in sketch, thus allowing your product to best express its possibilities.

Our consultancy, based on years of activity in this sector, allows us to recognise various possible critical issues and help your engineers with the necessary corrections to reduce vibrations, stresses and wear on precision racks.