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Mini Gears set off to a racing start in 2011 after exhibiting for the first time at the Autosport International Engineering Show in January – a dedicated event for specialist technical suppliers to the motorsport and performance engineering sectors.

The show proved so successful that the company will be returning in 2012 when on its stand Mini Gears will display a range of the many new components it now manufactures for this industry as a result of customers it gained from this year's show.

Mini Gears is a specialist subcontract manufacturer of gears, racks and machined parts for applications across a wide range of industries which require power transmission components. The company has a 35,000ft² manufacturing site in Stockport, near Manchester and supplies to a worldwide customer base on a business to business basis.

Having purchased a Hoefler Helix 400K CNC gear grinding machine to extend its production capability for existing customers, Mini Gears was now able to diversify into additional markets and turned its focus to providing precision ground gears to the trade in the autosport industry. Exhibiting at the Autosport International Engineering Show proved to be the ideal platform to launch Mini Gears into this market and, with seven new customers on board and a whole new range of components, its technical and production teams have been kept busy.

One of the challenges came when the company needed to quote for parts that contained helical gears as part of a compound gear. Manufacturing compound gears and shafts, where various shapes and sizes of gears need to be machined in line from the same piece of material means that there is limited access for the cutter to cut between them as it is cutting up to a shoulder.

The component has to be machined on a gear shaper. Mini Gears already had in place the facility to cut spur gears in a compound gear but to cut helical gears, as used in the automotive industry, it needed to purchase new machinery and helical guides. With this investment the company is now producing gear units typically used in classic car gearboxes such MGs and the early Triumph TRs.

Other components manufactured by Mini Gears include gear and rack replacement parts for steering systems for TVRs plus steering racks for a number of customers ranging from the latest up to date racing series through to classic cars where parts are no longer available. It has reverse engineered various gears for the T-Type gearbox as well manufacturing flywheels for a British sports car company.

This new market is fitting in well with Mini Gears' production. The company, to avoid disrupting work on its existing machining centres, recently purchased two XYZ CNC turning and milling machines to make lower volume production batches and prototyping for all aspects of the autosport industry, including the classic car movement. These machines have a simple programming and setting operation which is ideally suited to this type of work.
Precision gear manufacturing needs equally precise inspection equipment to maintain high levels of quality. To this end, Mini Gears has invested a brand new Gleason 350 GMS CNC gear checking machine due for delivery in March 2012.

Mini Gears
www.minigears.co.uk
Hall 9, Stand E227