Custom Bevel Gears
Straight, Spiral & Zerol

A bevel gear is a gear with teeth cut on a conical surface, designed to transmit power between intersecting shafts — most commonly at 90° (right angle), but other shaft angles are possible. The teeth can be straight (straight bevel gear), spiral (spiral bevel gear), or curved with zero spiral angle (Zerol bevel gear). Bevel gears are the standard solution for right-angle power transmission in automotive differentials, industrial right-angle gearboxes, robot wrist joints, and hand tools.

Straight bevel gears have teeth that radiate straight from the apex, giving simultaneous full-tooth contact — simple, low-cost, but noisy and limited to lower speeds (below ~5 m/s pitch velocity). Spiral bevel gears have curved, angled teeth (spiral angle typically 35°) that engage gradually, like helical gears, producing quieter operation, higher load capacity, and suitability for high speeds. Nearly all automotive differentials and high-speed industrial right-angle drives use spiral bevel gears. Straight bevel gears are preferred for hand tools, low-speed drives, and applications where cost dominates.

Bevel gear price depends on six variables: (1) module & gear OD — larger gears cost more; (2) tooth form — straight bevel cheapest, Zerol mid-range, spiral bevel most expensive due to Gleason cutting and lapping; (3) material — 20CrMnTi carburized is more expensive than 42CrMo4 through-hardened; (4) AGMA accuracy class — AGMA 10 (ground and lapped) is roughly 2–3× the price of AGMA 8 (cut only); (5) heat treatment — carburizing + grinding adds 25–40%; (6) order quantity — 1-piece prototypes cost more per unit than 100-set batches. Send your drawing for a free customized quotation — we typically respond within 48 hours with firm spiral bevel gear price and lead time.

A miter gear is a straight or spiral bevel gear with a 1:1 ratio — both gears in the pair have the same number of teeth and the shaft angle is exactly 90°. Miter gears are used purely to change direction of rotation, not to change speed. They are manufactured in matched pairs and must always be replaced as a pair. Common applications include machine tool right-angle heads, camera pan drives, and conveyor corner units. HXC produces miter bevel gear pairs in all standard modules from M0.5 to M12.

The Gleason system is the dominant American method for designing and manufacturing spiral bevel gears, using face-milling (one tooth space at a time with a cup-shaped cutter). Gleason gears have a tapered tooth depth and are cut as matched pairs — gear and pinion must be used together and are not interchangeable. The alternative Klingelnberg (Palloid) system uses face-hobbing with a conical hob, producing constant tooth depth and theoretically interchangeable gears. HXC uses Gleason-format machines for most spiral bevel production — specify "Gleason" or "Klingelnberg" on your drawing if you have a preference.

The contact pattern (or bearing pattern) is the area of the tooth flank that actually contacts under load — revealed by running the gear pair together with marking compound and examining the ink mark. For spiral bevel gears, the design contact pattern should be a central oval occupying 50–60% of the tooth flank. Edge contact (bearing at the toe or heel) concentrates load and causes early fatigue failure. A correct contact pattern indicates proper mounting distance and offset. HXC inks, photographs, and records the contact pattern for every matched spiral bevel pair before shipment.

Yes — anti-backlash bevel gears use either spring-loaded split designs (two gear halves preloaded against each other) or precision-ground / lapped pairs with controlled tooth thickness. Zero-backlash bevel gears in the strict sense achieve sub-arcminute lash via lapping and selective assembly. Anti-backlash is used in servo-positioned right-angle drives, optical instruments, surgical robotics, and indexing tables where bevel gear backlash directly affects position accuracy. Specify maximum allowable backlash (e.g. ≤0.015 mm) on your drawing; we will recommend the appropriate technique.

Straight bevel gears are the noisiest gear type — their simultaneous full-tooth engagement creates an impulsive load similar to spur gears, but amplified by the conical geometry. Spiral bevel gears are significantly quieter — tooth engagement is gradual and the contact line sweeps across the flank, smoothing the load application. Ground and lapped spiral bevel pairs (AGMA 10 / DIN 6) in a correctly preloaded housing are among the quietest right-angle drive options. Zerol bevel gears (zero spiral angle with curved teeth) are intermediate — quieter than straight bevel, cheaper to produce than spiral bevel.

Yes — bevel gears can be designed for any shaft angle between 45° and 135°. The standard is 90° (right angle), but 45° (used in handwheel drives), 60°, and 120° are also produced regularly. Non-standard shaft angles require custom gear designs — the pitch cone angles, spiral angle, and face angles all change. HXC's engineers design non-standard bevel gear sets from your shaft angle and ratio requirements. For prototype non-standard bevel gears, 5-axis CNC milling is used; for production quantities, dedicated Gleason or Klingelnberg machine setups are created.

Bevel gears require gear oil (not bearing grease) because tooth sliding velocities on spiral bevel flanks are significant. For automotive differentials: SAE 75W-90 or 80W-140 hypoid gear oil (EP additives essential — standard gear oil will cause pitting on spiral bevel flanks). For industrial right-angle gearboxes: ISO VG 220–320 mineral or synthetic gear oil. For low-speed straight bevel gears: grease lubrication is acceptable. Plastic bevel gears (POM, Nylon) can run dry in light-duty applications. Stainless bevel gears in food applications use NSF H1 food-grade gear oil.

HXC's bevel gear factory is located in Dongguan, Guangdong, China — a major precision manufacturing hub in the Pearl River Delta. We have been a Chinese bevel gear manufacturer since 2008, exporting to clients in Germany, USA, Japan, France, Italy, Korea, and 30+ other countries. All gear cutting, heat treatment, Gleason grinding, lapping, and Klingelnberg inspection are performed in-house — no outsourcing to subcontractors. Factory visits and video audits are welcome for procurement teams qualifying new china spiral bevel gear suppliers.

Helical gears transmit power between parallel shafts using angled teeth on a cylindrical body. Bevel gears transmit power between intersecting shafts using teeth on a conical body. For parallel shafts, helical gears are the standard; for right-angle drives, bevel gears are used. A helical bevel gear or bevel-helical gearbox combines both: a bevel stage changes the shaft angle (usually 90°) and a helical stage provides the main speed reduction. This is the dominant configuration in industrial multi-stage right-angle gearboxes.

Both transmit power at 90°, but with fundamental differences: Bevel gears work on intersecting axes (shafts meet if extended), are highly efficient (97–99% per mesh), fully reversible, and limited to moderate ratios (typically 1:1 to 1:6 per stage). Worm gears work on non-intersecting, non-parallel axes (shafts are offset), can achieve high ratios in one stage (5:1 to 100:1), are self-locking at low lead angles, but are less efficient (50–90% depending on ratio and lead angle). Choose bevel for efficiency and reversibility; choose worm for high ratio, compactness, and self-locking.

Gleason-system spiral bevel gears are produced as matched sets because the cutting and grinding corrections applied to one gear are compensated by the mating gear. The tooth surfaces of gear and pinion are designed together to produce the correct contact pattern and backlash — the pinion is not interchangeable with a pinion from a different set, even of nominally identical dimensions. Replacing only one gear of a worn pair will produce incorrect contact pattern, excessive noise, and rapid failure. Always replace gear and pinion together. HXC marks matched pairs with the same serial number before shipment.

Accuracy requirements for bevel gears: AGMA 7–8 / DIN 8–9 for general industrial straight bevel gears — hand tools, conveyors, low-speed drives. AGMA 9 / DIN 7 for industrial spiral bevel gearboxes, standard automotive applications. AGMA 10 / DIN 6 for high-speed spiral bevel drives, precision machine tools, performance automotive differentials. AGMA 11+ / DIN 5 for aerospace and high precision bevel gears — requires Gleason profile grinding after hardening. Higher accuracy class significantly increases lead time and cost due to the grinding and lapping steps. Our engineers will recommend the appropriate class for your speed, load, and noise requirements.

The hand (left or right) of the spiral on a bevel gear determines the direction of the axial thrust force under load. For a right-hand spiral gear: when viewed from the back face, the teeth curve to the right. For a left-hand spiral gear: the teeth curve left. In a standard bevel gear pair, the gear and pinion have opposite hands (one right, one left). The choice of hand affects bearing loading direction — specify based on your housing design so thrust loads are directed toward (not away from) the mounting bearings. Include hand specification on your drawing; if omitted, HXC will contact you to confirm before cutting.

Practical bevel gear ratios range from 1:1 (miter gears) to approximately 1:6 in a single stage. Ratios above 1:5 are possible but result in a very large gear and small pinion — the pinion becomes fragile, and the size difference makes paired lapping more difficult. For high-ratio right-angle drives (>6:1), a spiral bevel stage combined with a helical reduction stage (as in a helical-bevel gearbox) is more practical. Alternatively, worm gears provide high ratios in a single stage at the cost of lower efficiency. HXC produces bevel gear sets up to approximately 1:8 — contact our engineers for larger ratios.

Lead times for bevel gears: Prototype straight bevel pair (5-axis milling): 5–8 days. Small batch straight bevel (50–200 pairs, hobbing): 8–14 days. Spiral bevel prototype (5-axis): 7–12 days. Spiral bevel production (Gleason, hardened + ground + lapped): 14–22 days. Large spiral bevel (>Ø200mm): 18–28 days. Lapping and contact pattern verification add 3–5 days versus non-lapped production. Rush production is available — discuss your timeline when uploading your drawing.

For maximum contact fatigue strength (pitting resistance) and bending fatigue life in spiral bevel gears: 20CrMnTi carburized and case-hardened to HRC 58–62 is the global automotive standard. For larger gears where case depth is insufficient by carburizing: 42CrMo4 through-hardened to HRC 50–55. For aircraft and motorsport bevel gears requiring the best specific strength: M50 or 9310 aircraft-grade steel with vacuum arc remelting (VAR). For corrosive environments: precipitation-hardened stainless steel (17-4PH) offers the best combination of strength and corrosion resistance for bevel gears.