Production of round racks

The racks sector of application is very wide and ranges from precision actuators for mechanics, where very specific performances are required and often the possibility of combining products with stepper motors, as an excellent alternative to hydraulic shafts and worm screws, gates and locks, for example in security doors.

A category little known to the general public is that of round racks that unlike the others tend to be used in sectors where the aesthetic function and the low repetition of the cycles of movement are dominant.

They are often used to drive the reinforced bars in the security doors and to push moving parts in a very similar way to a piston, as well as to maintain the position once achieved.

What are the applications of round racks

The mechanical sector does not always require the use of components and racks with a rectangular or linear profile, because for example if the actuator must slide inside a hole made of a thickness of high-hardness steel material, rectangular window machining can be very complicated and inconvenient.

Choosing a square cut, to get a sliding female hole or a guide the necessary overhead could be significantly higher than the advantage.

It is much easier to drill with the right degree of precision necessary to not have leeway and then slide inside the slot an integral bar with a round rack.
In general, the characteristics of this type of accessory for precision mechanics are comparable to those of ordinary rectangular racks even if the section tends to make it impossible to anchor a support, without making an L-cut to connect it.

This is because often a welding process cannot be used exposing the structure of the material to risk and for post-processing cost issues, which in some cases makes it difficult to use it as a front actuator.

Custom-made circular rack

Our engineers are always at your disposal to design different types of round section racks for your applications, with diameters available in many sizes in quality 9.

Applications are not recommended for repeated high-frequency cycles, but only for slow movements. This is the classic case of the barrier bars used in security doors and controlled directly with a gear with a few steps of de-multiplication, such as that of the lock.

Our circular section racks are made exclusively from live bars of steel materials that can be chosen according to the type of application among: ordinary, alloy or stainless steel.

Alternatively, they are prepared with hard alloys capable of withstanding stress and lateral traction, such as those essential to prepare the closures of security doors.
You can reach 6 linear metres for the length of our rack bars with circular sections, with a degree of axial deviation concerning the line of 0.1 mm/m for special applications. This is a high degree of accuracy for most civilian applications of this type of component.

Among the materials always available in our workshops there are for example the alloys C45, 18NiCrMn5, 39NiCrMo3, AISI 303, and AISI304, but upon request, you can provide alternative processing to meet special needs. The data are always available for each verification and you can ask us the current and expected availability, to direct your projects already on the way to success.

Full custom machining

To begin with, a coarse cut is made, using a CNC disc milling cutter that opens the slots necessary for subsequent processing. In many cases, this step is the only one really relevant in the processing, while the others can safely be considered finishes.
This technique is preferred strictly at low temperatures and with forced lubrication with synthetic products of medium viscosity, for the removal of the chip and the lowering of the temperature so as not to damage the crystallographic structure of the alloy and preserve its salient characteristics intact.

Due to their functions, in the production of round racks, it is typically avoided to exceed a certain thickness, which depends on the diameter of the bar and the project, but with the same size as the starting piece, a round rack has less pronounced and possibly less narrow teeth.

After removing the excess material, the surface is reworked, and although the temperature is kept low, the metal has still been damaged and can present certain tendencies to oxidation and include carbides.

For this reason, passivation is carried out in a reduced environment with annealing, even if it is not a necessary step in all cases.

Finally, if necessary, galvanisation is provided, which is not recommended in many applications, or a chrome plating treatment, to further passivate the surface and make it even more beautiful from an aesthetic point of view.

Total project support

For any type of project, in particular, if the cylindrical section rack bar must guarantee certain performances, our technicians will carry out an additional check-up for you to verify that your CAD file corresponds to a possible result and in case they will propose groups of more or less important changes to offer you the security of the finished product you want.

There may be some factors difficult to estimate in the conceptual phase if you are not strictly an expert in the field such as the maximum recommended removal amount or the roughness characteristics of the post-cut surface, which can give problems in the case of use with stepper motor actuators.

If the processing is not carried out correctly, in fact, very simply the bar on which the profile is mounted becomes noisy at every movement, screeches and vibrates and this can have bad consequences. Particularly when there are bolts and coupling screws not reachable.

Noise is closely related to the presence of vibrations that can also reach considerable entities and get the metal out of the linearity zone, causing damage or excessive stress, a complex to be disposed of in particular if the cycles are repeated and frequent.

All these tests are in any case carried out by our designers when opening the file with the simulation programs and, if necessary, additional numerical checks are also carried out, of which you will be provided with results to be able to use them in your subsequent projects.

Our company is available both for machining for individual pieces, for example, if you decide to produce an experimental prototype, or if you only need a single component with a very high degree of mechanical precision of processing and to be able to verify the certificates for all operations, to trace any criticality later.

We are also available for the production of large quantities of round rack bars. In the catalogue, you will find many different types of circular section elements to be transformed into machined components, also being able to choose the characteristic parameters according to your needs.

If you prefer we can also carry out these processes on supports with different performance and full custom, for example, build single blocks with thread, rack and a smooth sliding part or any other type of application you prefer.

What we can guarantee you on all products is that 100% of the processing will take place inside our plants, under the close supervision of trusted technicians and experts who will take care of every aspect of their competence to reduce the failure rate to zero.

Any significant critical issues that may arise will be communicated to you in time, to allow you to evaluate together with your engineers what to do with the design of your rack, or to adapt the design to low-cost components.

At your service for circular racks

Our company is your ideal partner for the production of circular section racks of various sizes, with the possibility of quality level 9 and optimised profiles, which guarantee you ease of application and above all updated post-project technical data sheets.

This way you can check for any discrepancies, or use them for your next steps. For availability and quantities, a request is sufficient. Just a call or email to our addresses.
We will contact you as soon as possible organising a meeting, even virtually, to define a strategic project plan that puts you at the centre of the work and always allows you to receive the right feedback necessary for your company.

Thanks to the management mechanism completely within our company, moreover, quotes are 100% reliable because they are based on real data and are reliable for quantity, timing and costs.