Description
Shaft Key Making Process
The manufacturing of machine keys and their matching slots involves distinct raw metal forming steps followed by high-precision machining operations
1. Keystock Production (Raw Material Phase)
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- Cold Drawing & Rolling: Long bars of raw medium-carbon steel (typically C45 or stainless steel) are pulled cold through high-tonnage dies. This gives the material its precise square or rectangular profile and significantly improves its yield strength.
- Shot Blasting & Straightening: The drawn bars are cleaned of any surface scale via shot blasting and straightened to ensure precise dimensional uniformity.
2. Key Cutting and Finishing
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- Precision Cutting: The long keystock bars are cut to specific functional lengths using commercial saws or automated shearing machinery.
- Shaping & Deburring: The cut blanks undergo vibratory finishing or tumbling to eliminate sharp burrs. If the design requires a feather key (Form A), the ends are precision-milled into a rounded profile.
3. Cutting the Keyseat (On the Shaft) and Keyway (In the Hub)
For a key to function, matching grooves must be cut into both the shaft and the mating hub component:
- Shaft Keyseats: Usually machined using a vertical milling machine with an end mill or a side-milling cutter to carve out a pocket matching the key’s width and depth. For Woodruff keys, a specialized circular cutter is used.
- Hub Keyways: The internal slot inside the mating gear or pulley bore is typically cut using a keyway broach. The broach tool is driven through the bore via an arbor press or hydraulic press, utilizing progressive shims to cut the profile deeper with every pass until the target depth is hit. Alternately, wire EDM or internal shaping machines are used for blind holes.
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