First, do not worry. These things happen sometimes, and we have a straightforward way of handling it. Just contact us right away. Let us know what is going on, and we will work with you to figure it out and make it right.
Let me walk you through how this works, so you know what to expect.
When you first get in touch, we will ask you a few questions. What exactly does not fit? Is the gear too big, too small, or maybe the teeth are not lining up? Is it just one gear out of the batch, or all of them? The more information you can give us, the faster we can figure out what went wrong.
We will probably ask you to send us some measurements or maybe a few photos. If you have a caliper or a micrometer, you can measure the key dimensions – the outer diameter, the inner diameter, the length, or the tooth size. If you do not have measuring tools, that is okay. Sometimes a good photo next to a ruler is enough for us to see the problem. In some cases, we might ask you to send one of the gears back to us so we can measure it ourselves and compare it to our records.
Once we understand the problem, we will figure out what caused it. There are a few possibilities.
Maybe we made a mistake. It does not happen often, but we are human. Maybe a dimension was cut wrong, or the heat treatment caused more warping than we expected, or someone misread your drawing. If it is our fault, we will own it. We will rework the gears if that is possible, or we will make new ones to replace them. You will not pay extra for that. We will also cover the shipping for the replacement parts. That is only fair.
Maybe the drawing had an issue. Sometimes a dimension is missing, or a tolerance is tighter than what the gear really needs, or there is a mismatch between two mating parts. If we missed something on the drawing that we should have caught, we will still take responsibility and help you fix it. But if the drawing had an error that no one could have seen without building the parts first, we will need to work together on a solution. That might mean adjusting the next batch to correct the issue, or making new parts at a shared cost.
Maybe the problem is with the mating part. Sometimes a customer’s housing or shaft is slightly off, and the gear is actually fine. In that case, we can help you measure everything and figure out what needs to change. Maybe we can rework the gear to fit, or maybe you need to adjust the mating part. Either way, we will give you honest advice.
So what are the possible solutions? Rework is one option. If the gear is a little too big, we might be able to grind it down to the right size. If the teeth are a little off, we might be able to correct them. Replacement is another option. If rework is not possible, we will just make new gears. Adjusting the next order is another option. If you can use the gears as they are for now, we can correct the dimensions on your next batch and maybe give you a credit for the ones that did not fit.
The main thing is, do not stay quiet. Do not try to force the gear to fit. Do not just set it aside and hope it works later. Contact us as soon as you notice a problem. The sooner we know, the sooner we can help.
We want you to be happy with your gears. If something is wrong, we will make it right. No hassle, no fighting, no blaming. Just a simple conversation and a solution.