Method for producing steel alloy gears

A method for producing steel alloy gears comprising the steps of:

• forging the tooth surfaces of a gear to a near net shape in which the forged tooth profile surfaces have excess material requiring subsequent removal;
• grinding the gear's tooth profile surfaces to a final finish shape not requiring further material removal, said grinding being performed by the use of cubic boron nitride grinding to introduce consistent stresses in the gear tooth surfaces;
• subsequently performing a final heat treat to the ground gear to relieve the consistent stresses and impose beneficial stresses in the ground gear;
• and
• controlling the final heat treat to provide a hardened surface layer extending to a depth not substantially greater than the minimum depth required by the function of the gear;
• whereby the consistent stresses introduced in the grinding step cooperate with the controlled heat treat to provide minimal heat treat distortion.