Racks are portions of a cylindrical disk with an infinite radius which has involute shaped tooth cut into its encounter. Racks mate exclusively with spur gears which have the same module, pressure position and preferably face width. KHK offers equipment racks in many materials, configurations, modules and lengths. One exclusive feature of our racks is certainly that most are given finished ends. This kind of production Metric Gear Rack allows for multiple racks to end up being butted, end-to-end, to create one continuous length of rack. Most of the products that we offer allow for secondary operations such as reduction of the distance, the adding of tapped holes, or the use of heat treatment. Our offering also includes products which have already had a few of these secondary operations completed.
The straight tooth cylindrical gear for which the radius of the pitch cylinder is infinite and in a bar form is called a gear rack. If it is sorted by the positions of the apparatus shafts, it belongs to the parallel shaft category. The spur gear that meshes with a equipment rack is normally called a pinion.

Besides gear racks with straight range the teeth, there are helical racks which have slanted the teeth. Helical gear racks are paired with helical gears, but due to the slant of the tooth direction, as in helical gears, the mesh generates axial thrust forces.

Among the gear racks’ primary applications are machine equipment and transport devices so when the applications involve transmitting linear motions, they are often compared with ball screws. In those situations, the main benefits of gear racks could be named such as having the ability to fulfill a heavier load by using larger modules and having no duration limitation by connecting gear racks with completed ends. However, a good example of the disadvantages of equipment racks contains the occurrence of backlash.

When manufacturing equipment racks, because of their bar form, bending often outcomes. In these cases, corrective procedures using presses tend to be employed.