Racks are portions of a cylindrical disk with an infinite radius which has involute shaped teeth cut into its encounter. Racks mate exclusively with spur gears that have the same module, pressure position and preferably face width. KHK offers gear racks in many components, configurations, modules and lengths. One exclusive feature of our racks can be that most are given finished ends. This kind of production permits multiple racks to become butted, end-to-end, to produce one continuous amount of rack. Many of the products that we offer allow for secondary functions such as for example 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 that the radius of the pitch cylinder is infinite and in a bar form is named a gear rack. If it is sorted by the positions of the apparatus shafts, it is one of the parallel shaft category. The spur equipment that meshes with a gear rack is generally called a pinion.

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

Among the gear racks’ main applications are machine tools and transport devices and when the applications involve transmitting linear motions, they are often compared with ball screws. In those situations, the main benefits of gear racks can be named such as having the ability to fulfill a heavier load by using bigger modules and having no duration limitation by connecting gear racks with finished ends. On the other hand, an example of the disadvantages of equipment racks includes the Metric Gear Rack occurrence of backlash.

When manufacturing equipment racks, due to their bar shape, bending often outcomes. In these cases, corrective processes using presses are often employed.