In house
Inspect, grind, and test together
Magnaflux, precision grinding, carburize and re harden, laser alignment, and load and vibration testing all happen here in Houston. Your gear set is never handed off to a third party shop between steps.
Houston, TX ยท Planetary gearbox repair and rebuilding
Planetary Gearbox Repair in Houston TX
A planetary drive packs enormous torque into a small case by splitting the load across several planet gears at once. When one element chips, scores, or loses its hardened case, the whole train falls out of balance fast. Solution Gear Co. restores the sun, planet, and ring gear sets in house in Houston. We Magnaflux every part, grind tooth profiles back to spec, carburize and re harden where the case is gone, set the train with laser alignment, and prove it under load and vibration testing. Free shipping, free inspection, and an up to 24 month warranty on every job.
Solution Gear Co. is a Houston, Texas planetary gearbox repair and rebuild shop, family owned and operated for over 20 years. We restore the full planetary train, the sun gear, the planet gears on their carrier, and the ring gear, with Magnaflux inspection, precision grinding, carburize and re harden, laser alignment, and load and vibration testing, all built for high torque applications. Everything is done under our own roof with free shipping both ways, free inspection, free pickup and delivery including crating and rigging, savings up to 50 percent versus OEM, and an up to 24 month workmanship warranty.
The difference is in the gear set
Chipped and case worn, then restored to profile.
Drag the handle. The same planetary set, spalled and scored before our process, then ground, re hardened, and rebuilt to the original ratio and clearance after.
Before
After
Inspect, restore, and prove under one roof
A planetary set is only as strong as its weakest tooth.
The whole point of a planetary drive is that several planets share the torque at once. Restore one gear without matching the rest and the load piles onto a single flank. We grind the sun, planets, and ring to a matched profile, re harden where the case is gone, then prove even load sharing on the test stand before it ships. This is the same depth of work behind our full gearbox repair service.
20+ years
Built for high torque
For over two decades Houston plants and heavy equipment fleets have trusted us to rebuild planetary drives in cranes, mixers, crushers, winches, and large reducers that have to move serious torque.
To spec
Original ratio and case depth
We rebuild to the original ratio, backlash, and bearing clearance, and we re harden to the correct case depth and surface hardness, not just a polished tooth that looks repaired.
How a planetary rebuild works
Our planetary gearbox process, step by step.
This is exactly what happens from the moment a failed planetary drive arrives at the shop to the day it ships back, restored, aligned, and proven under load.
01
Tear down and inspect
We strip the gearbox to the sun, planets, carrier, ring, shafts, and bearings, then check every dimension, the ratio, the bore sizes, and the wear pattern on each tooth flank. The inspection is free and tells you the real root cause before any work begins.
02
Magnaflux every component
The sun, planet, and ring gears, the carrier, and the shafts are Magnaflux inspected to find cracks, fatigue, and subsurface flaws that the eye cannot see. A planet gear with a hidden crack will fail again under high torque, so we catch it now.
03
Precision grind the tooth profiles
Scored, pitted, and out of profile flanks are precision ground back to the correct involute profile, lead, and surface finish. Matching the sun, planets, and ring to one profile is what restores even contact across the whole set.
04
Carburize and re harden where needed
When the hardened case is worn or ground through, the gear is carburized and re hardened to the original case depth and surface hardness, then finish ground. This brings the tooth back to its rated contact and bending strength, not just a clean surface.
05
Cut or replace gears past saving
A gear too far gone to grind is replaced. We cut new sun, planet, and ring gears in house through our gear cutting service, reverse engineered from your worn part when no drawing exists.
06
Restore bearings and carrier
We true the carrier so every planet pin sits on the same pitch circle, fit fresh bearings, and bring the journals back to size. Worn journals and sleeve surfaces are handled through our bearing repair work so the train runs true.
07
Reassemble and laser align
The train is reassembled to the original ratio, backlash, and clearance, then the input and output shafts are set with laser alignment so the planets share the load and the gearbox does not fight itself in service.
08
Load and vibration testing
The rebuilt unit is run on the stand under load while we read vibration and temperature. We confirm the planets are sharing the torque, the unit runs quiet, and nothing runs hot before it leaves the floor.
09
Final inspection and up to a 24 month warranty
Every dimension is checked one last time before the gearbox ships. The completed rebuild carries an up to 24 month workmanship warranty and comes back ready to bolt in.
Where planetary drives earn their keep
Built for the high torque equipment that cannot stop.
Planetary gearboxes are chosen wherever a machine needs maximum torque in the smallest possible package. We rebuild the drives across all of it.
Cranes, Winches & Hoists
Swing drives, travel drives, and winch reducers rebuilt and re hardened to carry the rated load. Even load sharing across the planets is what keeps a lift safe under shock loading.
Mixers, Crushers & Mills
Concrete and process mixer drives, crusher reducers, and mill drives that run at high torque and low speed, rebuilt to take the constant pounding without backlash creeping in.
Mining, Drilling & Marine
Dragline and shovel drives, drilling top drive and rotary reducers, and marine propulsion and deck machinery planetaries, restored in house for the heaviest duty cycles on the Gulf Coast.
Planetary stages also drive plastics and rubber lines, so we rebuild them alongside our extruder gearbox repair work, and we restore planetary sections inside larger units as part of our full gearbox repair service.
Straight from the floor
Ground, re hardened, and proven under load.
Not stock photos. These are planetary gear sets we restored and rebuilt in our Houston shop, the same quality that goes back into your line.
No risk to you
Why there is no reason to scrap a planetary drive.
Restore
Rebuild, do not replace
A rebuilt planetary drive comes back to the original ratio, profile, and clearance, and saves up to 50 percent versus a new OEM unit. Most damage is in one or two gears, not the whole box.
Free
Shipping, inspection, pickup
Free shipping both ways, free inspection, and free pickup and delivery including crating and rigging. You see the real condition of every gear before you commit.
Backed
up to a 24 month warranty
An up to 24 month workmanship warranty on the grinding, the re hardening, and the rebuild. Proven on the test stand under load before it ever leaves the shop.
24/7
Emergency turnaround
Planetary drive let go at 2am? Our 24 hour emergency line answers at 832 270 2009. Rush rebuilds in days, not weeks, so the line gets back up.
Questions, answered
What plants ask before they ship us a planetary drive.
Can you repair a planetary gearbox or do I have to replace the whole unit?
In almost every case the unit can be repaired. A planetary gearbox is built from a sun gear, a set of planet gears on their carrier, and a ring gear, and most failures damage only one or two of those elements. We inspect every part with Magnaflux, replace what is past saving, grind the gears back to profile, and rebuild the train to the original ratio and clearance. A rebuild typically costs a fraction of a new gearbox and ships with an up to 24 month workmanship warranty. See our full gearbox repair process for how the complete unit is handled.
How do you make sure the load is shared evenly across the planet gears?
Even load sharing is what makes a planetary set last, so it is the heart of every rebuild. We grind the sun, planets, and ring to a matched profile, true the carrier so every planet pin sits on the same pitch circle, set backlash and bearing clearance to spec, then set the input and output shafts with laser alignment. Before the gearbox leaves, we run it under load and vibration testing to confirm the planets are sharing the torque and the unit runs quiet.
Do you re harden gear teeth, or just clean them up?
Both, depending on what the gear needs. Light scoring is corrected by precision grinding the tooth flanks back to profile. When the hardened case is worn or ground through, we carburize and re harden the gear so it carries the rated contact stress again, then finish grind to the final profile. We measure case depth and surface hardness so the repaired gear meets the original specification. When a gear is too far gone to grind, we cut a new one through our gear cutting service.
Can you handle high torque planetary drives from heavy equipment?
Yes. Planetary gearboxes are chosen for high torque in a compact package, and that is exactly the work we do. We rebuild planetary drives from cranes, draglines, mixers, crushers, winches, mining and drilling equipment, and large industrial reducers, including the planetary stages inside extruder gearboxes. Send us the complete unit or just the damaged gear set. Shipping, inspection, pickup, and delivery including crating and rigging are free.
Get a fast quote on your planetary gearbox.
Free shipping, free inspection, free pickup and delivery, and an up to 24 month warranty on every rebuild. Tell us about your drive and we will reply fast, often the same day.