Hugh,
I am not sure what printing process you are talking about, but gear quality can only be a tip of the iceberg. We (Mark Andy) spend tons of money and effort fighting gearmarking (commonly referred as banding). Most important for gearmarking is PD runout, lead and tooth profile. Then come...
We are researching servo planetary gearboxes and recently had presentation from one company. Mechanical design is probably the best and most impressive we've seen, there is only one concern: they are using nitrided stainless gears (unfortunately, I do not know what stainless steel they are...
