Bevel gear manufacture with face cutters without swing axis motion
View Patent ↗A method of machining bevel gears whereby machining of both flanks of a tooth slot and crowning of the tooth surfaces in the lengthwise direction are realized without an active pivot axis and by a modification of the conventional relationship between the radial and swivel basic settings during gear generating.
1. A method of manufacturing bevel gears on a rectilinear multi-axis computer-controlled gear generating machine by moving a tool having a tool axis and a workpiece having a workpiece axis relative to one another according to a generating process,
wherein said generating is defined by parameters including rotation of a cradle of a theoretical gear generating machine, said cradle comprising rotatable and positionable elements for establishing settings for radial distance S, tool axis swivel j and tool axis tilt i; and,
wherein an auxiliary plane P A is defined as being connected to said rotatable and positionable elements for establishing angular settings for said tool axis swivel j and tool axis tilt i, said auxiliary plane P A further containing said tool axis;
rotating said tool about said tool axis;
engaging said tool with said workpiece;
moving said tool relative to said workpiece to generate said bevel gear, said tool moving along a path described by rotation of said cradle;
said method further comprising rotating said rotatable element for establishing the angular setting for radial distance S along with said cradle rotation, wherein during said cradle rotation, said rotatable elements for establishing angular settings for tool axis swivel j and tool axis tilt I exhibit a net amount of rotation equal to zero and wherein said auxiliary plane P A remains in a fixed angular orientation during said cradle rotation;
said method being further characterized by no relative pivoting motion between said tool axis and said workpiece axis during said generating on said rectilinear multi-axis computer-controlled gear generating machine.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein said bevel gear is a ring gear.
3. The method of claim 2 wherein said ring gear has a diameter greater than 800 mm.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein said bevel gear is a pinion.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein said generating process is a face milling process.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein said generating process is a face hobbing process.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein said tool is a cutting tool.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein said tool is a grinding tool.