The common processing methods of gears include hobbing, shaping, shaving, milling, forming and grinding, developing and grinding and powder metallurgy processing, etc., and the following is a brief introduction to the most common processing methods.
1. Gear hobbing
It is part of the development technique of processing, and its functioning idea is like the meshing of two helical gears.
Usually the number of teeth z=1, the teeth are very long, a worm with a small spiral rise angle forms around the shaft, and then after slotting and shovelling teeth it becomes a hob with a cutting edge and a relief angle. The prototype of the gear hob is a helical gear with a large helix angle.
2. Gear shaping
Along with gear hobbing, gear shaping is a widely used gear cutting technique using the expansion approach.
The shaper cutter in gear shaping is meshed like a pair of cylindrical gears with the workpiece. While the circular motion of the shaper cutter and the workpiece in a particular ratio is the feed motion of the shaping, the primary motion of the shaper cutter is reciprocating motion.
3. Shave your teeth
Shaving is a typical finishing technique for non-hardened tooth sides in high-volume manufacturing. Its operating concept is to execute free meshing motion using the shaving cutter and the processing gear under the relative slip between the two, shave off extremely thin chips from the tooth surface, thus increasing the precision of the tooth surface.
4. Milling gears
Using disc modulus milling cutters or finger milling cutter milling gear relates to forming method processing; the cross-sectional shape of the cutter teeth of the milling cutter corresponds to the form between the gear teeth. Only single-piece and small-batch manufacturing will benefit this poor processing efficiency and machining precision technology.
5. Forming grinding gear
It also belongs to the forming method, because the grinding wheel is not easy to dress, so it is rarely used.
6. Expand into grinding teeth
Especially for hardened gears, which is typically the sole finishing technique, the developed grinding tooth's cutting action resembles that of hobbing and is a tooth finishing technique. One may ground the development approach using conical, disc, or worm wheels.
7. Powder metallurgy
With cheap cost and great efficiency, it is a gear processing technique fit for mass production, high accuracy and low noise.
The technique is to press the mixed metal powder into the pre-made mould using a professional powder metallurgy press to form a powder metallurgy wool; then, stainless steel powder metallurgy gears are sintered through a vacuum furnace, and lastly soaked in anti-rust oil or machining.
The above is my understanding of these common gear processing methods, for reference only. Hansheng Automation is a manufacturer with more than 10 years of experience in the production of custom precision gear, and we can produce a wide range of gear products, such as spur teeth, helical teeth, bevel teeth, racks, gear shafts, etc. It also has Gear Skiving, Gear Hobbing, Gear Shaping, Gear Broaching and other series of processing technology. The machines we use for production include but are not limited to kashifuji gearskiving machine KPS30, Ningjiang CNC horizontal gear hobbing machine YK3610,etc.