The outer surface of the spline shaft body is equipped with longitudinal keyways, while the inner bore of the mating rotating component is machined with corresponding keyway structures. Through the precise engagement of key teeth and keyways, synchronous rotation between the rotating component and the shaft is achieved. In some structures, linear sliding along the axial direction is also possible during rotation. Typical applications include the gearshift mechanism in transmission gearboxes.
The manufacturing processes for spline shafts are diverse and primarily categorized into two main types: cutting processes and plastic forming processes:
1.Rolling cutting method: Using a spline rolling cutter, the spline profile is machined on a spline shaft milling machine or gear hobbing machine via the generating method, enabling efficient production of high-precision spline tooth profiles.
2.Milling method: On a universal milling machine, either a specialized forming milling cutter can be used to directly mill the tooth profile (in conjunction with a dividing head for tooth-by-tooth indexing), or two disk milling cutters can be used simultaneously to mill both sides of a single tooth slot. After rough machining, a single disk milling cutter is used to finish the base diameter to ensure dimensional accuracy.
3.Grinding method: Using a form grinding wheel, the spline teeth sides and base diameter are ground on a spline shaft grinding machine, suitable for subsequent precision machining of spline shafts with high precision and surface quality requirements.
Additionally, plastic deformation processes such as cold forging and cold rolling can form splines through localized plastic flow of the material, featuring high efficiency and excellent surface properties.