Gear finishing apparatus

Details Gear finishing apparatus Gear finishing apparatus

1995-04-17

1997-04-01

Larson, Lowell A.

Gear cutting, milling, or planing

Gear cutting

Using rotary cutter

72102, B23F 1906

Patent

active

056159820

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION

The present invention relates to a gear finishing apparatus in which a finishing wheel having internal teeth is rotated so as to finish a gear piece in mesh with the finishing wheel.


PRIOR ART AND PROBLEMS INVOLVED

When high accuracy in tooth profile is required for a gear, a finish processing to modify the gear deformed by a heat-treatment, i.e., a so-called horning is conducted. The finish processing is performed in such a manner that a finishing wheel meshed with a gear piece (i.e. a gear to be processed) at a predetermined crossed axes angle is rotated so as to modify its tooth profile. The finishing wheel is held in a finishing wheel support gear having a circular form and peripheral external teeth for rotation with the finishing wheel. The support gear is rotated by a driving device in mesh with the peripheral external teeth and is forwarded for cutting into the gear piece. Until the correction of the tooth profile is completed, each tooth of the finishing wheel is repeatedly brought into mesh with a tooth of the gear piece, generally over a number of times, e.g., 20 to 100 times. Thus, the lifetime of a finishing wheel is generally short.
Conventional gear finishing apparatus have only one finishing wheel for each one finishing wheel support gear (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications Nos. 140097/1977 and 365513/1992). Therefore, every time the finishing wheel has consumed its lifetime, the apparatus must be suspended for replacement with a new finishing wheel. When attaching a finishing wheel, high level accuracy and a careful handling for attachment are required. After the attachment, a dressing treatment is further required for correcting positional errors caused by the gaps necessary for the attachment of the finishing wheel. Therefore, significant time is required for replacing finishing wheels in the processing time for finishing a gear, and therefore there has been a need for time and labor reduction in wheel replacement.
In order to cope with these problems, there has been proposed an apparatus in which an adjustment collar is mounted inside a finishing wheel support gear (Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. 57319/1992). In this apparatus, a finishing wheel of a diameter is replaced together with a collar having the same diameter so that the replacement of the finishing wheel can be conducted without detaching a gear head. However, this apparatus can not overcome the above problems occurring in the mutual replacement of the finishing wheels having the same diameter. Furthermore, even in replacing a finishing wheel with another wheel of a different diameter, the apparatus can not eliminate the necessity of the careful handling for attachment and the dressing treatment both required for obtaining the above-mentioned high accuracy.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a gear finishing apparatus which can address such demands, perform appropriate replacement of a gear finishing wheel and reduce the time and labor required thereof.


SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

To fulfill the above object, the present invention provides a gear finishing apparatus in which a finishing wheel with internal teeth is rotated so as to finish a gear piece in mesh with the finishing wheel, the apparatus comprising: piece; from the gear piece on the work holder in a direction substantially perpendicular to the axis of the gear; and and holds the finishing wheel, axes angle relative to the gear piece during processing; parallel to the axis of the finishing wheel while holding the finishing wheel at the crossed axes angle; predetermined position within the extent of the movement; finishing wheel inside and is supported by the operating portion rotatablly about the central axis of the support ring; and support ring to rotate, that the plurality of finishing wheels can be arranged therein adjacent to each other in a direction parallel to the axis of the finishing wheel and fixed.
The gear finishing apparatus of the present invention has a construction in which a

REFERENCES:
patent: 2228968 (1941-01-01), Miller
patent: 4329096 (1982-05-01), Herscovici
patent: 5129185 (1992-07-01), Erhardt et al.

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