Gear cutting – milling – or planing – Gear cutting – Gear chamfering or deburring
Patent
1997-08-22
1999-03-16
Pitts, Andrea L.
Gear cutting, milling, or planing
Gear cutting
Gear chamfering or deburring
409 37, 409 49, B23F 1900
Patent
active
058821546
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a gear finishing apparatus for finishing a helical gear by rotating an internally toothed finishing wheel with which the helical gear meshes.
When high accuracy is required in the tooth profile of a gear, a finishing process, i.e., a so-called horning process is conducted to correct the deformation of the gear caused by a heat-treatment or the like. The finishing process is performed by meshing a finishing wheel with a workpiece gear at a predetermined crossed axes angle and then rotating the workpiece gear to modify its tooth profile. The finishing wheel is of a gear shape (generally, an internally toothed gear) and rotated by a drive unit. The finishing wheel moves in a direction perpendicular to the axis of the workpiece gear to cut in the workpiece gear. To perform a finishing process more uniformly, the workpiece gear is also moved repeatedly in an axial direction of the workpiece gear at the cutting depth. When the workpiece gear is a spur gear, the workpiece gear has only to reciprocally move in an axial direction while rotating at the same rotational speed as that of the finishing wheel, since the tooth surface of the workpiece gear is in parallel to its direction of movement. However, when the workpiece gear is a helical gear, the tooth surface thereof is inclined relative to its direction of movement. Therefore, the rotational speed of the finishing wheel needs to be modified according to the helix angle of the helical gear in order to reciprocally move the workpiece gear substantially in a direction along the inclined tooth surface of the helical gear.
When rotatably attaching a helical gear on a tail stock and driving the helical gear according to the rotation of the finishing wheel, the helical gear is guided by the tooth surface of the finishing wheel and has its rotation adjusted automatically by its helix angle in accordance with the reciprocal movement of the workpiece gear in its axial direction. However, to perform a more accurate finishing process, it is more desirable to drive the workpiece gear at the same circumferential speed as that of the finishing wheel rather than to drive the workpiece gear by the finishing wheel. When finishing a spur gear, the workpiece gear has only to be driven at the same circumferential speed as that of the finishing wheel, since the direction of movement of the workpiece gear is in parallel to the tooth surface of the finishing plane as afore-mentioned. Actually, there has been a finishing machine that performs such an operation. However, as for helical gears, there has been no such machine that drives a workpiece gear to accord with the rotation of a finishing wheel. Therefore, the industry has been seeking such a machine.
It is an object of the present invention to address these demands, i.e., to provide a gear finishing apparatus that can perform a finishing process while driving a helical gear according to a finishing wheel.
The object of the present invention is achieved by a gear finishing apparatus for finishing a helical gear by rotating a gear-type finishing wheel to thereby rotate the helical gear about its gear axis in mesh with the finishing wheel, the apparatus comprising: the helical gear about its gear axis; gear to the gear holder to hold the helical gear; helical gear in a substantially perpendicular direction to the gear axis of the helical gear; wheel at a crossed axes angle relative to the helical gear and rotatably about the central axis of the helical gear; finishing wheel holder; and movement between them in the direction along the gear axis, hold the helical gear; to the holder body; and
FIG. 1 is a front elevation of one embodiment of a gear finishing apparatus according to the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a plan view of the gear finishing apparatus show in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a side view of the gear finishing apparatus of FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is a front elevation of the gear finishing apparatus of FIG. 1 in operation;
FIG. 5 is a vertical cross section showing the details of a gear holder of the finishin
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Mihara Toshihide
Yoshida Ryoji
Kanzaki Kokyukoki Mfg. Co. Ltd.
Kirkman Christopher
Pitts Andrea L.
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