Workpiece machining apparatus and method

Gear cutting – milling – or planing – Gear cutting – With regulation of operation by use of templet – card – or...

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Details

51 52R, 51287, 409 41, 409 50, 409 51, B23F 526

Patent

active

047985046

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to the machining of formations, such as gear teeth, spaced along a path having a predetermined curvature.
The grinding of gear tooth flanks is presently carried out on conventional machine tools with which problems arise in the machining of large gear wheels. In prior gear forming machines, the tool and workpiece are guided or fed relative to each other along curved paths having a common center of curvature so as to limit the maximum distance of the tool from the center of the formation path and therefore also the maximum size of the workpiece to be machined.
Workpieces having a machining formation path of a diameter larger than that accomodated by the conventional in-house machine tool have required the acquisition of expensive, special machines for infrequent use on larger workpieces with high investment costs and space requirements so that production costs become excessively high. Furthermore, the special machines for large workpieces did not even contribute significantly to improvement in machining precision, because of the large tool and table travel distances involved and the larger tolerance errors associated therewith. Also in view of the lack of precision the less demanding use of the special machines by preliminary machining of smaller formations on larger workpieces became more difficult.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to enlarge utilization of machine tool arrangements accomodating the prevailing workpiece dimensions by also accomodating with precision workpieces considerably larger than those capable of being handled by conventionally equipped machines, with only insignificant loss of time for adjustment of control movements.


SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The foregoing object of the invention is achieved by additional relative displacements between the tool and workpiece holder imparted by auxiliary drive arrangements in a direction perpendicular to the normal two directions of relative movement between the tool and the workpiece holder (synchronized by programmed control) and also in one of said two directions to establish and/or maintain radial alignment between the axis of the tool holder and the center of the arcuate path on the workpiece along which equally spaced, identical formations are machined by the tool. Thus, the workpiece and tool are relatively moved under control of eccentric motion programming of additional driving elements to shift the workpiece holder or feed in radial relation to the spacing between formations or tooth gaps along curved path segments. Such workpiece feed movement is limited only by the transverse stroke of the tool for a machining diameter of any desired size. Thus it becomes possible with correspondingly equipped driving elements and the additional programming control to machine larger workpieces as precisely as in the case of machines of customary size such as the conventional gear tooth cutting machines on which prevailing size workpieces or gear blanks are held in concentric relation to the gear axis as well as machines for workpieces held eccentrically for considerably larger gear diameters in which there is a corresponding radial distance between the tool holder axis and the gear machining center. Gear tooth segments and internal gears having large machining diameters may thereby be cut on machines capable of accomodating considerably smaller standard gear wheels. Since feeding movements may be imparted simultaneously for axis shifting, angular drive corrections and other angular corrections of machining operations, only insignificant loss of time is involved in the machining change from one tooth gap to the next. Thus, control of radial machining strokes is effected at each operating position, as is necessary for example in the machining of segmental grooves or gear teeth.
Heretofore, the maximum diameter of a gear blank to be machined was often determined by the available space in the workroom for gear cutting machines of different sizes. It is now possible to utilize one machine f

REFERENCES:
patent: 1404205 (1922-01-01), Jorgensen
patent: 3841198 (1974-10-01), Comford
patent: 3916569 (1975-11-01), Wydler et al.
patent: 4339895 (1982-07-01), Fivian
patent: 4543020 (1985-09-01), Shtipelman
National Branch and Machine Co., Gear Grinding Becomes A Science, 3/24/67, FIG. 9.

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