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Study on tooth profile error of cylindrical gears manufactured by flexible free-form milling

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Abstract

The free-form milling of gears is a modern and flexible machining process that allows the manufacturing of external gears by using standard milling tools on universal machine center. In this paper, tooth profile error of cylindrical gears manufactured by flexible free-form milling is studied. Firstly, a mathematical model is established to investigate the tool path with respect to geometric characteristic of gear surface according to the theory of spatial form milling. Then, the influence of tooth profile error related to the processing parameters such as the type of tool, the feeding strategy of tool, and the basic parameters of gear is studied. Finally, for a validation, an experiment is performed using a universal multiaxis machine center with standard end mill. The experimental results show that free-form milling of gears is an effective and economical solution for manufacturing high-quality gears while a universal machine center is available. Furthermore, the study results support the engineers in the selection of optimal processing parameters by using free-form milling method.

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Abbreviations

φ :

Rotation angle of workpiece

(a, e):

Tool setting parameters

(u, θ):

Tooth surface parameters

r g(u, θ):

Position vector of workpiece

n g(u, θ):

Normal vector of workpiece

(α t, ψ):

Geometric parameters of tool

r t(α t, ψ):

Position vector of tool

n t(α t, ψ):

Normal vector of tool

k A, k B :

Slope of lines tangent to involute curve

r b :

Radius of base circle

σ 0 :

Half angular tooth thickness on the base circle

p :

Screw parameter of helical gear

Δt :

Residual error of tooth profile

z :

Tooth number of workpiece

m n :

Normal module of tooth

α n :

Pressure angle

β :

Helix angle of workpiece

N :

Cutting pass number

Δu :

Incremental angle of involute

Δx :

Radial feed of the tool

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51805225), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2017M621682), and the Opening Project of Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Digital Manufacturing for Industrial Equipment and Control Technology in China (No. DM201601).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Xuefu Road 301, Zhenjiang, 212013, Jiangsu, China

    Erkuo Guo, Naifei Ren, Zhulin Liu, Xintao Zheng & Changlu Zhou

  2. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Digital Manufacturing for Industrial Equipment and Control Technology, Nanjing, 210000, Jiangsu, China

    Erkuo Guo

Authors
  1. Erkuo Guo
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  2. Naifei Ren
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  3. Zhulin Liu
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  4. Xintao Zheng
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  5. Changlu Zhou
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Correspondence to Erkuo Guo.

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Guo, E., Ren, N., Liu, Z. et al. Study on tooth profile error of cylindrical gears manufactured by flexible free-form milling. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 103, 4443–4451 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-019-03894-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-019-03894-w

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