Advantages and New Opportunities

Using the CNC machining centers to manufacture gears offers the following advantages and new opportunities:

• More flexibility to obtain an optimal gear design, e.g., a freely selectable module, the 20° pressure angle can be customized as needed, special gearings (e.g., full-depth gears and stub tooth gears) or double helical and herringbone gears (with and without space in the center), bevel gears
• More compact workpieces, a tool runout is not necessary (e.g., from a hob)
• Tooling optimization (reducing the number of tools), the gears can be manufactured using standard cutting tools
• Manufacturing of complex workpieces with gearings possible in one clamping position, e.g., workpieces with external and internal gearings
• No gear cutting machines are necessary
• Larger dimensions and larger module ranges are possible, e.g., for external spur gears up to a maximum diameter of 16.000 mm, for internal gears up to a diameter of 3.000 mm or bevel gears up to a maximum outside diameter of 4.000 mm (according to the machining center type)
• Dry processing
• Soft and hard cutting
• Suitable for single item production and small batch production (from module 3 or 4 and up)
• Depending on the requirements, the efficiency and manufacturing lead times are similar and even better than the previous manufacturing process (particularly for a larger module range)
• Gears can be machined to DIN 4 gear quality or better, it is possible to obtain a surface finish as smooth as the surface finish that can be obtained by grinding