Method and apparatus for generating a modified surface structure on a tooth flank

Abstract

The invention discloses a method and a machine tool for generating a modified surface structure on a tooth flank of an already toothed workpiece. Generation of a relative movement between the grinding worm and the toothed workpiece, the relative movement having an axial component parallel to the workpiece axis, gives rise to the formation on the tooth flank of the toothed workpiece of a plurality of adjacent contact tracks which, as seen in relation to a width direction of the workpiece, are spaced apart from one another. In order to generate a tooth-flank wave formation, a depth of penetration between the grinding worm and the workpiece is varied in a specific manner along the respective contact track such that the tooth-flank wave formations of adjacent contact tracks are displaced by a phase offset in relation to one another in a height direction of the workpiece at any desired predefined position, wherein the phase offset is between 90° and 270°, and / or wherein the phase offset in relation to the respectively adjacent contact tracks varies from contact track to contact track, and / or wherein the phase offset in relation to the adjacent contact tracks varies along one of the respective contact tracks.

Description

[0001] TITLE METHOD AND DEVICE FOR PRODUCING A MODIFIED SURFACE STRUCTURE ON A TOOTH Flank TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a method for producing a modified surface structure on a tooth flank of a pre-toothed workpiece. The invention further relates to a machine tool adapted to carry out such a method. PRIOR ART Particularly in the context of electromobility, the topic of NVH (noise-vibration-harshness) is gaining importance, especially in the area of ​​a vehicle's transmission, due to the lack of a dominant noise from the combustion engine. The requirements for noise excitation behavior are often specified in the form of predefined limit values ​​in a noise frequency spectrum. Whether a workpiece meets these requirements is usually tested randomly on an end-of-line (EOL) test bench.If the measured amplitudes of individual noise frequencies exceed the predefined limit, the corresponding workpiece is rejected. A typical noise frequency spectrum of a rotating gear exhibits dominant amplitudes at noise frequencies corresponding to the tooth meshing frequency (fZE = gear rotation frequency x number of teeth) and the associated higher harmonics. These dominant noise frequencies generally result from rotational path deviations caused by meshing stiffness varying over the meshing path. The meshing stiffness curve as a function of position along the meshing path repeats periodically with the meshing pitch and leads to the dominant noise frequencies mentioned above. Another cause can be a "rolling hole" created during production, i.e., material that is recessed relative to the desired profile line.Overall, any deviation in the rotational path of a gear under load can lead to noise excitation that is perceived as a disturbing noise. For example, if a dressing tool exhibits a certain waviness across the profile height, this is transferred to the worm flank and subsequently leads to a profile deviation on the workpiece. Constant vibrations in the periphery of the machine tool used to machine the pre-toothed workpiece can also lead to tooth flank waviness on the tooth flank, which can be measured and result in disturbing noise characteristics of the gear. Grooves running across the width of the gear can also lead to noise excitation. Overall, any periodic surface structure, especially in a direction perpendicular to the line of contact of paired spur gears, can lead to the excitation of a noise frequency that is dominant in the noise frequency spectrum of the gear.There are several approaches to improving the noise excitation behavior of a gear. Rotational path deviations resulting from gear deformation under load can be effectively reduced by modifying the tooth flank. A rolling hole can be almost completely eliminated through optimized process control. DE 10 2012 015 846 A1 discloses a generating grinding process in which a workpiece is machined with a grinding worm. By deliberately generating an unbalance-induced wobbling motion of the grinding worm and / or an eccentricity of the grinding worm, a modification, in particular a profile modification or profile waviness and / or a defined periodic flank waviness, is created on the active surface of the workpiece being machined in order to modify or prevent unwanted flank waviness.A flank waviness on the workpiece resulting from imbalance or eccentricity of a grinding worm always has order one with respect to the worm rotation frequency, i.e., it is not possible to generate a flank waviness with a higher order with respect to the worm rotation frequency in this way. A periodically repeating surface structure tends to lead to excitation in a relatively narrow noise frequency band. A surface structure that is as irregular as possible, in turn, leads to a very broad noise frequency spectrum that approximates "white" noise, i.e., a noise frequency spectrum with equal amplitude for all noise frequencies. Such a noise frequency spectrum, in which the dominance of individual noise frequencies tends to be reduced, is perceived as less disturbing psychoacoustically and is therefore advantageous.In addition, for excitations with a broad noise frequency spectrum, the total excitation energy is distributed over a large frequency range, so that the noise amplitude of each individual frequency component tends to be lower than for excitations in a narrow frequency band. If the workpiece is machined using a generating grinding process with a grinding worm, periodically repeating surface structures can occur on a tooth flank, which may result, for example, from the dressing of the grinding worm used to machine the tooth flank. The dressing wheel used during dressing may exhibit differences in grain size and shape, as well as a different grain distribution, over its circumference due to technological reasons, resulting in a dressing pattern on the surface of the dressing wheel.Since the dressing wheel typically performs a large number of revolutions during one rotation of the grinding worm, this dressing pattern is periodically projected onto the grinding worm during dressing in the worm thread direction. During subsequent grinding of the workpiece, periodic fluctuations in the tooth flank surface in the form of grooves can then arise on the workpiece's tooth flanks, extending across the tooth width. DE 19905136 A1 discloses a method in which the angle of rotation of the dressing wheel is coupled to the angle of rotation of the grinding worm with an adjustable, fixed, or programmably variable, or a stored, stochastically changing ratio. The grinding worm is moved along its axis relative to the workpiece during grinding (shift feed), so that each point on the tooth flanks of the workpiece's gearing corresponds to exactly one point on the flanks of the grinding worm thread.By carefully selecting the shift feed, the aforementioned grooves can be broken. Although the periodicity of the tooth flank surface structure is thus broken, thereby achieving, in principle, a more pleasant noise behavior, the structure transferred to the tooth flank is strongly dependent on the stochastic dressing pattern on the surface of the dressing wheel and can therefore only be influenced during workpiece grinding via the shift feed. There is therefore a need for a method that enables the surface structure of a tooth flank to be specifically modified in such a way that particularly noise-optimized behavior is achieved. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In a first aspect, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for producing a modified surface structure on a tooth flank of a pre-toothed workpiece by generating grinding, which enables optimization of the noise behavior.This object is achieved by a method according to claim 1. Further embodiments are specified in the dependent claims. Thus, a method for producing a modified surface structure on a tooth flank of a pre-toothed workpiece is proposed, comprising: driving a grinding worm to rotate about a worm axis; driving the pre-toothed workpiece to rotate about a workpiece axis, wherein the grinding worm and the pre-toothed workpiece are in rolling engagement; and generating a relative movement between the grinding worm and the pre-toothed workpiece, wherein the relative movement has an axial component parallel to the workpiece axis, such that a plurality of adjacent contact tracks are formed on the tooth flank of the pre-toothed workpiece, wherein the contact tracks are spaced apart from one another with respect to a workpiece width direction.According to the invention, a penetration depth between the grinding worm and the pre-toothed workpiece along the respective contact track is deliberately varied to produce a tooth flank waviness with a plurality of wave periods along said contact track, such that the resulting tooth flank wavinesses of adjacent contact tracks at any predetermined position in a workpiece height direction, i.e. at any predetermined position above the tooth height or, in other words, along any predetermined flank line of the tooth flank viewed in the workpiece width direction, are shifted from one another by a phase offset, wherein the phase offset is between 90° and 270°, and / or wherein the phase offset to the respectively adjacent contact tracks varies from contact track to contact track, and / or wherein the phase offset to the adjacent contact tracks varies along the respective contact track.The arbitrary predefined flank line, with respect to which the phase shift is defined in the present context, results for a cylindrical workpiece as an intersection line between the tooth flank and a virtual cylinder arranged concentrically to the workpiece axis, which has an arbitrary predefined radius, wherein this radius has a value that lies between the value of the root form circle radius and the value of the tip form circle radius of the toothed workpiece. This intersection line defines a specific position in the workpiece height direction, i.e., a specific position above the tooth height. For a conical workpiece, the relevant flank line is defined in the present context as an intersection line with a virtual cone arranged concentrically to the workpiece axis. In some embodiments, the phase shift to the respective adjacent contact tracks varies from contact track to contact track, i.e., this phase shift is not constant from contact track to contact track.In particular, the phase offset between the tooth flank wavinesses of a first pair of adjacent contact tracks may differ from the phase offset between the tooth flank wavinesses of a second pair of adjacent contact tracks at a different position in the workpiece width direction. In some embodiments, alternatively or additionally, the phase offset to the respective adjacent contact tracks varies along the respective contact track. In particular, the tooth flank wavinesses of adjacent contact tracks may have different tooth flank waviness wavelengths, whereby the phase offset between said adjacent contact tracks varies in the direction of said contact tracks. Alternatively or additionally, the tooth flank waviness of the respective contact track may have a tooth flank waviness wavelength that varies along the respective contact track.This can result in a phase shift along the respective contact track that varies with the adjacent contact tracks, unless the tooth flank waviness wavelengths of the adjacent contact tracks also vary "synchronously." By varying the phase shift from contact track to contact track or along the respective contact track, wave crests and troughs occurring along a contact track, in conjunction with wave crests and troughs of the adjacent contact tracks, are prevented from forming rectilinear wavefronts (lines of the same waviness phase position). A surface structure with non-reciprocal wavefronts is advantageous with regard to the resulting noise behavior. In some embodiments, the phase shift of a contact track relative to the adjacent contact tracks is between 90° and 270°.By maintaining a phase offset of between 90° and 270°, wave crests and troughs occurring along the contact track are prevented from forming continuous wave fronts in conjunction with wave crests and troughs of the adjacent contact tracks. Instead, a broken surface structure is created, which has particularly advantageous noise characteristics. For example, in the case of tooth flank waviness with a fixed periodicity, a checkerboard-like surface structure can be specifically created with a phase offset of 180° to the nearest contact track. Such a structure can offer advantages in terms of noise characteristics, particularly when superimposed with uncontrolled, particularly stochastically occurring, deviations in penetration depth.Whether the tooth flank waviness of adjacent contact tracks is shifted by a phase offset from one another can depend on the variation frequency with which the penetration depth is varied. During machining, the adjacent contact tracks on the tooth flank are generated with a certain generation frequency. If both the variation frequency and the generation frequency are constant, and the variation frequency is an integer multiple of the generation frequency, there is no phase offset from contact track to contact track along any flank line on the tooth flank. A phase offset can, however, arise if the variation frequency is in a non-integer and / or non-constant relationship to the generation frequency. Preferably, the grinding worm is continuously shifted along a shift direction parallel to the worm axis.As a result, the relative movement between the grinding worm and the pre-toothed workpiece also has a shift component parallel to the worm axis. Due to the shift feed (i.e., the shift component of the relative movement), the grinding worm performs a superimposed rack-like movement in addition to the rolling movement from the rotation, which can change the generation frequency with which the contact marks are generated. This means that the tooth flank waviness wavelength can be distorted (i.e., it can become smaller or larger depending on the shift direction) and that the phase shift can be adjusted via the shift component. In particular, it can be useful to adjust the phase shift via the shift component if the variation frequency cannot or should not be changed, e.g.if the variation frequency is determined by an imbalance of the grinding worm or results from a gear waviness applied to the grinding worm and can thus be tied to a worm rotation frequency of the grinding worm, which may be fixed. In a preferred variant of the method, the grinding worm rotates at a worm rotation frequency, and the targeted variation of the penetration depth occurs with a variation frequency that is greater than the worm rotation frequency. This allows the phase offset to be adjusted with a lower shift feed than in a situation in which the variation frequency corresponds to the worm rotation frequency. Preferably, the variation frequency is selected to be so high compared to a rotation frequency of the pre-toothed workpiece that the tooth flank waviness along the respective contact tracks has a plurality of wave periods.The targeted variation of the penetration depth can be achieved in various ways, with combinations of these methods being possible. In particular, the targeted variation of the penetration depth can include: generating a targeted additional relative movement between the pre-toothed workpiece and the grinding worm. In this context, the term "additional relative movement" refers to movements that go beyond the movements necessary to fulfill the rolling condition and the relative movement parallel to the workpiece axis, which is necessary to generate adjacent contact marks. In particular, the term "additional relative movements" refers to movements that have a component in the direction of a normal to the tooth flank of the workpiece to be machined.Through the targeted relative additional movement, in particular a relative position between the pre-toothed workpiece and the grinding worm can be changed along a feed direction radial to the workpiece axis and / or along an axial direction parallel to the workpiece axis and / or along a shift direction along the worm axis. In particular, the grinding worm can be movable along a feed direction radial to the workpiece axis, and the generation of the targeted relative additional movement can comprise: exciting a translational oscillation of the grinding worm with an oscillation component in the feed direction radial to the workpiece axis.In particular, if the workpiece has helical gearing, the grinding worm can alternatively or additionally be configured to perform a movement with a movement component parallel to the workpiece axis, and generating the targeted relative additional movement can comprise: exciting a translational oscillation of the grinding worm with an oscillation component parallel to the workpiece axis. Alternatively or additionally, the grinding worm can be displaceable along a shift direction parallel to the worm axis, and generating the targeted relative additional movement can comprise: exciting a translational oscillation of the grinding worm with an oscillation component in the shift direction parallel to the worm axis. Alternatively or additionally, generating the targeted relative additional movement can comprise: exciting a torsional oscillation of the grinding worm about the worm axis.The pre-toothed workpiece can be arranged on a workpiece spindle, and generating the targeted relative additional movement can alternatively or additionally comprise: exciting a torsional vibration of the workpiece spindle about the workpiece axis, and / or exciting a bending vibration of the workpiece spindle, in particular about a direction perpendicular to the workpiece axis, and / or exciting a translational vibration of the workpiece spindle, in particular with a vibration component along a direction parallel and / or perpendicular to the workpiece axis. Alternatively or additionally, it is also conceivable to achieve the targeted variation of the penetration depth via a suitably dressed grinding worm.The grinding worm can have a thread waviness on a grinding worm thread flank, whereby the targeted variation of the penetration depth to generate the tooth flank waviness can comprise: transferring the thread waviness of the grinding worm thread flank to the tooth flank of the pre-toothed workpiece that is in rolling engagement with the grinding worm. The method can comprise dressing the grinding worm to generate the thread waviness. The thread waviness can also be generated either on only one part or on several different parts of the grinding worm thread, or on one or more width ranges of the grinding worm, which can then be traversed in a targeted manner during grinding of the workpiece by shifting in the shift direction.For example, each grinding stroke can be assigned a region with constant pitch waviness, or the pitch waviness can be configured to vary during a grinding stroke. The relative movement between the grinding worm can occur at a shift feed rate along the shift direction and at an axial feed rate in an axial direction parallel to the workpiece axis, with the shift feed rate and the axial feed rate being in a predetermined diagonal relationship such that the pitch waviness is projected onto the tooth flank of the pre-toothed workpiece, thereby specifically modifying the surface structure of the tooth flank. The diagonal ratio refers to the ratio of the shift feed rate of the grinding worm in the shift direction to the axial feed rate of the grinding worm in the axial direction parallel to the workpiece axis.The diagonal ratio can be zero or non-zero. Profiling a thread waviness firmly into the grinding worm thread offers the advantage that the thread waviness can be generated independently of the machining of the pre-toothed workpiece in a temporally separate and less dynamic process. Thus, in contrast to the generation of machine-controlled additional movement, less stringent precision requirements are placed on the machine axes involved in the highly dynamic grinding process. The method can also further include: dressing the grinding worm with a dressing tool, whereby the dressing tool may exhibit a radial runout and / or axial runout deviation.In this case, a fixed or variable angle of rotation relationship between the dressing tool and the grinding worm can be specified such that the radial runout and / or axial runout is specifically used to generate the thread waviness on the grinding worm thread flank. In one variant, the grinding worm has at least two grinding worm threads, wherein on each of the at least two grinding worm threads, a thread waviness is generated along a worm contact path, and wherein the at least two grinding worm threads each generate adjacent contact tracks on the tooth flank, wherein each contact track on the tooth flank is associated with one of the at least two worm contact paths, and wherein the thread wavinesses generated on the respective grinding worm threads preferably differ.In order for the at least two grinding worm threads to each produce adjacent contact tracks on the tooth flank, it is necessary to consider the engagement sequence in which the at least two grinding worm threads come into rolling engagement with the tooth flank, and to select a suitable tooth-to-thread ratio between the pre-toothed workpiece and the grinding worm. The worm contact paths preferably each have a worm contact path starting point associated with a contact track starting point of the respective contact track on the tooth flank, wherein the thread wavinesses of the at least two grinding worm threads are phase-shifted from one another at the respective worm contact path starting point. The thread wavinesses of the at least two grinding worm threads can also have a wavelength difference.These differences between the grinding worm threads can be specifically mapped onto the tooth flank, taking into account the engagement sequence and with a suitable selection of the shift feed, in order to specifically adjust the phase offset between the tooth flank wavinesses of adjacent contact tracks. Alternatively or additionally, the thread wavinesses of the at least two grinding worm threads can also exhibit a waviness amplitude difference. The worm contact path starting points can generally be arranged at different circumferential positions relative to a circumferential direction of the grinding worm.In the case of a grinding worm having at least two grinding worm flights, the method may further comprise: dressing one of the grinding worm flights of the grinding worm with a constant pitch error to produce a protruding grinding worm flight, wherein the pitch error is selected such that the protruding grinding worm flight achieves a greater penetration depth than its preceding and subsequent grinding worm flights with respect to a meshing sequence on the tooth flank, such that the protruding grinding worm flight at least partially grinds over the contact marks created by its preceding grinding worm flights. If the pitch error is selected within a suitable range, all contact marks between two contact marks of the protruding grinding worm flight can be ground over.This can result in only (relatively wide) contact marks being created on the workpiece tooth flank, which were generated by the protruding grinding worm thread, and in the tooth flank waviness being generated only by the protruding grinding worm thread. In this case, the shift feed can be reduced by a factor corresponding to the number of grinding worm threads engaging in a tooth gap. In some embodiments, a thread waviness is generated only on this protruding grinding worm thread. In other embodiments, a thread waviness is generated on each of the at least two grinding worm threads. Preferably, the targeted variation of the penetration depth is superimposed with uncontrolled, in particular stochastically occurring, deviations in the penetration depth, wherein the targeted variation of the penetration depth takes place with a modulation amplitude which is in a range between 0.2-fold and 5-fold of a fluctuation measure for the uncontrolled deviations in the penetration depth, wherein the fluctuation measure corresponds in particular to a standard deviation or an interquartile range of the uncontrolled deviations in the penetration depth, in particular, wherein the fluctuation measure of the uncontrolled deviations in the penetration depth is determined and the modulation amplitude is specifically selected depending on the determined fluctuation measure. Through the targeted variations in the penetration depth, a suitable carrier pattern can be generated on the tooth flank, which can be made more diffuse by superimposing the uncontrolled deviations, leading to an optimization of the noise behavior.In a further aspect, the present invention provides a machine tool comprising: a tool spindle configured to receive a grinding worm for rotation about a worm axis; a workpiece spindle configured to receive a pre-toothed workpiece for rotation about a workpiece axis; an axial slide with an axial drive for generating a relative movement between the tool spindle and the workpiece spindle, wherein the relative movement has an axial component parallel to the workpiece axis; and a controller configured to carry out the method described above.The machine tool preferably comprises a shift slide with a shift drive for generating a displacement of the grinding worm in a shift direction parallel to the worm axis, wherein the shift drive is designed to excite the shift slide to a translational oscillation in the shift direction. Alternatively or additionally, the axial drive can be designed to excite the axial slide to a translational oscillation with an oscillation component parallel to the workpiece axis. Alternatively or additionally, the tool spindle can be designed to excite the grinding worm to a torsional oscillation about the worm axis.Alternatively or additionally, the machine tool can have a tool carrier with a tool carrier drive for generating a feed movement of the grinding worm in a feed direction radial to the worm axis, wherein the tool carrier drive is designed to excite the grinding worm to a translational oscillation in the feed direction.Alternatively or additionally, the machine tool can have at least one separate tool vibration module, which is designed to excite the shift slide and / or the tool spindle to a translational vibration in the shift direction, and / or which is designed to excite the axial slide to a translational vibration with a vibration component parallel to the workpiece axis, and / or which is designed to excite the tool carrier to a translational vibration in the feed direction, and / or which is designed to excite the tool spindle to a torsional vibration about the worm axis. The machine tool can have a separate tool vibration module for any selection of the above-mentioned excitation forms or for each of the above-mentioned excitation forms.It is particularly conceivable to excite the shift slide and the tool spindle with different excitation parameters and thus generate a superimposed translational vibration. Alternatively or additionally, the machine tool may comprise a workpiece spindle drive for driving the workpiece spindle, wherein the workpiece spindle drive is designed to excite the workpiece spindle to a torsional vibration and / or a bending vibration and / or a translational vibration. Alternatively or additionally, the machine tool may have at least one separate workpiece vibration module designed to excite the workpiece spindle to a torsional vibration and / or a bending vibration and / or a translational vibration.The machine tool can have a separate workpiece vibration module for any of the above-mentioned excitation modes of the workpiece spindle, or for each of the above-mentioned excitation modes of the workpiece spindle. In this context, the term "vibration" refers to temporally repeating (periodic) fluctuations. The vibrations can be harmonic or have other vibration modes. The above-mentioned vibrations can each have a vibration frequency that is constant over time or that is deliberately varied over time. Likewise, the above-mentioned vibrations can each have a vibration amplitude that is constant over time or that is deliberately varied over time. The individual excitation sources, as well as the use of a grinding worm with a pitch ripple, can be combined with one another as desired.It is also conceivable to deliberately generate beats by superimposing different excitation sources. It is also conceivable to achieve the targeted variation of the penetration depth during different grinding strokes in a grinding process using different methods, e.g., performing a roughing stroke with excitation of a vibration in the shift direction and a finishing stroke with ripple on the grinding worm. Likewise, various methods can be used to deliberately vary the penetration depth during a grinding stroke, for example, preferably during the finishing stroke, as this is responsible for the final surface. Individual, several, or all available excitation sources can be switched on and off during the grinding stroke, or their amplitude and frequency can be varied in order to vary the excitation characteristics during the grinding stroke, i.e., across the flank width.This allows a more diffuse surface structure with fewer periodic components to be created. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Preferred embodiments of the invention are described below with reference to the drawings, which are for illustrative purposes only and are not to be interpreted as restrictive. The drawings show: Fig. 1 a schematic view of a generating grinding machine; Fig. 2 an enlarged section from Fig. 1; Fig. 3 a schematic sectional view along a flank line of a tooth flank; Fig. 4 a schematic representation of a plurality of contact tracks spaced apart from one another in the width direction on a tooth flank; Fig. 5A a schematic representation of the effective contact track widths of a plurality of contact tracks spaced apart from one another in the width direction on a tooth flank without phase offset between the contact tracks; Fig.5B shows a tooth flank waviness schematically resulting from the periodic variation of a penetration depth between the grinding worm and the workpiece, without a phase shift between the contact tracks; Fig. 5C shows an enlarged section of a longitudinal section along the section line A'-A' shown in Figs. 5A and 5B; Fig. 5D shows an enlarged section of a longitudinal section along the section line B'-B' shown in Figs. 5A and 5B; Fig. 6A shows a schematic representation of the effective contact track width of a plurality of contact tracks spaced apart from one another in the width direction on a tooth flank, with a phase shift of 180° between the contact tracks; Fig. 6B shows a tooth flank waviness schematically resulting from the periodic variation of the penetration depth, with a phase shift of 180° between the contact tracks; Fig. 6C shows an enlarged section of a longitudinal section along the section line shown in Figs. 6A and Fig.6B shown section line A''-A'';Fig.6D shows an enlarged section of a longitudinal section along the section line shown in Figs. 6A and 6B. Fig. 7A is a schematic end view of a grinding worm flight flank of an individual grinding worm flight of a grinding worm for a pitch of the grinding worm; Fig. 7B is a developed view of a circular grinding worm surface with a schematically illustrated pitch waviness; Fig. 8 is a sectional view of a tooth flank in the width direction; Fig. 9A is a targeted periodic variation of the penetration depth as a function of a position along a contact track; Fig. 9B is an uncontrolled, stochastically occurring deviations of the penetration depth as a function of the position along a contact track; Fig. 9C is a resulting superposition of the targeted variation from Fig. 9A and the uncontrolled deviations from Fig. 9B, and Fig. 10 is an exemplary illustration of a surface structure of a tooth flank modified using a method according to the invention. DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Exemplary structure of a generating grinding machine In Fig.Figure 1 shows a generating grinding machine 1 as an example of a machine tool, which will also be referred to as "machine" below. The machine 1 has a machine bed 11 on which a tool carrier 12 is guided for displacement along a radial feed direction X. The tool carrier 12 carries an axial slide 13, which is guided for displacement relative to the tool carrier 12 along a feed direction Z. A grinding head is mounted on the axial slide 13, which can be pivoted about a pivot axis running parallel to the X direction (the so-called A axis) to adapt to the helix angle of the gear to be machined. The grinding head, in turn, carries a shift slide 14, on which a tool spindle 15 can be moved relative to the grinding head along a shift direction Y. A helically profiled grinding wheel (grinding worm) 16 is clamped on the tool spindle 15.The grinding worm 16 is driven by the tool spindle 15 to rotate about a worm axis B. The machine bed 11 further supports a pivotable workpiece carrier 20 in the form of a turret, which can be pivoted about a pivot axis C3 between at least three positions. Two identical workpiece spindles are mounted diametrically opposite one another on the workpiece carrier 20, of which only one workpiece spindle 21 is visible in Fig. 1. A workpiece can be clamped on each of the workpiece spindles and driven to rotate about a workpiece axis C1. In the machine shown in Fig. 1, the feed direction Z runs parallel to the workpiece axis C1. The feed direction Z, along which the axial slide 13 is slidably guided, can, however, also be inclined to the workpiece axis C1. The feed direction shown in Fig.The workpiece spindle 21, visible in Fig. 1, is in a machining position in which a workpiece 23 clamped thereon can be machined with the grinding worm 16. The other workpiece spindle, offset by 180° and not visible in Fig. 1, is in a workpiece change position in which a finished workpiece can be removed from this spindle and a new blank can be clamped. A dressing device 30 is mounted offset by 90° to the workpiece spindles. The machine 1 thus has a plurality of movable components such as slides or spindles, which can be moved under the control of corresponding drives. These drives are often referred to in the technical world as "NC axes," "machine axes," or simply "axes." This term sometimes also includes the components driven by the drives, such as slides or spindles. The machine 1 also has a plurality of sensors.By way of example, only two sensors 18 and 19 are schematically indicated in Fig. 1. Sensor 18 is a vibration sensor for detecting vibrations of the housing of the grinding spindle 15. Sensor 19 is a position sensor for detecting the position of the axial slide 13 relative to the tool carrier 12 along the Z direction. In addition, the machine 1 comprises a multitude of other sensors. These sensors include, in particular, further position sensors for detecting the actual position of a linear axis, rotation angle sensors for detecting the rotational position of a rotary axis, current sensors for detecting the drive current of a respective axis, and further vibration sensors for detecting vibrations of a respective driven component. All driven axes of the machine 1 are digitally controlled by a machine control system 40.The machine control system 40 comprises several axis modules 41, a control computer 42, and an operator panel 43. The control computer 42 receives operator commands from the operator panel 43 as well as sensor signals from various sensors of the machine 1 and calculates control commands for the axis modules 41 from these. It also outputs operating parameters to the operator panel 43 for display. The axis modules 41 each provide control signals for a machine axis at their outputs. A monitoring device 44 is connected to the control computer 42 and performs various monitoring tasks during operation of the machine 1. Fig. 2 shows an enlarged section of Fig. 1. The dressing device 30 can be seen particularly clearly. A dressing spindle 32, on which a disk-shaped dressing tool 33 is clamped, is arranged on a swivel drive 31 and can pivot about an axis C4.Instead or additionally, a fixed dressing tool can also be provided, in particular a so-called head dresser, which is designed to engage only the head regions of the grinding worm threads of the grinding worm in order to dress these head regions. Contact tracks with varying penetration depth. In a helical gear, as is the case with a pairing of an externally toothed spur gear (the pre-toothed workpiece) and the grinding worm, point contact occurs when the axes of the pre-toothed workpiece and the grinding worm are not parallel. As the pairing rolls, the contact point moves along a path geometrically determined by the pairing, each over the tooth flank of the pre-toothed workpiece and over the grinding worm thread flank of the grinding worm. In the present context, the path on the tooth flank is referred to as the contact track, and the path on the grinding worm flank is referred to as the worm contact path.With each revolution, a new contact track is created on the tooth flank, and material is removed accordingly. Fig. 3 shows a schematic sectional view along a flank line of the tooth flank. As shown in Fig. 3, each individual contact track has an individual contact track width b1, b2, which depends on a penetration depth d1, d2 between the grinding worm 16, schematically represented by a circular arc in Fig. 3, and the pre-toothed workpiece 23. A first individual contact track width b1 corresponds to a first penetration depth d1 in Fig. 3, while a second individual contact track width b2 corresponds to a second penetration depth d2. From Fig. 3, it is clearly visible that for an individual contact track, an increase in the penetration depth leads to a widening of the contact track. In Fig. 3, however, the relationship between the individual contact track width and the penetration depth of the grinding worm is not shown to scale for illustrative purposes.In realistic penetration depth dimensions typical for the generating grinding process, a monotonic relationship between the penetration depth and the individual contact track width can be assumed. In Fig. 4, a plurality of adjacent contact tracks are schematically represented as dashed lines. By generating a relative movement between the grinding worm and the pre-toothed workpiece, a new contact track is created with each revolution of the workpiece, which is spaced apart from the previously generated contact track by a contact track spacing S in the workpiece width direction. The contact track spacing S is determined by the axial component of the relative movement parallel to the workpiece axis C1. The relative movement can, but does not necessarily have to, be constant over time.If the pre-toothed workpiece has spur gearing and no relative movement parallel to the workpiece axis C1 occurs during the generation of the respective contact track, the contact tracks run in the rolling path direction and thus perpendicular to the flank lines, as shown in Fig. 4. If a relative movement parallel to the workpiece axis C1 occurs during the generation of the respective contact tracks and / or the pre-toothed workpiece has helical gearing, the contact tracks generally run inclined to the rolling path direction and thus inclined to the flank lines. If the relative movement parallel to the workpiece axis C1 is constant, the contact tracks run parallel to one another at a constant distance. If the penetration depth along the contact tracks is not varied, all contact tracks have the same contact track width.If, however, the penetration depth is varied along the contact tracks, a tooth flank waviness is created along the respective contact track, resulting in an effective contact track width beff. Two cases can be distinguished: Case 1 – No phase shift between tooth flank wavinesses of adjacent contact tracks. Figures 5A-5D illustrate a case in which the penetration depth d varies periodically along the respective contact tracks, thus generating a tooth flank waviness, although no phase shift occurs between the tooth flank wavinesses of adjacent contact tracks. Figure 5A illustrates the effective contact track width b using alternating black and white stripes. effof the respective contact tracks shown in dashed lines. Fig. 5B schematically shows the surface structure resulting from the periodic variation of the penetration depth d, with wave crests shown in light shaded lines and wave troughs shown in dark shaded lines. Fig. 5C shows an enlarged section of a longitudinal section along the section line A'-A' (wave crest) shown in Figs. 5A and 5B. Fig. 5D shows an enlarged section of a longitudinal section along the section line B'-B' (wave trough) shown in Figs. 5A and 5B. In both Figs. 5C and 5D, the machined tooth flank surface is shown as a solid line. Although the penetration depth d is greater in the longitudinal section along the wave trough shown in Fig. 5D than in the longitudinal section along the wave crest shown in Fig. 5C, the effective contact track width b remains effalong the contact tracks. This is the case because a preceding contact track is partially ground during the creation of the subsequent adjacent contact track due to the fact that, in this example, the contact track spacing S between adjacent contact tracks is smaller than the actual contact track width that a contact track would have if it were created without overlapping with adjacent contact tracks (as shown in Fig. 3), and because the variation in the penetration depth d occurs "in-phase," i.e., without a phase shift between the tooth flank undulations of adjacent contact tracks. As a consequence, the wave troughs and wave crests of the adjacent contact tracks form continuous wavefronts, i.e., lines of the same undulation phase position, which are uninterrupted in the width direction, with only small amplitude modulations occurring along the wavefront (visible in longitudinal section in Fig. 5C and Fig. 5D, in Fig.5B not shown), which depend on the curvature of the grinding worm at the contact point and are not shown to scale here. Such continuous wave fronts on the surface of the tooth flank often have a detrimental effect on the noise behavior of the gear in a transmission. Case 2 - Phase shift between tooth flank wavinesses of adjacent contact tracks present Figures 6A-6D schematically illustrate an embodiment in which the penetration depth d varies periodically along the respective contact tracks, thus generating a tooth flank waviness, wherein the phase shift between the tooth flank wavinesses of adjacent contact tracks is 180° in each case. Fig. 6A schematically illustrates the effective contact track width b using alternating black and white stripes. effof the respective contact tracks shown in dashed lines. Fig. 6B schematically shows the surface structure resulting from the periodic variation of the penetration depth d, with wave crests shown in light shaded and wave troughs shown in dark shaded. Fig. 6C shows an enlarged section of a longitudinal section along the section line A''-A'' shown in Figs. 6A and 5B. Fig. 6D shows an enlarged section of a longitudinal section along the section line B''-B'' shown in Figs. 6A and 6B. In both Fig. 6C and Fig. 6D, the machined tooth flank surface is shown as a solid line. In contrast to the situation shown in Figs. 5A-5D, the wave troughs and wave crests of the adjacent contact tracks do not form continuous wave fronts in the width direction. Instead, the phase shift of 180° results in a checkerboard-like surface structure, as shown in Fig. 6B. Targeted variation of the In a stationary generating grinding process, ie a generating grinding process with constant process parameters, a certain constant time period ^^ passes between the generation of adjacent contact tracks on the same tooth flank. The contact tracks are therefore generated with a generation frequency ^^ ^ = ^ ^In more detail, this generation frequency ^^ describes the frequency with which the contact points between the grinding worm and the pre-toothed workpiece cross an arbitrarily selected flank line in the generating grinding process. In the case of spur gears without shift feed, the generation frequency ^^ corresponds to the rotational frequency ^^^ of the workpiece. In general, however, the generation frequency ^^ can depend on a shift feed rate in the shift direction and / or, in the case of helical gears, on the helix angle. In order to specifically vary the penetration depth, a periodic oscillation with a variation frequency ^^ is superimposed on the stationary generating grinding process, which leads to a periodic relative movement between the grinding worm and the pre-toothed workpiece in a direction normal to the surface of the grinding worm and the workpiece at the contact point. The oscillation can be generated in various ways.The ratio of the variation frequency ^^ to the generation frequency ^^ can be defined as the order P of the frequency ^^ with respect to the frequency ^^: If this order P is an integer, a phase shift of ∆^ = 0 results between the neighboring contact tracks along any flank line of the tooth flank (case 1 explained above). As soon as a non-integer value is chosen for the order P, a phase shift ∆^ ≠ 0 results between the neighboring contact tracks along any flank line of the tooth flank (case 2 explained above). The phase shift ∆^ can be determined as follows: ∆^ = (^ − floor(^)) ∙ 2^ where floor(^) ∶= ^^^{^ ∈ ℤ | ^ ≤ ^} represents the rounding function and floor(^) thus corresponds to an integer order component. The non-integer order part, dh(^ − floor(^)), determines the phase position of the contact tracks relative to each other.Thus, for a desired phase shift ∆^ and a desired integer order component floor(^), a possible variation frequency ^^ can be determined, since the generation frequency ^^ is known from the kinematic conditions of the generating grinding process:^ = ^ ^ = ^∆^ ^. ^ ^ ^2^+ floor(^)^Targeted variation of the penetration depth through additional movements during workpiece machining The penetration depth can be varied in a targeted manner. In one embodiment of the method, the penetration depth is varied by generating a targeted relative additional movement between the pre-toothed workpiece and the grinding worm. The machine tool 1 shown in Fig. 1 comprises a shift carriage 14 with a shift drive for generating a displacement of the grinding worm in the shift direction Y parallel to the worm axis B, wherein the shift drive can be designed to excite the shift carriage 14 to a translational oscillation in the shift direction Y in order to generate the targeted relative additional movement.Particularly in the case of helical gears, the penetration depth can be varied by additionally or alternatively exciting the axial slide 13 to a translational oscillation with a vibration component parallel to the workpiece axis C1 by a specially designed axial drive. The translational oscillation can occur along the feed direction Z, whereby the feed direction Z can run parallel to the workpiece axis C1 or inclined to the workpiece axis C1. Likewise, the tool spindle 15 can be designed to excite the grinding worm 16 to a torsional oscillation about the worm axis B. For this purpose, the tool spindle drive can have a frequency converter, which can be used to generate the torsional oscillation of the grinding worm 16.Additionally or alternatively, the tool carrier drive of the tool carrier 12 can be designed to excite the grinding worm 16 to a translational vibration in the feed direction X in order to specifically vary the penetration depth. Alternatively or additionally, the machine tool 1 can have a separate tool vibration module 151, which is designed to excite the shift carriage 14 and / or the tool spindle 15 to a translational vibration in the shift direction Y and / or to excite the tool spindle 15 to a torsional vibration about the worm axis B. In order to excite as little mass as possible and to keep the transmission path from the tool vibration module 151 to the contact point between the grinding worm and the workpiece as short as possible, direct excitation of the tool spindle 15, as indicated in Fig. 1, is particularly advantageous.To excite the vibration, the tool vibration module 151 can, for example, comprise a piezo actuator or an electrodynamic shaker. To excite a torsional vibration, masses arranged eccentrically to the screw axis B and coupled to the tool spindle 15 can also be used. These masses can be excited by vibration modules to translational vibrations directed in the direction of rotation. Alternatively or additionally, a rotationally mounted flywheel coupled to the tool spindle, which is excited via a piezo actuator or an electrodynamic shaker, is also conceivable.Alternatively or additionally, the machine tool 1 can have a separate tool vibration module with a piezo actuator or an electrodynamic shaker, which is designed to excite the axial slide 13 to a translational vibration with a vibration component parallel to the workpiece axis C1, and / or which is designed to excite the tool carrier 12 to a translational vibration in the feed direction X (not explicitly shown in Fig. 1). In Fig. 1, the workpiece spindle 21 has a workpiece spindle drive 211, which is designed to excite the workpiece spindle 21 to a torsional vibration, wherein the torsional vibration leads to a rotational vibration of the pre-toothed workpiece 23 clamped on the workpiece spindle about the workpiece axis C1. The workpiece spindle drive 211 can have a frequency converter, which can be used to generate the torsional vibration.Alternatively, rotational excitation via a suitably designed active element, such as a piezo actuator or an electrodynamic shaker, is also conceivable. Furthermore, the workpiece spindle drive 211 can be configured to excite the workpiece spindle 21 to undergo a bending vibration, wherein the bending vibration leads to a precession and / or nutation of the workpiece axis C1 and thus to a tilting and / or displacement of the workpiece 23 relative to the grinding worm. The workpiece spindle drive 211 can also be configured to excite the workpiece spindle 21 to undergo a translational vibration, wherein the translational vibration preferably occurs parallel to the worm axis B in the shift direction Y, whereby the workpiece moves back and forth relative to the grinding worm along the shift direction Y.Alternatively or additionally, the machine tool can have a separate workpiece vibration module 212, which is designed to excite the workpiece spindle to a torsional vibration and / or a bending vibration and / or a translational vibration as described above. For this purpose, the workpiece vibration module can comprise, for example, piezo actuators that act radially on a bearing of the workpiece spindle 21 and thus excite it to a bending vibration and / or radial translational vibration, and / or that act axially on a bearing of the workpiece spindle 21 and thus excite it to a translational axial vibration. The workpiece vibration module can also be an electrodynamic shaker coupled to the lower end of the workpiece spindle 21 for axial and / or radial excitation of the workpiece spindle 21.The axial excitation leads to an axial translational movement, the radial excitation, however, leads to a radial translational movement and / or a tilting movement of the workpiece axis C1 around a virtual bearing point and / or a bending vibration of the workpiece axis C1. Taking into account the process parameters used in the generating grinding process, the generation frequency ^. ^ By carefully selecting the variation frequency ^ ^As described above, the torsional vibration and / or bending vibration and / or translational vibration, due to the resulting additional relative movements between the workpiece 23 and the grinding worm 16, lead to a targeted variation of the penetration depth with the desired phase shift ∆^ between the respective adjacent contact tracks. Targeted variation of the penetration depth by suitable dressing of the grinding worm. In particular, if a tooth flank waviness with a high order with respect to the worm rotation frequency ^^ is desired, the required high-frequency vibrations with a precisely defined modulation amplitude in the micrometer range can place high demands on the machine axes involved. It is therefore conceivable, alternatively or additionally, to achieve the targeted variation of the penetration depth by appropriate dressing of the grinding worm.To generate the thread waviness on the grinding worm thread, a dressing wheel can be used as the dressing tool, which has a radial runout and / or axial runout deviation. A fixed angle of rotation between the dressing tool and the grinding worm is selected such that the radial runout and / or axial runout deviation can be specifically used to generate the thread waviness on the grinding worm thread flank. Alternatively, the thread waviness can also be generated by line dressing or by corresponding relative movements between the dressing tool and the grinding worm. Likewise, a dressing tool can be used for dressing that has a dressing flank surface with a wave-shaped dressing flank modification, which is transferred to the grinding worm during dressing.Such a dressing tool can be manufactured, for example, using a positive process, whereby the dressing flank modification can be specifically created by means of a conditioning tool, in particular a narrow rotating conditioning disk perpendicular to the dressing flank surface. In particular, the dressing tool can be driven to rotate about a dressing axis of rotation, while the conditioning tool is driven to rotate about a conditioning axis of rotation of the conditioning tool and is thereby fed in a direction that has a portion running normal to the dressing flank surface to create the dressing flank modifications by removing material from the dressing flank surface.Regarding the considerations underlying this procedure and further possible embodiments, reference is made to the patent application filed by the same applicant on the same day as the present application, entitled "Dressing tool for dressing a grinding worm for generating pre-toothed workpieces," the content of which is incorporated in its entirety by reference into the present disclosure. Fig. 7A shows a schematic end view of a grinding worm thread flank of an individual worm thread of a grinding worm 16 for a pitch of the grinding worm. The grinding worm thread flank 161 has a circular ring shape on a projection plane perpendicular to the worm axis B, wherein the circular ring shape defines a radial direction with a radial coordinate r and a circumferential direction with an angular coordinate φ. The grinding worm thread flank 161 in developed form is shown in Fig.7B and, as an example, exhibits a periodic ripple in the circumferential direction with wavefronts extending in the radial direction. Alternatively, the ripple can also exhibit wavefronts that are arbitrarily inclined relative to the radial direction. The ripple is stationary relative to the grinding worm flank and exhibits a wavelength in the circumferential direction at a specific radial distance from the worm axis B. auf. The wavelength The waviness of the grinding worm thread flank of the grinding worm can be calculated based on a length ^^ of the grinding worm thread along the circumferential direction at the above-mentioned radial distance, in which the wavelength is defined, for one revolution of the grinding worm into a waviness angle ^ ^with respect to the worm axis B: By shifting the grinding worm with a suitable ratio of shift feed rate and axial feed rate in the shift direction Y or in the feed direction Z during workpiece machining, the waviness on the grinding worm flank can be mapped onto the pre-toothed workpiece in rolling engagement, thereby generating a targeted tooth flank waviness. Relevant here is the waviness on the grinding worm flank along the worm contact path on the grinding worm flight, whereby this waviness preferably has a constant wavelength ^^′ along the worm contact path. The worm contact path can generally be inclined relative to the circumferential direction, whereby the wavelength in the circumferential direction from the wavelength along the worm contact path ^^′. A worm contact path on the grinding worm gear is associated with a contact track on the tooth flank of the workpiece. Thus, the waviness is transferred from the worm contact path along the contact track to the workpiece flank. If a description of the contact track via the rolling path is used, the generated tooth flank waviness along the contact track has a wavelength ^^, which can be expressed as where S is a scaling factor that depends exclusively on the ratio of the length of the contact track along the pitch path to the length of the worm contact path. Grinding worm with exactly one grinding worm thread. For example, if the grinding worm has exactly one grinding worm thread (single-thread grinding worm) and a grinding worm thread flank of this grinding worm thread exhibits a thread waviness, this thread waviness is transferred from contact track to contact track to the tooth flank of the workpiece without phase shift, provided no shift feed occurs. If, however, shift feed occurs, i.e., the grinding worm moves parallel to the worm axis B, this leads to a continuous shift of the worm contact path on the grinding worm thread flank of the grinding worm thread during the relative movement between the grinding worm and the workpiece parallel to the workpiece axis C1.However, since the pitch waviness is stationary with respect to the grinding worm flank and thus a relative displacement of the worm contact path compared to the pitch waviness occurs, the pitch waviness is now projected onto the tooth flank with a phase shift due to the shift feed, effectively creating a phase offset ∆^ between the tooth flank wavinesses of adjacent contact tracks on the tooth flank surface of the workpiece. If one considers a sectional profile of the grinding worm along the worm axis B (axial section) and measures the distance between two points lying on the same radius on two consecutive grinding worm flanks in the sectional profile, one obtains the axial pitch ^^ of the grinding worm. If the grinding worm is rotated exactly by one axial pitch ^. ^is shifted in the direction of the worm axis, then the worm contact path shifts exactly by an angle of 2^ on the grinding worm thread in the circumferential direction. For a shift of the worm contact path, which results in a desired phase shift Δ^ between the tooth flank wavinesses of adjacent contact tracks on the tooth flank surface of the workpiece, the following shift path ^ ^ inShift direction Y requires: This shift path ^^ must be covered in the time span ^^. This results in a shift feed rate ^ ^ from where the phase shift ∆^ and the waviness angle ^^ are to be entered in radians. Grinding worm with at least two grinding worm flights If a multi-start grinding worm is used, this has several effects: To obtain the flight pitch, the axial pitch ^^ is multiplied by the number of grinding worm flights ^. For a multi-start grinding worm, the flight pitch is therefore a factor ^ higher than for a single-start grinding worm. At the same worm rotational frequency, a worm flight of a multi-start grinding worm moves through the engagement faster than the worm flight of a single-start grinding worm, with its geometric length relative to the workpiece only increasing insignificantly. Thus, at the same workpiece speed, the worm flight is in engagement for a shorter time, which is why the worm contact path relative to one revolution of the grinding worm is shorter.If the worm contact path on the grinding worm becomes shorter, it contains fewer wave periods projected onto the workpiece at the same wavelength. Accordingly, with a multi-start grinding worm, the wavelength of the waviness along the worm contact path must be reduced accordingly if the same phase shift ∆φ is to be achieved as with a single-start grinding worm at the same shift feed. The worm contact paths also have worm contact path starting points that are offset from one another in the circumferential direction of the grinding worm by an angle ∆^ = 2^ / ^. The waviness at the respective worm contact path starting points can be phase-shifted relative to one another with respect to an engagement sequence of the grinding worm threads successively engaging the worm contact paths.If grinding is performed without a shift feed, this phase difference can be used directly to generate a phase shift ∆^ ≠ 0. If the waviness of the various grinding worm threads has the same wavelength, this phase difference between the worm contact path starting points is transferred accordingly to the tooth flank. An additional shift feed leads to an additional phase shift according to the relationship described above, which is superimposed on the phase shift resulting from the phase difference of the waviness on the grinding worm threads that mesh one after the other. In addition, with multiple grinding worm threads, at least one of the grinding worm threads can protrude from the others, i.e., instead of a perfectly regular arrangement of the grinding worm threads along the worm axis B, at least one of the grinding worm threads can be shifted along the worm axis B due to a pitch error. Fig.Figure 8 again shows a sectional view of a machined tooth flank (solid line) in the width direction, where every second contact track was created by the protruding worm thread and thus has a penetration depth d greater than its neighboring contact tracks by a penetration difference δd. Examples – Generation of Desired Tooth Flank Wavinesses Example 1: Generation of tooth flank wavinesses phase-shifted by 180° through relative additional movements The process parameters of the generating grinding process can be chosen arbitrarily, but remain constant. From this, the time period ^^ or the generation frequency ^^ can be determined. According to the above formula, the non-integer part of the order for a phase shift of Δ^ = ^ (180°) is determined as follows: (^ − floor(^)) = Δ^ ^ = 2^ 2^. = 0.5 The phase shift can therefore be adjusted with the orders ^ = ^ + 0.5 with ^ ∈ ℕ ^ ^. This allows the variation frequencies ^ ^of the external excitation: ^^ = ^ ∙ ^^ = (^ + 0.5) ∙ ^^The order ^ is preferably chosen so high (preferably higher than the meshing order) that several wave periods per contact track are generated on the tooth flank.Example 2: Generation of tooth flank wavinesses phase-shifted by 90° by additional movements.Here the phase shift is ∆^ =^ ^. This results in the following variation frequencies with a non-integer part of the order of 0.25 ^ ^ : ^^ = ^ ∙ ^^ = (^ + 0.25) ∙ ^^Example 3: Generation of tooth flank waviness with non-constant phase shift by additional movements The relationships explained above apply, whereby the corresponding quantities are now dependent on a time variable t: This time dependence can be generated either by transient / non-stationary process parameters such as a time-dependent screw frequency ^^(^) and / or a time-dependent shift feed rate ^^(^) and / or a time-dependent axial feed rate. These lead to a time-dependent rotational frequency of the workpiece via the rolling coupling. If a separate tool vibration module and / or workpiece vibration module is used, their external excitation frequencies can also be selected as time-dependent. To obtain a non-constant phase shift ∆^ ≠ 0 of the tooth flank waviness of adjacent contact tracks along the previously defined virtual reference line, a time dependence of the variation frequency ^^(^) and ^^(^) is not necessarily sufficient: For example, the time-dependent variation frequency ^^(^) can be periodically modulated: ^^(^) = ^^,^ + ^^^^ sin(^2^^^^^), where ^ ^,^ represents the fundamental variation frequency, ^^^^ represents a modulation frequency and ^^^^ denotes a corresponding amplitude term of the frequency modulation. Now both the order ^ = ^ ^ ^^, as well as the modulation order ^^ =^ ^,^ are integers, there is no phase shift between the tooth flank ripples of adjacent contact tracks, ie ∆^ = 0. However, if the order ^ and / or the modulation order ^ ^ non-integer, a periodically modulated, non-constant phase shift ∆^ is created 0. The time-dependent variation frequency ^^(^) can be modulated stochastically instead of periodically, thereby generating a stochastically modulated, non-constant phase shift ∆^. It is also conceivable to use the amplitude term ^ ^^^ the frequency modulation to vary over time. The same considerations apply mutatis mutandis to the time-dependent generation frequency ^ ^(^), which can also be periodically or stochastically modulated. This results in a large number of degrees of freedom with which a diffuse-appearing surface structure can be specifically created by generating a non-constant phase shift ∆^ ≠ 0. Example 4: Generation of tooth flank wavinesses phase-shifted by 180° or 90° with a correspondingly modified grinding worm. For a single-start grinding worm, for example, a shift feed rate ^^ can be selected according to the relationships described above: where ∆^ = 180° or ∆^ = 90° is used. Alternatively, a multi-start grinding worm can be used, in which the wavinesses of the grinding worm threads that engage directly one after the other along the worm contact paths are phase-shifted by 180° or 90°. If a multi-start grinding worm is used, in which the wavinesses of the grinding worm threads that engage directly one after the other along the worm contact paths are phase-shifted from each other, but not by 180° or 90°, the difference can be used to generate the desired phase shift of 180° or 90° by a shift feed rate ^ selected according to the above formula. ^be compensated. Example 6: Generation of waviness with a non-constant phase shift using a correspondingly modified grinding worm. By varying the speed ratio between a modified dressing tool and the grinding worm during dressing, a waviness can be generated on the grinding worm flank, which has a varying, i.e., non-constant wavelength along the worm contact path. The relationships explained above apply to the transfer of the waviness from the worm contact path on the grinding worm flight flank to the contact track on the workpiece, resulting in a non-constant phase shift ∆^ between the tooth flank wavinesses of adjacent contact tracks on the workpiece's tooth flank. An additional shift feed can also be used to generate an additional phase shift.Likewise, a single-start or multi-start grinding worm can be used, in which the waviness of the grinding worm threads engaging directly one after the other is phase-shifted along the worm contact paths. Superposition with uncontrolled stochastic processes: In order to create a particularly diffuse surface structure with optimized noise behavior, the targeted variation of the penetration depth is, in a particularly preferred embodiment, superimposed with uncontrolled, particularly stochastically occurring, deviations in the penetration depth d.These uncontrolled deviations in the penetration depth d can be based on deviations in the dressing process of the grinding worm, for example, on guide deviations in the shift direction Y during dressing (Y-axis), which can lead to local pitch errors, and / or guide deviations of the tool spindle 15, which can also lead to local pitch errors, and / or deviations of the dressing tool 33 in the mounted state, including: deviation of the dressing tool 33 itself, and / or deviation when clamping the dressing tool 33, and / or deviations of the dressing spindle 32.Alternatively or additionally, these uncontrolled deviations in the penetration depth can be based on deviations during the grinding of the pre-toothed workpiece, for example, on deviations in the rolling coupling, including: deviation in a drive of the workpiece spindle 21, and / or deviation in a drive of the shift slide 14, and / or deviations in the worm rotation frequency fs, and / or deviations in the feed direction X, and / or deviations in the axial drive of the axial slide 13, and / or unwanted vibrations of peripheral devices in the machine tool 1, and / or structural vibrations of the machine excited by the drives. Ideally, a modulation amplitude is selected for the targeted variation of the penetration depth, which lies in a range between 0.2-fold and 5-fold of a fluctuation measure for the uncontrolled deviations of the penetration depth d, wherein the fluctuation measure corresponds in particular to a standard deviation or an interquartile range of the uncontrolled deviations of the penetration depth d. In a preferred embodiment of the method, the fluctuation measure of the uncontrolled deviations of the penetration depth d is determined and the modulation amplitude is specifically selected depending on the determined fluctuation measure. Typical values ​​for the fluctuation measure can be between 0.1 µm and 10 µm, in particular between 0.3 µm and 3 µm. Figures 9A-9C illustrate such an overlay situation: In Fig. 9A, the deliberately generated variation of the penetration depth d is shown as a function of a position along the rolling path, wherein in this example the penetration depth is sinusoidal with a modulation amplitude of 1 µm varies. In Fig.Figure 9B shows uncontrolled, stochastically occurring deviations in the penetration depth d. The standard deviation of the uncontrolled deviations in the penetration depth d in this example is 0.44 µm. Figure 9C shows a resulting superposition of the targeted variation and the uncontrolled deviations. Figure 10 shows an image of a real, measured tooth flank with a particularly diffuse surface structure modified using a method according to the invention.

[0002] LIST OF REFERENCE SYMBOLS Generating grinding machine 40 Machine control Machine bed 41 Axis modules Tool carrier 42 Control computer Axial slide 43 Operator panel Shift slide 44 Monitoring device Tool spindle B Worm axis Tool vibration module C1 Workpiece axis Grinding worm C3 Swivel axis Grinding worm thread flank C4 Swivel axis Vibration sensor X Feed direction Position sensor Y Shift direction Workpiece carrier Z Feed direction Workpiece spindle b1, b2 Single contact track width Workpiece spindle drive beff Effective contact track width Workpiece vibration module S Contact track distance Workpiece d Penetration depth Dressing device r Radial coordinate Swivel device φ Angular coordinate Dressing spindle Dressing tool

Claims

PATENT CLAIMS 1 . Verfahren zur Erzeugung einer modifizierten Oberflächenstruktur auf einer Zahnflanke eines vorverzahnten Werkstücks (23), das Verfahren umfassend: Antreiben einer Schleifschnecke (16) zu einer Drehung um eine Schneckenachse (B); Antreiben des vorverzahnten Werkstücks (23) zu einer Drehung um eine Werkstückachse (C1), wobei die Schleifschnecke (16) und das vorverzahnte Werkstück (23) in einem Wälzeingriff stehen; Erzeugen einer relativen Bewegung zwischen der Schleifschnecke (16) und dem vorverzahnten Werkstück (23), wobei die relative Bewegung eine Axialkomponente parallel zur Werkstückachse (C1) aufweist, derart, dass auf der Zahnflanke des vorverzahnten Werkstücks (23) eine Mehrzahl benachbarter Kontaktspuren entsteht, wobei die Kontaktspuren bezüglich einer Werkstück-Breitenrichtung zueinander beabstandet proceed, characterized in that the method further comprises: g ezieltes Variieren einer Durchdringungstiefe (d) zwischen der Schleifschnecke (16) und dem vorverzahnten Werkstück (23) entlang der jeweiligen Kontaktspur zur Erzeugung a tooth flank waviness with a plurality of wave periods along said Kontaktspur, derart, dass die Zahnflankenwelligkeiten benachbarter Kontaktspuren an einer beliebigen vorgegebenen Position in einer Werkstück-Höhenrichtung um einen are shifted in phase with each other, with the phase shift being between 90° and 270°, and / or w obei der Phasenversatz zu den jeweils benachbarten Kontaktspuren von Kontaktspur zu Kontaktspur variiert, und / oder wobei der Phasenversatz zu den benachbarten Kontaktspuren entlang der jeweiligen Contact trace varies. 2 . Verfahren nach Anspruch 1, wobei sich die Schleifschnecke (16) mit einer Schneckendrehfrequenz (fs) dreht und wobei das gezielte Variieren der Durchdringungstiefe (d) mit einer Variationsfrequenz (fv) erfolgt, welche grösser als die Schneckendrehfrequenz (fs) ist.

3. Verfahren nach Anspruch 1 oder 2, wobei das gezielte Variieren der Durchdringungstiefe (d) umfasst: Generating a targeted relative additional movement between the pre-toothed Werkstück (23) und der Schleifschnecke (16).

4. Verfahren nach Anspruch 3, wobei das Erzeugen der gezielten relativen Additional movement includes: Excitation of a translational oscillation of the grinding worm (16) with a Schwingungskomponente in einer Zustellrichtung (X) radial zur Werkstückachse (C1),and / or exciting a translational vibration of the grinding worm (16) with a vibration component parallel to the workpiece axis (C1), and / or A nregen einer translatorischen Schwingung der Schleifschnecke (16) mit einer Schwingungskomponente in einer Shift-Richtung (Y) parallel zur Schneckenachse (B), and / or excitation of a torsional vibration of the grinding worm around the Schneckenachse (B).

5. Verfahren nach Anspruch 3 oder 4, wobei das vorverzahnte Werkstück (23) is arranged on a workpiece spindle (21) and wherein the generation of the targeted relative additional movement comprises: A nregen einer Torsionsschwingung der Werkstückspindel (21) um die Werkstückachse (C1), und / oder Anregen einer Biegeschwingung der Werkstückspindel (21), und / oder Anregen einer Translationsschwingung der Werkstückspindel (21).

6. Verfahren nach einem der vorhergehenden Ansprüche, wobei die Grinding worm (16) on a grinding worm flank (161) of a Schleifschneckengangs eine Gangwelligkeit aufweist, und wobei das gezielte Variieren der Penetration depth (d) for generating the tooth flank waviness includes: Ü bertragen der Gangwelligkeit der Schleifschneckengangflanke (161) auf die mit der Schleifschnecke (16) im Wälzeingriff stehende Zahnflanke des vorverzahnten Werkstücks (23).

7. Verfahren nach Anspruch 6, weiter umfassend: Abrichten der Schleifschnecke (16) mit einem Abrichtwerkzeug (33), wobei das Dressing tool (33) has a radial runout deviation and / or a axial runout deviation and wherein a fixed or variable angle of rotation ratio between the Abrichtwerkzeug (33) und der Schleifschnecke (16) vorgegeben wird, derart, dass die Concentricity and / or axial runout create the ripple on the grinding worm flank (161). 8 . Verfahren nach Anspruch 6 oder 7, wobei die Schleifschnecke (16) mindestens zwei Schleifschneckengänge aufweist,wobei jeder der mindestens zwei Schleifschneckengänge jeweils eine Gangwelligkeit entlang eines Schneckenkontaktpfads aufweist, und wobei die mindestens zwei Schleifschneckengänge jeweils auf der Zahnflanke benachbarte Kontaktspuren erzeugen, wobei jede Kontaktspur auf der Zahnflanke mit einem der mindestens zwei Schneckenkontaktpfade assoziiert ist, und wobei sich die auf den betreffenden Schleifschneckengängen entlang der Preferably distinguish between the flight wavinesses generated by the screw contact paths. 9 . Verfahren nach Anspruch 8, wobei die Schneckenkontaktpfade jeweils einen worm contact path starting point, which is associated with a contact track starting point of the respective contact track on the tooth flank, wherein the pitch wavinesses of the mindestens zwei Schleifschneckengänge am jeweiligen Schneckenkontaktpfad-Startpunkt are out of phase with each other. 1 0. Verfahren nach Anspruch 8 oder 9, wobei die Gangwelligkeiten der at least two grinding worm threads have a wavelength difference. 1 1. Verfahren nach einem der Ansprüche 8 bis 10, wobei die Gangwelligkeiten at least two grinding worm threads have a waviness amplitude difference. 1 2. Verfahren nach einem der vorhergehenden Ansprüche, wobei die Schleifschnecke (16) mindestens zwei Schleifschneckengänge aufweist, the procedure further comprehensively: A brichten einer der Schleifschneckengänge der Schleifschnecke (16) mit einem constant pitch error for producing a protruding grinding worm thread, wherein the pitch error is selected such that the vorstehende Schleifschneckengang eine grössere Durchdringungstiefe (d) erzielt als seine bezüglich einer Eingriffsfolge an der Zahnflanke vorangehenden und nachfolgenden Schleifschneckengänge, derart, dass der vorstehende Schleifschneckengang die durch seine vorangehenden Schleifschneckengänge entstandenen Kontaktspuren mindestens partially sanded. 1 3. Verfahren nach einem der vorhergehenden Ansprüche, wobei das gezielte Varying the penetration depth with non-controlled, especially stochastically auftretenden, Abweichungen der Durchdringungstiefe (d) überlagert ist, und wobei dastargeted variation of the penetration depth (d) with a modulation amplitude, welche in einem Bereich zwischen dem 0.2-Fachen und 5-Fachen eines fluctuation measure for the uncontrolled deviations of the penetration depth (d), whereby the fluctuation measure corresponds in particular to a standard deviation or an interquartile range of the uncontrolled deviations of the penetration depth (d), i nsbesondere, wobei das Schwankungsmass der nicht-kontrollierten Abweichungen the penetration depth (d) is determined and the modulation amplitude is specifically selected depending on the determined fluctuation level. 1 4. Werkzeugmaschine, aufweisend: eine Werkzeugspindel (15), die dazu ausgebildet ist, eine Schleifschnecke (16) zu einer Drehung um eine Schneckenachse (B) aufzunehmen; eine Werkstückspindel (21), die dazu ausgebildet ist, ein vorverzahntes Werkstück (23) zu einer Drehung um eine Werkstückachse (C1) aufzunehmen; einen Axialschlitten (13) mit einem Axialantrieb zur Erzeugung einer relativen Bewegung zwischen der Werkzeugspindel (15) und der Werkstückspindel (21), wobei die relative Bewegung eine Axialkomponente parallel zur Werkstückachse (C1) aufweist, und eine Steuerung, die dazu ausgebildet ist, das Verfahren eines der Ansprüche 1 bis 13 to execute. 1 5. Werkzeugmaschine nach Anspruch 14, umfassend einen Shift-Schlitten (14) mit einem Shift-Antrieb zur Erzeugung einer Verschiebung der Schleifschnecke (16) in einer Shift-Richtung (Y) parallel zur Schneckenachse (B), wobei der Shift-Antrieb dazu ausgebildet ist, den Shift-Schlitten (14) zu einer translatorischen Schwingung in Shift-Richtung (Y) anzuregen, und / oder wherein the axial drive is designed to excite the axial slide (13) to a translational oscillation with an oscillation component parallel to the workpiece axis (C1), and / or wherein the tool spindle (15) is designed to excite the grinding worm (16) to a torsional vibration about the worm axis (B), and / or w obei die Werkzeugmaschine (1) einen Werkzeugträger (12) mit einem Werkzeugträgerantrieb zur Erzeugung einer Zustellbewegung der Schleifschnecke (16) in einer Zustellrichtung (X) radial zur Werkstückachse (C1) aufweist, wobei der Werkzeugträgerantrieb dazu ausgebildet ist, die Schleifschnecke (16) zu einer translatorischen Schwingung in Zustellrichtung (X) anzuregen; und / oder wobei die Werkzeugmaschine (1) mindestens ein separates Werkzeugschwingungsmodul (151) aufweist, welches dazu ausgebildet ist, den Shift- Schlitten (14) und / oder die Werkzeugspindel (21) zu einer translatorischen Schwingung in Shift-Richtung (Y) anzuregen, und / oder which is designed to move the axial slide (13) to a translatory Schwingung mit einer Schwingungskomponente parallel zur Werkstückachse (C1) anzuregen, und / oder which is designed to excite the tool carrier (12) to a translational vibration in the feed direction (X), and / or which is designed to excite the tool spindle (15) to a torsional vibration about the screw axis (B). 1 6. Werkzeugmaschine nach Anspruch 14 oder 15, umfassend einen Werkstückspindelantrieb (211) zum Antreiben der Werkstückspindel (21), wobei der Werkstückspindelantrieb dazu ausgebildet ist, die Werkstückspindel (21) to excite a torsional vibration and / or a bending vibration and / or a translational vibration; and / or w obei die Werkzeugmaschine (1) mindestens ein separates Werkstückschwingungsmodul (212) aufweist, welches dazu ausgebildet ist, die Werkstückspindel (21) zu einer Torsionsschwingung und / oder einer Biegeschwingung and / or a translational oscillation.

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