Internal Bevel Gear Machining Without Back-Side Tooth Slot Interference
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional manufacturing methods are unable to produce internal bevel gears effectively due to the difficulty in cutting tooth slots from the back side, which results in mutilation or destruction of the gear, and existing prototypes rely on expensive and time-consuming processes like three-dimensional printing or multi-axis machining centers.
Innovation Solution
A method for manufacturing a bevel gear set with shaft angles below 180°, utilizing a non-generated internal bevel gear produced by a complementary machine setup that generates the mating external gear, where the mirror image of the internal straight bevel gear is used as a generating gear, allowing cutting from the front side and avoiding interference, using interlocking cutters with trapezoidal channels and peripheral cutting edges.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If conventional generating methods are used to manufacture internal bevel gears, then the tooth slots can be cut from the back side, but the gear is mutilated or destroyed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the conventional manufacturing approach by cutting tooth slots from the front side of the internal bevel gear instead of from the back side. This reversal of the cutting direction allows the cutter to approach the tooth from the front, generating the tooth profile without mutilating or destroying the gear structure.
2Manufacturing precision
If prototypes are manufactured using machining centers with ball nose end mills, then the concept can be proven, but the machining time is very long
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the essential function of tooth slot cutting from the complex multi-axis machining center setup and implements it using a simpler generating method with specialized cutters. This extraction of the core cutting function from the cumbersome machining center process dramatically reduces machining time while maintaining the ability to verify the gear concept.
3Ease of manufacture
If internal bevel gears are manufactured with conventional methods, then production can proceed, but the costs are high and efficiency is low
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the fundamental parameters of the manufacturing process by adopting a generating method with specialized interlocking cutters instead of conventional multi-axis machining. This parameter change in the manufacturing approach enables efficient production of internal bevel gears with reduced costs and improved manufacturing efficiency.
Data Source
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AI summary
A method of machining a bevel gear (22) having teeth with a pitch angle greater than 90 degrees comprising providing at least one tool (42, 44) rotatable about a tool axis with the tool comprising a disc-shaped body (43) having a periphery (49) and at least one stock removing surface (45, 47) arranged about the periphery. The tool is rotated and fed relative to the gear to effect machining of at least one tooth surface wherein the machining is carried out in a non-generating manner.