MANUFACTURING OF SPUR GEAR

Aim of the Experiment:

Manufacturing of a spur gear using a gear hobbing machine.

Apparatus required:
 Gear Hobbing machine
 Gear blank
 Gear Hob

Theory:
Hobbing machine provides gear manufacturer a fast and accurate method for cutting parts. This is
because of the generating nature of this particular cutting process. Gear hobbing is not a form of
cutting process, such as gashing or milling where the cutter is a conjugate form of the gear tooth.
The hob generates a gear tooth profile by cutting several facets of each gear tooth profile through
a synchronized rotation and feed of the work piece and cutter.

As the hob feeds across the face of the work piece at a fixed depth, gear tooth will be gradually
generated by a series of cutting edges, each at a slightly different position. The number of cuts
made to generate the gear tooth profile will correspond to the number of gashes of the hob. Simply
put, more gashes produce a more accurate profile of the gear tooth.

The hobs several cutting edges will be working simultaneously, which provides significant
potential for fast cutting speeds and short cycle times. With this realization, one can see the
hobbing process advantage over other cutting process.

All gear hobbing machine, whether mechanical or CNC, consist of five common elements, which
are listed below and shown in figure 2,

1. A work spindle to rotate the work piece(blue)

2. A cutter spindle to rotate the cutting tool, hob(yellow)
3. A means to rotate the work spindle and cutter spindle with an exact ratio, depending on
number of teeth of the gear and the number of threads of the hob(red)
4. A means to traverse the hob across the face of the work piece(green)
 5. A means to adjust the center distance between the hob and the work piece for different size
work piece and hobs.

While the hob and work piece are rotating, the hob normally feeds axially across the gear face at
the gear’s tooth depth to cut and produce the gear. In conventional hobbing, the distance of the
feed matches the direction of the cutting motion. Alternatively, in climb feeding, the feed is
opposite to the direction of the cutting motion. Generally, conventional hobbing process provides
a better finish, whereas climbing hobbing yields better tool life. For either method, the cutting
forces of the hob should be directed towards the work spindle and not the tailstock.

To cut a helical gear, a standard hob cutter can be used. Mechanical hobbing machines provide a
differential tool motion through a series of change gears to generate a gear tooth helix. Today,
CNC hobbing machines electronically provides this necessary differential to produce helical gears.

Advantages of Gear Hobbing:

 Produced total cost per gar wheel compared to HSS tools.
 High cutting speeds.
 Longer tool life, reduced downtime.
 Easy and repeatable tool indexing and handling.
 No additional regrinding or recoating costs.

When to use the Gear Hobbing

 Roughing, semi-finishing.
 Gear profile, according to DIN 3972-2
 Module range, 3-10
 Hobbing machines, multi-task machines, 5-axis machine.
Procedure:
1. Issue a gear blank from the stores.
2. Use a lathe machine to machine the gear blank as per the module, here we have considered
the module as 3.0.
3. Clamp the work piece in the mandrel of the hobbing machine and give end support.
4. Set the gear ratio in the gear box present in the left hand side of the machine.
5. Rotate the job spindle and gear hob spindle.
6. Touch the cutter to the job. Do the down milling for better efficiency.
7. Give depth of cut gradually and repeat till the final depth of the gear tooth is achieved.
8. Unload the work piece after complete and measure the dimension for accuracy.

Conclusion:
The gear hobbing operation was performed and the process was studied.