RECENT TRENDS IN

MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY

By
Ms. Laksmi Bala
Ms. Sophia

Guidance by
Ms. M. Aruna
SL/ Mech.

Velammal College of Engineering & Technology

Viraganoor – Madurai.
 RECENT TRENDS IN MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY

ABSTRACT cutting, and for quality engineers in

Gear manufacturing is one of the most keeping the quality to the required
complicated metal cutting processes. standards. Gear manufacturing process
From the beginning of the century, the dynamics are undergoing a major
demand for better productivity of gear breakthrough in last two decades.
manufacturing equipment was posed by Solutions being sought are not corrective
“The Machines that changed the World” but preventative. Normally, either soft
i.e. AUTOMOBILES. gear process dynamic or hard gear
process dynamic is being aimed.
INTRODUCTION Objective is to cut the number of

A gear box transmits the engine power operations or machines through which a

to the driving wheels with the help of work gear needs to pass to attain the final

different gearing systems. Different gear specifications of dimensions and tooth

combinations are used to give the smooth form quality.

running, the lower fuel consumption, and

the optimum driving comfort. Generally,
passenger car transmissions are provided
with 4-5 forward speeds and one reverse
speed. In front wheel models, hypoid
gears have been replaced by helical gears.
Fig. 1 shows a typical transaxle of front
drive model. Involute splines, both
external and internal, are also widely used
on various shafts and hubs for slide
meshing in transmission system. Bevel
gear and pinion are still used in Fig : 1
differential of automobiles. However,
parallel axes spur and helical gears are
the main gears in automotive
transmission. Manufacturing of gears
presents a demanding challenge for
metallurgists in heat treatment, for
supervisors in machining and gear
 We are going to deal with a full CNC of different manufacturing processes in
gear shaper incorporated the electronic terms of achievable quality grade
gear box in the late eighties. Index requirements.
change gear trains disappeared. The
elimination of gear trains also reduced
and eliminated the inaccuracy caused by
torsional windup of gearing system

GEAR QUALITY AND MANUFACTURING

PROCESSES

The functional necessity of a gear pair

defines the limits of the deviations of all
gear specifications. Gear quality refers to
these permissible limits of deviations.
Gear quality grades are standardized for
different normal module / DP ranges and
different ranges of reference diameters in
AGMA, DIN, JIS and other standards.
AGMA provides 8 grades from 15 to 8,
where the higher grade number indicates
the better gear accuracy. In DIN and JIS,
a lower grade number means better gear
accuracy.
Manufacturing processes used to
produce finished gear specifications have
certain capability limitations. Machine,
work fixture, cutter, arbor, machined
blanks, and also the cutting parameters
Fig. 2 Process Capability of Different Gear
add some amount of errors to different
Manufacturing Processes
gear elements. Stages of manufacturing
processes are to be accordingly decided.
GEAR MANUFACTURING
Fig. 2 gives a guideline for the capability
PROCESSES
In General Gear manufacturing
processes can be grouped in two
categories. Category one relates to teeth
cutting, finishing and all necessary
operations related to gear tooth profiles,
such as hobbing, shaping, shaving,
honing, etc. Category two relates to the

Can be used for internal gears can cut

upto shoulder with very little clearance.
rest of the conventional machining, such Each helix and hand requires a separate
as, drilling, milling, grinding, etc. helical guide. No CNC system to replace
helical guide is still developed. Time

GEAR CUTTING cycle will be 2-3 times of hobbing for

wider gears. With high speed stroking,
Gear hobbing and shaping are the most
narrow width job can be finished in lesser
commonly used cutting processes used
time than by hobbing.
for generating the gear teeth. Basis for
selection of either of the two depends on
application Latest Gear Shapers with CNC
A full CNC gear shaper incorporated

HOBBING the electronic gear box in the late

eighties. Index change gear trains
Better with respect to tooth spacing
disappeared. The elimination of gear
and run out. Equal so far lead accuracy is
trains also reduced and eliminated the
required. Hobbing produces a series of
inaccuracy caused by torsional windup of
radial flats based on feed rate of hob
gearing system. DC/AC servo motors
across the work. Can not be used for
drive the different axes. A total CNC gear
internal gears. Hob diameter determines
shaper Fig. 3, has separate drives for:
the limitation of cutting gear with
1. Reciprocation with dead centre
shoulder.Stacking can make hobbing
positioning - S axis.
faster than shaping even for gears with
2. Radial motion - X axis.
narrow face widths.
3. Rotation of cutter - D axis
4. Rotation of workgear - C axis
SHAPING
5. Stroke position - Z axis
Shaping produces a series of straight
6. Stroke length - V axis
lines parallel to the axis of the gear. As
7. Offset cutter head/workgear - Y axis
the stroking rate can be varied
8. Relief angle for taper - B axis.
independently of rotary feed, the numbers
Each numerically controlled axis has its
of enveloping cuts are essentially more
own independent drive as well as own
than the same for a hobbed gear. Surface
finish may be better.
 position measuring system. CNC has
simplified the machine kinematics.
However, CNC machine requires (a) high
quality guide ways for precise positioning
of the individual axes by traversing
without stick slip, and (b) thermal and
mechanical stability for better and
consistent accuracy. The guiding motion
to cutter spindle for attaining the desired
lead on the gear being cut is still beyond
CNC. Helical guides for generating gears
of varying leads are different and are to
be changed manually. Japanese builders
exhibited an attempt to provide a CNC
controlled guiding motion, where helix Fig. 3 Total CNC Gear Shaper

angle can be varied as desired for the

1. Plunge feed during rotation
cutter in use. However, the system is yet
Radial infeed to the required depth to
to be perfected. Solution to this problem
attain the desired size of the gear occurs
must be one of the important projects for
simultaneously with rotation of the cutter
research engineers working on gear
and workpiece. A comparatively short
shaping.
spiral path within the range of feeds is
used. Triple flank chips, Fig. 4.11a, are
In feed Methods in Gear Shaping
produced and chip crowding is critical.
Proper combination of rotary feed and
radial in feed decides the type of chip
2. Spiral infeed with constant radial
formation and chip flow in gear shaping
feed
process. It affects the tool wear rate and
A continuous radial infeed at constant
pattern as well as the productivity of the
rate is applied till the required depth is
operation. Some improved methods of
reached. The shaping cycle requires
infeed used in gear shaping are as
several work rotations to complete the
follows:

operation. The long spiral path is attained
by suitable combination of rotary feeds
with radial feeds. The machine must have
capability to combine extremely high
rates of rotary feed with extremely low
rates of radial infeed. The method
produces thin chips at the tip and thick
chips at the flanks, Fig. 4.11b. Chip
formation and flow can be modified for
better productivity and surface finish by
varying the ratio of rotary to radial feed.
3. Spiral in feed with progressively
reduced radial feed
The long spiral path is attained by
suitable combination of rotary feed with
gradually reducing radial feed rate. The
final depth is attained in several rotations
of the workpiece. The cutting parameters
help controlled stock removal keeping
cutting force constant for initial roughing.
Very high rotary feed upto 15 times of
conventional shaping is used for
subsequent finishing operation. Surface
finish comparable to hobbed teeth is
possible.The productivity (material
removal rate) increases substantially.
Finally, a number of spring cuts is taken
to minimise the typical gear shaping
errors, such as 'dropped tooth' due to a
sinusoidal error on the cutter itself or
faulty mounting of the cutter.
Usually 2-3 spring cuts are sufficient
depending on cutter / work gear teeth's
ratio. Due to reduction of gear tooth
errors, e.g. radial run-out and pitch errors,
smaller machining allowance is sufficient
on tooth flank for shaving / rolling.
The process has the following advantages
1. Better chip disposal is obvious because
of elimination of chip crowding.
Difference in the thickness of chips from
the leading and trailing flanks is reduced,
Fig. 4.11c. This results in uniform cutter
wear. Tendency of cutter pick up at the
tool cutting edges reduces, and this
results in better tool life (upto 100%).
2. Cutting time is considerably reduced
(25%-100%).
3. Overall quality of gears and surface
finish is improved. (about one grade, say,
to 7-8 as against 8-9 through
conventional infeed system, as per DIN
3962.)
Machine Configurations
Vertical or Horizontal
Generally, all modern gear shaping
machines are with vertical cutter spindle.
However, a machine builder offers one
horizontal shaping machines with
provision for simultaneous shaping of
more than one gear/spline portion. Fig. 4
shows a multi-cutter spline shaping of an with slight taper to avoid the automatic
automobile mainshaft. Three cutters on loss of engagement of involute splines
left side and one on right side shapes four (trouble known as 'gear jumping'). Some
spline portions simultaneously. special configurations of shaping
machines are as follows:
1. Suitable tapered riser block is used to
tilt the machine column to specified angle
of taper. The machine does not provide
for any change of taper angle unless the
machine is reassembled with different
taper riser block.
2. A tilting machine column allows to cut
gears parallel to the axis as well as with a
back taper within a range.
3. A tilting worktable is used on a
standard machine. The table may be
Fig. 4. A Horizontal Multi-Cutter dedicated for an amount of taper or may
Shaping Operation have provision for changing the tilt angle
within a range.
2.Column moving or table moving
machine
Advantages of CNC Gear
Shaping Machines
For production application, preference
is given for a column moving machine,
1. Improved accuracy
where the machine column with cutter
Highly accurate linear measuring
slide moves in and away in relation to the
permits very close tolerance on size. On
stationary worktable. It provides the
advantage of fixing up automatic loading
and unloading arrangement.

some machines, machine- mounted

temperature and displacement sensors
detect dimensional variations in the
3.Table tilting or column tilting for taper machine structure due to variations in
shaping
operating or ambient temperatures. The
The synchronising gear teeth in
control system automatically
automobile transmission are designed
compensates for the deviations, and 1. Index and feed gears are not to be
guarantees almost constant size of gears changed.
produced in a lot. Individually controlled 2. Stroke positioning/stroke length is not
cutter and workpiece rotation permit best to be set.
cutting parameters at finish generation 3. Rapid motion and feed distances of the
stage. It results in reduced radial runout, radial traverse (worktable or cutter
pitch error, and improved surface finish. column) are not to be adjusted manually.
The new generation of CNC gear shaping 4. Radial feed is not to be adjusted and
machines are claimed to be capable of set for multi-cut cycle.
producing AGMA class 11 or DIN 6 5. Cutter spindle stroking speed is not to
gears on production runs. Minimum be set.
shoulder clearance is also reduced 6. Direction of cutter relieving from
because of accuracy of stroke reversal. external gear cutting is not to be changed
This makes a compact design possible. for upcutting or for cutting internal gear.
CNC positively improves both lead and On CNC machines, normal setup
pitch accuracy. Dropped tooth condition changeover may be completed within 10
can almost be eliminated. On a CNC minutes.
machine, several gears of a workpiece
(e.g. cluster gear) can be shaped in single Reduced Cycle Time :
setup with single or tandem cutters.
Similarly, an inside and outside gear can On CNC machine, the cycle time is

be finished with tandem cutter in single reduced because of two main reasons:

setup on a CNC machine. Single setup 1. All rapid traverses can be set more

shaping naturally ensures better

concentricity error and also if

accurately because of linear transducers

necessary very close timed relation on slides.

between the gears. 2. Best possible combination of stroking

speed, rotary feed and radial infeed
2. Reduced setup time reduces the cycle time to minimum.
On a CNC gear shaping machine, Cycle time for a typical gear has come
a number of setting activities are down to less than a minute on a modern
eliminated depending on number of axes CNC machine from about 4 minutes on
under NC control - conventional gear shapers.
Fig. 5 Shaping In Space Constraint
Applications
A special application problem of gear
shaping for an automobile main gear is
shown in Fig. 5, where the space
limitation of component design does not
permit the use of an external cutter. A
shank type cutter with very small number
of teeth can be used. However, the cutter
will not have the rigidity and strength
required for high speed shaping.
Production efficiency will be extremely
low as well as cutter edge wear will be
faster with very low tool life. An internal
shaper cutter Fig. 6, though costly, will
be rigid enough for high speed shaping
but with limitation of chip disposal.
Fig. 6 Internal Type Of Cutter
Fig. 7 shows two setups where multi-gear
shaping is possible on CNC machine
using one tandem (A) and the other single
cutter (B). In setup I, the two cutters
mounted in tandem shape the 3 helical
gears of a cluster gear. As the helix angle
and module of 2 gears are same, the same
cutter can generate both the gears. The
second cutter of different reference
diameter shapes the other helical gear of
different helix angle and module, but with
the same helical guide in single setup
operation. In setup II, one cutter shapes
two spur gears of a transmission
mainshaft with different number of teeth.
 Fig: 8 Push and Pull Shaping in Single setup

CONCLUSION
It can be very rightly concluded that gear
manufacturing is no more a black art.
Recent advances in gear manufacturing
and measuring technique with advance
fig. 7 Multi-Gear Shaping in Single Setup
control have resulted in new level of
flexibility for attaining a more uniform,
Fig. 8 shows a tandem cutter setup for
predictable and repeatable productivity
'push' and 'pull' shaping in single setup.
and precision characteristics. Besides the
Two straight gears of a planetary pinion
gear manufacturing technology, the
with different number of teeth are being
whole production system is undergoing
shaped in single setup. A tooth space in
transformation. Today the lay-outs of
gear 1 is to have an exactly specified
machines are preferably becoming
position in relation to a tooth space in
cellular with or without automated
gear 2. Two cutters bolted back to back
component handling. Component
with the required tooth alignment are
handling is critical in gear manufacturing
mounted on one cutter adapter. It
system, as any damage during handling
eliminates all errors of location and
upsets the microns achieved on profile.
clamping of two-setup shaping.
Automation can go from machine loading
/ unloading to totally unattended level
depending on capital investment possible.

Gear manufacturing processes are more

shop oriented than other machining
processes. Operations in gear be more beneficial than the conventional
manufacturing are also more inter-related functional organization structure that is
and independent. An organization generally prevailing in gear
structure providing emphasis on cross manufacturing plants.
functional management integration will