Methods for machining may include: (a) providing a bevel gear on a workpiece spindle of a machine, the gear having a tooth having a head, (b) rotationally driving the gear about an axis of the spindle, (c) providing a first machining tool on a tool spindle of the machine, (d) machining the gear by means of the first machining tool, (e) providing a grinding tool as a second machining tool on the tool spindle or on a further spindle, (f) driving the grinding tool to rotate about a tool axis of the tool spindle, wherein the grinding tool comprises a concave machining region that has a ring shape and is arranged concentrically in relation to the tool axis, and (g) advancing the grinding tool in relation to the gear to bring the machining region into chip-removing operational connection with an edge in a region of the head to produce a chamfer on the edge by grinding.

The invention relates to a method for machining the tip circle diameter of a tooth system (4) of a gearwheel (6), in which the gearwheel (6) rotates about a workpiece axis of rotation (Rw), and in which at least one tooth (9) of the tooth system (4) is machined, by removing chips, by means of a tool (7, 7) that rotates about a tool axis of rotation (Rz) oriented at an axial distance (A, A) relative to the workpiece axis of rotation (Rw). According to the invention, the tool (7, 7) is disk-shaped, the disk-shaped tool (7, 7) machines the tip surface (8) of the tooth (9), by removing chips, with at least one partial segment (10a) of its circumferential edge configured as a defined blade (10), wherein a relative movement between the tool (7, 7) and the gearwheel (6), oriented in the axial direction of the tooth system (4), is carried out during the chip-removing machining, as a consequence of which movement the tool (7, 7) sweeps over the tip surface (8), and the tool axis of rotation (Rz) is oriented at an axis intersection angle (?) of 5? to 40? with respect to the workpiece axis of rotation (Rw). In this way, efficient and highly precise machining of the tip circle diameter is made possible. The invention also states a method for producing a gearwheel, in which the tooth system (4) is produced on a gearwheel blank (5) by means of hob peeling before machining of the tip circle diameter according to the invention, as well as a combination tool, in which a hob-peeling wheel for producing the gearwheel and a disk-shaped tool for machining the tip circle diameter according to the invention are combined with each other.

A tool for machining splines on a workpiece comprises a base, a first tooth extending radially from the base and a second tooth extending radially from the base. The second tooth is spaced circumferentially from the first tooth. The first tooth has a first height, the second tooth has a second height and the second height is less than the first height. The first tooth tapers from the base to the tip of the first tooth, the second tooth tapers from the base to the tip of the second tooth and the first tooth is identical to the second tooth to the second height.

A method for producing a milling tool with cutting teeth includes the steps: defining a tooth profile to be machined with the milling tool from a workpiece to be processed to produce a gear tooth; determining a cutting tooth geometry, including the cutting edges of the cutting tooth geometry, with which the defined tooth profile to be machined in the workpiece to be processed can be machined using a milling process; subdividing the cutting tooth geometry into at least two different partial cutting tooth geometries, wherein the different partial cutting tooth geometries are configured such that at least one of the partial cutting tooth geometries has portions which recess behind the outer contour of the cutting tooth geometry and that the superposition of the different partial cutting tooth geometries reproduces the cutting tooth geometry; providing a milling tool blank; and machining of cutting teeth from the milling tool blank.

A gear machining apparatus includes a machining tool having a plurality of protruding tool edges on an outer periphery of the machining tool, and driving apparatuses that form a tooth on a work piece by rotating the machining tool around a central axis thereof, rotating the work piece W around a central axis thereof, and moving the machining tool relative to the work piece. Radial outer faces of the protruding tool edges form multiple steps that are parallel to the central axis of the machining tool such that the diameter of the machining tool increases in a stepwise manner from a tool leading end toward a tool base end of the machining tool.

The present invention achieves a machining apparatus which can easily be composed and a machining method which can perform gear machining or splined shaft machining easily by using an existing lathe. More specifically, the invention achieves a machining apparatus 1 comprising: a cutter 11 which includes a blade part 20 formed in the shape of a ring around a peripheral surface thereof and which is driven to rotate about an axis thereof; a workpiece holder 13 which holds a workpiece W rotatably; and a cutter driver 12 which moves the cutter 11 and the workpiece W relative to each other along an axial direction, wherein a gear or a splined shaft is formed on the peripheral surface of the workpiece W by synchronizing the rotation of the workpiece W with the relative movement of the cutter 11 and the workpiece W and by rotating the cutter 11, and wherein a plurality of the blade parts 20 are disposed side by side along the axis, the cutter driver 12 drives the cutter 11 to rotate in one direction around the axis and to reciprocate relative to the workpiece W along the axis, the workpiece holder 13 rotates the workpiece W in a forward/reverse direction in accordance with reciprocation of the cutter 11, and cutting is performed on the workpiece W so as to form thereon an external shape of a gear or a splined shaft by placing each of the blade parts 20 of the cutter 11 in contact with the peripheral surface of the workpiece W.

The present invention achieves a machining apparatus which can easily be composed and a machining method which can perform gear machining or splined shaft machining easily by using an existing lathe. More specifically, the invention achieves a machining apparatus 1 comprising: a cutter 11 which includes a blade part 20 formed in the shape of a ring around a peripheral surface thereof and which is driven to rotate about an axis thereof; a workpiece holder 13 which holds a workpiece W rotatably; and a cutter driver 12 which moves the cutter 11 and the workpiece W relative to each other along an axial direction, wherein a gear or a splined shaft is formed on the peripheral surface of the workpiece W by synchronizing the rotation of the workpiece W with the relative movement of the cutter 11 and the workpiece W and by rotating the cutter 11, and wherein a plurality of the blade parts 20 are disposed side by side along the axis, the cutter driver 12 drives the cutter 11 to rotate in one direction around the axis and to reciprocate relative to the workpiece W along the axis, the workpiece holder 13 rotates the workpiece W in a forward/reverse direction in accordance with reciprocation of the cutter 11, and cutting is performed on the workpiece W so as to form thereon an external shape of a gear or a splined shaft by placing each of the blade parts 20 of the cutter 11 in contact with the peripheral surface of the workpiece W.

The invention concerns a method for the machining of the tooth edges between an axially facing surface and the tooth flanks of a gear with a machining tool that has a toothed contour. For the material-removing cutting operation, the machining tool, rotating about the axis of its toothed contour, is brought into rolling engagement with the toothed workpiece under a crossing angle different from zero between the rotary axes of the machining tool and the toothed workpiece.

The invention concerns a method for the machining of the tooth edges between an axially facing surface and the tooth flanks of a gear with a machining tool that has a toothed contour. For the material-removing cutting operation, the machining tool, rotating about the axis of its toothed contour, is brought into rolling engagement with the toothed workpiece under a crossing angle different from zero between the rotary axes of the machining tool and the toothed workpiece.

A machining process for straight bevel gears having very short machining times. In one embodiment. both members of a straight bevel gearset are machined in a non-generated form cutting or a form grinding process. The tool profile has the shape of a mirrored involute which is determined from the equivalent spur gear of each respective straight bevel gear. In another embodiment. one member of a straight bevel gearset is machined in a non-generated form cutting or a form grinding process and the other member of the gearset is machined in a generating process.