The present disclosure relates to a gear cutting machine for gear cutting a workpiece, in particular a toothed wheel, by form milling having at least one cutter head for mounting at least one end mill, wherein the cutter head or the end mill and/or the workpiece mount are adjustable and the end mill axis can be aligned approximately parallel to the machined tooth flank of the clamped workpiece, and wherein the cutter axis can be applied to the flank contour and the end mill has an outer contour corresponding to the flank contour.

The present disclosure relates to a gear cutting machine for gear cutting a workpiece, in particular a toothed wheel, by form milling having at least one cutter head for mounting at least one end mill, wherein the cutter head or the end mill and/or the workpiece mount are adjustable and the end mill axis can be aligned approximately parallel to the machined tooth flank of the clamped workpiece, and wherein the cutter axis can be applied to the flank contour and the end mill has an outer contour corresponding to the flank contour.

The inventive device includes a work supporting portion for supporting a work rotatably about a first axis, a cutter supporting portion for supporting a cutter rotatably about a second axis different from the first axis and a moving portion for moving the cutter along a reference line extending through the first axis. The second axis is slanted relative to a reference plane oriented perpendicular to the first axis and a blade edge of the cutter is caused to come into contact with the work at an offset position offset from the reference line. The work and the cutter are driven in synchronism and the cutter is moved along the reference line.

The inventive device includes a work supporting portion for supporting a work rotatably about a first axis, a cutter supporting portion for supporting a cutter rotatably about a second axis different from the first axis and a moving portion for moving the cutter along a reference line extending through the first axis. The second axis is slanted relative to a reference plane oriented perpendicular to the first axis and a blade edge of the cutter is caused to come into contact with the work at an offset position offset from the reference line. The work and the cutter are driven in synchronism and the cutter is moved along the reference line.

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.

A gear machining apparatus causes a machining tool and a workpiece to rotate at a high speed in synchronization with each other to machine a highly accurate gear through cutting. The machining tool is manufactured such that each of pitches between tool blades of the machining tool is an integer multiple of a pitch between teeth of the gear, the integer multiple being equal to or larger than double. By using the machining tool for cutting performed by the gear machining apparatus, the number of the tool blades of the machining tool, which are brought into contact with the workpiece at the same time, is reduced. Thus, it is possible to suppress occurrence of self-excited vibrations during cutting by reducing the cutting resistance. Thus, it is possible to enhance the tooth trace accuracy of the gear.

There is provided a tool for efficiently cutting a face gear to be meshed with a helical gear. When a circular tooth thickness of a tooth tip of a cutting edge portion is represented as S.sub.atSC, a circular tooth thickness on a virtual outside diameter of a tooth profile of the helical gear in a cross-sectional view perpendicular to an axis is represented as S.sub.at, a helix angle on the virtual outside diameter of the tooth profile of the helical gear in a cross-sectional view by a plane perpendicular to the axis is represented as .sub.a, and a face width of the cutting edge portion is represented as b.sub.sc, $b_{\mathrm{SC}}\frac{s_{\mathrm{at}}-s_{\mathrm{atSC}}}{\tan {}_a}$
is satisfied.

A method for chamfering toothed gears which enables lengthening of a life of a tool is provided. The chamfering method is for sequentially chamfering the line intersection portions 23 between tooth flanks 21 and end faces 22 of teeth 2 with end cutting edges 122. A pitch Pb of the end cutting edges 122 is set to five times a pitch Pa of the teeth 2. As a result, at a chamfering step of chamfering line intersection portions 23 of the teeth 2, a circumferential speed of the end cutting edges 122 can be made faster than a circumferential speed of the teeth 2. Consequently, a difference in circumferential speed between the end cutting edges 122 and the teeth 2 can be utilized in chamfering and thus a cutting resistance can be reduced during the chamfering. Therefore, a life of the tool 100 can be lengthened.