METHOD FOR CREATING OR MACHINING TOOTHINGS ON WORKPIECES

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for creating or machining toothings on workpieces in rolling machining engagement, in particular by gear shaping, in which an NC control of the rotary spindle drives of workpiece and tool comprises regulation of the rotation angle position of each particular spindle to setpoints depending on the process parameters associated with the process design underlying the method, wherein data containing information relating to a deflection, caused by the process forces that arise during machining and resulting in profile shape deviations on the workpiece, of the position of the tool flanks of tool and workpiece out of their position intended as per the process design, are used to determine a correction, taking the deflection into account, of the rotation angle position of workpiece spindle and/or tool spindle and thus to modify the setpoints of the regulation.

Claims

1. A method for creating or machining toothings on workpieces in rolling machining engagement by gear shaping, in which an NC control of the rotary spindle drives of workpiece and tool comprises regulation of the rotation angle position of each particular spindle to setpoints depending upon the process parameters associated with the process design underlying the method, characterized in that data containing information relating to a deflection caused by the process forces that arise during machining and resulting in profile shape deviations on the workpiece, of the position of the tool flanks of tool and workpiece out of their position intended as per the process design, are used to determine a correction, taking the deflection into account, of the rotation angle position of the workpiece spindle and/or tool spindle and thus to modify the setpoints of the regulation.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the setpoint correction is periodic.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein a workpiece-related period length of the setpoint correction amounts to 360?/number of teeth of the workpiece.

4. The method according to claim 2 wherein one phase of the correction comprises a phase offset in addition to an angular distance of a tooth-gap center of the workpiece to a specified spatially fixed reference angular position.

5. The method according to claim 2 wherein an amplitude of the setpoint correction is determined depending upon one or a plurality of the parameters tool and workpiece diameter and number of teeth, resilience of the tool and workpiece, toothing module, helix angle of the toothing.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein one machining of a first workpiece is completed before modification of the setpoints and the setpoint correction is carried out for subsequent workpieces of the same type, in which machining is performed under the same process design.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the finished workpiece is measured and data are drawn therefrom for the setpoint correction.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein an amplitude magnitude of the setpoint correction is determined by the maximum thickness difference averaged over the teeth in the profile shape deviation.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein one or a plurality of parameters tool and workpiece diameter and number of teeth, resilience of the tool and workpiece, toothing module, helix angle of the toothing flow into a fine-tuning of the amplitude.

10. The method according to claim 1 wherein the method is carried out in at least two passes made on one workpiece, the earlier pass is finished before the setpoint correction, and the setpoint displacement is carried out for at least one of the subsequent passes of the workpiece machining.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein, during the earlier pass, the time course of the readjustment of the actual values that is carried out by the still unmodified regulation is determined by setpoints and is used as the data for the determination of the setpoint correction.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the determination of the setpoint correction is carried out based on at least one of the recorded deviations of the rotation angle positions of workpiece and/or tool spindle and the detected torques actually applied by the spindle motor of workpiece and/or tool spindle based on their torque regulation taking into account the resilience of workpiece and tool.

13. The method according to claim 1 wherein the modification of the setpoints goes into the NC control via values of the correction set up in the form of a table.

14. A computer program having program instructions that when implemented in a toothing machine, controls the machine for the execution of a method according to claim 1.

15. A toothing machine comprising a rotary tool spindle rotationally driven by a spindle drive motor for holding a machining tool and a spindle drive motor to drive a workpiece spindle, an NC control of the rotary spindle drive that comprises a regulation of the rotation angle position of the spindle to the specific setpoints depending on the process parameters input into the machine, characterized by a control that controls the machine for carrying out a method according to claim 1.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein said at least two passes are of different downfeed depths.

17. The method of claim 10 wherein said at least one of the subsequent passes comprises the last pass.

Description

[0021] Further features and advantages of the invention are derived from the following description with reference to the attached drawings, of which

[0022] FIG. 1 is an illustration of the profile shape error measured once on a workpiece after machining still without setpoint modification (FIG. 1a) and once with modification (FIG. 1b), and

[0023] FIG. 2 is a graphic representation of the sequence of process variables shown with correction mechanisms indicated.

[0024] FIG. 1a shows a measurement of the flanks of a workpiece that was produced under specified parameters in the gear shaping process in the manner that is typical for a person skilled in the art. The more precise tool data are not relevant for the following; instead, it is significant for the following explanation of the invention that during the evaluation the profile shape errors existing on the individual tooth flanks were determined that, in this exemplary embodiment, were within the interval from 6.3 to 8.9 ?m. This workpiece is, for example, the first workpiece of a larger workpiece series of identical workpieces that are machined sequentially.

[0025] These sequential workpieces are, in any case, no longer generated by shaping using the identically controlled method, but in a modified manner, for which purpose the following steps are completed in this illustrative exemplary embodiment as indicated below.

[0026] During the finishing cut of the first workpiece, the torques applied by the spindle drive motor of the workpiece spindle were recorded, wherein an illustration related to the rotation angle is selected. The result of this recording is the highly fluctuating pass plotted in FIG. 2. The approach for a harmonic correction in form

corr(?)= sin(?.sub.?.Math.?+?)

is then selected and therein the rotation-angle-related frequency ?.sub.? is set at 2?/tooth count of the workpiece (or 360?/tooth count of the workpiece). By matching the phase ?, this function is now at first postponed until a best match with respect to the fundamental oscillations of the torque illustrated in FIG. 2 is reached. This is given in the situation represented in FIG. 2 by the solid-line sine curve.

[0027] This solid-line sine curve in FIG. 2 is now used as a (specified except for the amplitude) correction function according to the algebraic sign (in some cases the phase ?, depending upon entry method, is to be further displaced by ? or 180? in the NC controller) in order to create the effect counter to the profile deviation. In addition, the previously unspecified amplitude is set to half of the average profile shape deviation f.sub.f?, which, in the exemplary embodiment of the measured gear from FIG. 1a, results in an amplitude of 3.5 ?m.

[0028] From the correction curve, a correction table can then be created which is in turn related to the rotation angle and which is surrendered to the machine control for machining the subsequent workpieces as a modification of its setpoints for the rotation angle that are otherwise used. The result of this is that the control henceforth outputs setpoints that, viewed purely kinematically, would lead to a profile shape deviation on the workpiece flanks. Because of the machining forces that arise and the deflection of the tooth flanks caused by them, the actually derived profile is then again located closer to the desired setpoint.

[0029] The result of this modification can be seen in FIG. 1b, in which a first workpiece is shown measured that is created in the finishing step of the gear shaping machining with modification of the setpoints. In this exemplary embodiment, an average profile shape deviation reduced by almost 50% is achieved, meaning an improvement that can be seen even with the naked eye in the comparison of the graphs from FIGS. 1a and 1b.

[0030] If measured values of the profile shape deviation of a previous workpiece are not yet available for the machining of a workpiece, lower profile shape deviations can also be achieved for the just-machined workpiece. To do this, for example after the roughing process in a first finishing step, the torque on the workpiece spindle drive is recorded and a correction function is in turn determined at a rotation-angle-related frequency of 360?/tooth count of the workpiece for a second finishing pass. The phase of the correction function can thus be determined in the same manner as illustrated above. The determination of the amplitude can, for example, be done using considerations of the profile error e, meaning the displacement of the contact point between tool and workpiece during the cut, which comprises a displacement on the side of the workpiece and on the side of the tool:

e=?u.sub.Xz??u.sub.Ws,

wherein ?u each shows the displacement in the tangential direction. This combines in each case an overlay of torsion and flexure of workpiece or tool,

[00001]$\begin{array}{c}?.Math..Math.u_{\mathrm{Wz}}=\frac{T_{\mathrm{Wz}}.Math.r_{\mathrm{Wz}}}{c_{T,\mathrm{Wz}}}+\frac{F_{\mathrm{contact}}}{c_{B,\mathrm{Wz}}}\\ ?.Math..Math.u_{\mathrm{Ws}}=-\frac{T_{\mathrm{Ws}}.Math.r_{\mathrm{Ws}}}{c_{T,\mathrm{Ws}}}-\frac{F_{\mathrm{contact}}}{c_{B,\mathrm{Ws}}},\end{array}$

wherein T indicates the torque with the respective index for tool and workpiece, r with the respective index of the radius, c.sub.T indicates the tool-side or workpiece-side torsional rigidity for each with index for tool and workpiece and c.sub.B the respective flexural strength with the respective index, and F.sub.contact applies for the contact force:

[00002]$F_{\mathrm{contact}}=\frac{T_{\mathrm{Wz}}}{r_{\mathrm{Wz}}}=\frac{T_{\mathrm{Ws}}}{r_{\mathrm{Ws}}}.$

[0031] Based on this relationship, the measurement of the torque on the workpiece spindle is sufficient for determining the error e, as illustrated above in FIG. 2, and by plugging the above equations into each other, a linear relationship is obtained

e=k.Math.T.sub.Ws.

[0032] The recorded torques (illustration as, for example, in FIG. 2) can then be scaled using the factor k/r.sub.Ws s and the amplitude of the harmonic correction function also can be adapted in the amplitude direction to these scaled values (if the modification is carried out only on the setpoint correction of the workpiece spindle, for example).

[0033] Alternatively, the modification can be configured via the rotation angle regulation of the tool spindle or proportionally divided into workpiece spindle and tool spindle.

[0034] Because of the accuracy improvements that can be achieved by the setpoint modification according to the invention, as a further method design the finishing step can be completely omitted and the modification can be carried out by a rolling roughing. In this case, one proceeds in the determination of frequency derived from rotation angle and phase of the correction function as described above with the difference that the torque recording of the previous roughing is applied. Moreover, one will preferably no longer work with an amplitude of the correction function that is constant over time or with respect to the rotation angle position, but instead will use a rotation-angle-dependent amplitude required by the radial feed of the spiral-shaped plunge movement, that is, in general work with a pseudo-periodic correction function. For example, one can work with a linearly decreasing amplitude, characterized in that, instead of the aforementioned averaged profile shape deviation, a linear ramp is formed between the tooth having the smallest profile shape deviation and the tooth having the largest.

[0035] The invention is not limited to the details illustrated in the accompanying figures in the present description. Instead, the features of the above description as well as those of the following claims can be significant individually and in combination for the implementation of the invention in its different embodiments.