METHOD FOR FINE PROCESSING A TOOTHING, A FINE PROCESSING MACHINE FOR PERFORMING THE METHOD AND A COMPUTER PROGRAM FOR CONTROLLING THE MACHINE

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for the fine-processing of a toothing by a single-indexing method, wherein a disk-type fine-toothing machine (S) that rotates about its axis is brought into rolling processing engagement with a tooth flank of the toothing in order to remove material from the tooth flank, wherein a line contact is established while in processing engagement, and the contact line moves over the tooth flank in accordance with a movement having a directional component (Xc0) that is radial to the toothing axis (C), and wherein the processing engagement is maintained in the same pitch with a reduced tangential distance between the tooth flank and the disk plane of the fine-processing tool and with a sign reversal of the radial directional component of the contact line displacement.

Claims

1. A method for the fine-processing of a toothing (W) by a single-indexing method, wherein a disk-type fine-toothing tool (S) that rotates about its axis is brought into rolling processing engagement with a tooth flank of the toothing in order to remove material from the tooth flank, wherein a line contact is established while in processing engagement, and the contact line moves over the tooth flank in accordance with a movement having a directional component that is radial to the toothing axis, characterized in that the processing engagement is maintained in the same pitch with a reduced tangential distance between the tooth flank and the disk plane of the fine-processing tool and with a sign reversal of the radial directional component of the contact line displacement.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the tangential distance for the processing engagement is increased again on the next tooth flank after the indexing.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the total amount of material removed to achieve the desired final dimensions is distributed over multiple processing cycles of the toothing, and the process can be continued in one or more processing cycles with a reduction in the tangential distance and the sign reversal in the radial directional component in the respective pitch.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein no further reduction in the tangential distance is undertaken in a later cycle in which material is deliberately removed.

5. The method according to claim 1 wherein a relative movement between the fine-processing tool and the processed toothing to establish the processing engagement is that of a mechanical rolling arc, though it is carried out by synchronized CNC-controlled axes of movement.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the relative movement is produced by superimposing a rotational movement of the toothing about its rotary axis and a linear movement of the toothing transversely to its rotary axis.

7. The method according to claim 1 wherein the fine-processing tool does not perform any other movements besides its rotational movement during a processing cycle of the toothing.

8. The method according to claim 1 wherein the processed toothing is the toothing of a cylindrical gear-cutting tool.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein a shaving cutter can be ground by the method.

10. A computer program that, when run on a fine-processing machine suitable for performing a method according to claim 1, controls the fine-processing machine to perform said method.

11. A fine-processing machine (100) having a controller that controls the machine to carry out a method according to claim 1.

12. The method according to claim 2, wherein the tangential distance for the processing engagement is increased again on the next tooth flank after the indexing by the same amount as the preceding reduction.

13. The method of claim 3 wherein said one or more processing cycles comprises the first processing cycle.

14. The method according to claim 4, wherein no further reduction in the tangential distance is undertaken in the last cycle in which material is deliberately removed.

Description

[0020] Further features, details and advantages of the invention arise from the following description of a preferred embodiment with reference to the attached drawings, of which

[0021] FIG. 1 shows a shaving cutter grinding machine,

[0022] FIG. 2 shows an explanatory rendering of the rolling and sub-kinematics of a shaving cutter grinding machine, and

[0023] FIG. 3 is a schematic representation of material removal by the single-indexing method according to the invention.

[0024] FIG. 1 displays a shaving cutter grinding machine 100, the main components of which are a machine bed 20, a unit 30 for the powered and positionable bearing of a shaving cutter W and a unit 40 for the powered and positionable bearing of a grinding disk S. Further secondary components, such as a dressing device, are not shown in FIG. 1.

[0025] The shaving cutter W is retained in a rotatably driven manner by a workpiece slide 32, which can be moved over the machine axis V along the bed 20 to provide tangential stroke and reverse stroke movement, while the rotational axis of the shaving cutter is identified with C.

[0026] The grinding disk unit 40 comprises the grinding disk S, which is rotatable about its axis, on a slide arrangement, wherein a height of the grinding disk can be set via the positioning axis X and an orientation of the grinding disk axis can be set via the rotational axes A, B, wherein axis A serves to make adjustments relative to the angle of inclination, and axis B serves to make adjustments relative to the angle of engagement. In addition, the depth of cut can be modified using the movement axis W.sub.S.

[0027] In FIG. 1, the grinding disk S and the shaving cutter W are shown in processing engagement, which occurs in accordance with the principle of the rolling motion produced by superimposing the tangential stroke movement in direction Y.sub.W with the rotation of the shaving cutter, which was discussed at the beginning with reference to FIG. 2.

[0028] In the following exemplary case described on the basis of FIG. 3, 40 m of material is supposed to be removed in one cycle from the tooth flanks of a shaving cutter having e.g. 100 teeth.

[0029] This is accomplished by setting half of the desired removal amount, 20 m, as the feed increment and removing this material in the stroke movement (+Y.sub.W) via the rolling processing engagement. Even before the grinding disk rolls back out of the engagement position (Y.sub.W) to continue indexing, material is also deliberately removed while it is rolling out as a result of changing the infeed, namely an infeed that is a further 20 m deeper.

[0030] Before the roll-in movement commences to the next index, the infeed is reset to the depth during the stroke of the previous pitch, after which the second tooth is processed like the first, and so forth. In this method, 200 grinding passes are performed and zero idle passes, and the total removal of 40 m is achieved in one processing cycle.

[0031] This is only an illustrative example, but it reveals that more removal per processing cycle and thus fewer overall cycles are possible (or less removal per grinding stroke is necessary with the same number of processing cycles) in order to accomplish the same processing results as in the prior art.

[0032] If we consider, for instance, the measures usually taken in the prior art to grind a newly manufactured shaving cutter, in which e.g. four rough cycles, three finishing cycles and two spark-out cycles take place, then the process control according to the invention will suffice with just two rough cycles, one finishing cycle with a grinding stroke in the return stroke and possibly one further finishing cycle with an idle stroke in the return stroke as well as the spark-out cycles. On the whole, this can result in up to approximately 25% lower processing times.

[0033] In the embodiment, a grinding disk is operating. However, the invention can also be implemented for double-disk arrangements, in which both disks simultaneously process two tooth flanks that are usually a few tooth gaps apart.

[0034] Incidentally, the invention is also not restricted to the details shown in the above examples. Instead, the individual features in the claims which follow and in the description, individually and in combination, can be essential to realizing the invention in its various embodiments.