The Gleason Works

Brian J Baldeck

Peter E Chapin

Robert S Crandall

Scott R Alford

A method of machining gears or other toothed articles wherein the workpiece feed rate and/or the tool shifting is varied so as to produce an irregular surface pattern on tooth surfaces with a resulting reduction in mesh noise. The method is particularly applicable to grinding spur and/or helical gears with a grinding worm.

Variable rate method of machining gears

Method of grinding cylindrical gears with a threaded grinding wheel wherein the amount of grinding wheel material utilized during shifting remains constant as the wheel diameter decreases, for example, due to dressing. The amount of grinding wheel shifting is adjusted as the grinding wheel diameter decreases.

Method of maintaining a constant grinding process

A method of evaluating a toothed workpiece for machining according to a predetermined machining process. A workpiece spindle is rotated to bring selected leading and/or trailing tooth flanks each into a predetermined position relative to a probe to generate a signal indicative of the instantaneous rotational position of the spindle and the instantaneous rotational spindle positions corresponding to each generated signal are recorded. Theoretical spindle positions corresponding to each selected tooth flank are provided, and the difference between respective recorded spindle positions and the theoretical spindle positions for each selected tooth flank is calculated to yield a measured error value. The maximum and minimum measured error values for leading tooth flanks and/or trailing tooth flanks are selected and a maximum accumulated pitch variation (P.sub.V) is calculated for the leading tooth flanks and/or trailing tooth flanks. The maximum accumulated pitch variation (P.sub.V) is compared to predetermined pitch variation tolerance limits comprising an abort tolerance (T.sub.A) and a modified process tolerance (T.sub.M) whereby the predetermined machining process is aborted if P.sub.V .gtoreq.T.sub.A, the predetermined machining process is modified if T.sub.M .ltoreq.P.sub.V .ltoreq.T.sub.A, and the predetermined machining process is carried out if P.sub.V &lt;T.sub.M.

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Mumford, NY, United States of America

Brian J Baldeck