A new method of motion rule synthesis for face gear manufacturing by plane-cutter

The application of a Gleason Coniflex cutter (plane-cutter) to a modern Phoenix bevel gear machine tool in face gear manufacturing has an advantage of involving a universal cutter or grinder and an available existing machine. It is valuable to research this method for face gear manufacturing. First, the principle of the application of the plane-cutter in face gear manufacturing is presented. Then, the geometry of the cutter is defined, and the model of the face gear generated by this method in abstract is established. Third, a method that uses a predesigned contact path for the synthesis with the motion parameters of the plane-cutter is proposed; controllable transmission errors are considered in this process. Fourth, based on the equivalence principle of the position and direction, the computer numerical control (CNC) motion rules of all spindles of the machine are determined, and the surface generated by the machine is presented. Finally, numerical simulation of an example demonstrates that although the surface generated by the plane-cutter, to a certain extent, deviates from the theoretical surface generated by the traditional method, the surface, in meshing with the standard involute surface of the pinion, presents a good geometric meshing performance based on tooth contact analysis (TCA), except for a shortened contact ellipse.