Optimization and validation of pinion roughing for spiral bevel gears

In order to obtain a more uniform finishing allowance, an optimal method for roughing pinion of spiral bevel gears was proposed. The location of both tooth flanks was determined by pinion tooth sizes at the middle of face from gear blank; the objection of roughing surface was achieved according to add the preset finishing allowance to the theoretical finishing surface along the normal direction. The least squares optimization model of the finishing allowance was established, and the parameters of roughing pinion were solved by the Levenberg-Marquardt method with a trust-region strategy, and then an experiment of pinion cutting was conducted to valid the proposed method. The results show that a more uniform finishing allowance can be obtained by the optimal method, compared with Gleason's rough settings, where the machine settings of work offset, machine center to back sliding base and point width are taken as the optimization parameters, and there exists the profile error of finishing allowance due to the use of roughing head-cutter of wheel gear directly.