Measuring date processing of aviation spiral bevel gears by using coordinate measurement

The high accuracy in manufacturing of aviation spiral bevel gears should be required, and the coordinate measurement is often used to determine the deviations of tooth surfaces caused by machining error, cutting deformation and misalignment. In this paper, applying the differential geometry and space engagement theory, the authors deduce the analytical representation of a theoretical tooth surface, and calculate the deviations of the real tooth surface measured by using the traditional coordinate measuring machine (CMM) without rotary table. Two pairs of aviation spiral bevel gears are taken for examples. By processing the tooth flank coordinates respectively measured by the traditional CMM without rotary table and by special Gleason's software, and comparing with the results, the approach presented in this paper is proved to be accurate and available, and capable to provide an effective method of processing the measuring date of aviation spiral bevel gears.