Study on ultrasonic-assisted lapping of gears

Ultrasonic-assisted lapping of gears is firstly proposed and compared with conventional lapping in material removal process and mechanism. The material removal mechanisms of the ultrasonic lapping include hammering, impacting and acoustic cavitation. The experiments showed that the material removal rate of ultrasonic lapping is nearly three times that of the conventional lapping in the same condition, and the ultrasonic lapping can produce a better tooth surface quality (Ra=0.2 μm and the section height c=1.2 μm) than the conventional lapping (Ra=0.33 μm and c=3.2 μm). Then a set of parametric experiments for the ultrasonic lapping was conducted with the Taguchi experimental design. The results of this set of experiments reveal that the optimum conditions for a high removal rate in the ultrasonic lapping experiments of spiral-bevel gears are of brake torque, 0.12 Nm; pinion rotational speed, 600 rpm; and slurry concentration with 20%. The contributions by percentage of torque, speed and concentration to the removal rate are 8.13, 19.26 and 68.11, respectively.