Double cutter face milling of spiral bevel gears

Abstract: In manufacturing area, one of the most complex technological processes is the machining of spiral bevel gears. For these processes, special machine tools designed with peculiar manuals for calculating the gear geometry, and the setting-up processes were developed. The known technologies and design of gear-cutting machine tools are different and based on processes that cut the concave and convex sides of the spiral tooth separately or simultaneously. These processes are different in productivity and quality of gear machining. Due to these circumstances, manufacturers created many modifications, with different qualities of the gear-cutting processes. Presently, there are following technologies: continuous indexing (face-hobbing) and single indexing (face-milling) that unlimitedly available to the user. This paper presents a new face-milling process of machining spiral bevel gears that can increase productivity and improve the quality of gears. The new process presents a solution that uses two cutter heads simultaneously for machining both concave and convex sides of the spiral teeth. Manufacturers can accept the new technology of the spiral bevel gear that needs a wide spectrum of research to get optimal solutions