Theoretical analysis for manufacturing face gear by plane cutter

The application of the plane cutter in face gear manufacturing is able to improve the generality and decrease the design and manufacturing cost of the cutter. Firstly, based on the simulation of the Gleason Works'method, it pointed out that the ideal tooth surface cannot be obtained by only the application of higher order roll ratio. Then an additional motion was proposed: through the additional motion and higher order roll ratio, the exact simulation of suppositional involute can be realized in the cutters motion. Thirdly, the method for determining the polynomial coefficients of the higher order roll ratio and additional motion was proposed. Fourthly the equations of the generating plane of the plane cutter and the tooth surface of the face gear were derived. Finally, the numerical simulation of the roll ratio, motion rule, tooth contact analysis were performed. The results show that: in the numerical example, the maximum tooth surface error is -1.05 mm, the contact path is tilted, the maximum length of contact ellipse is 11.2 mm, transmission errors is about 0″, the meshing between the generated face gear and the standard pinion demonstrates good features of ‘quasi conjugate’. Hence the manufacturing method for rough cutting, and finish grinding has perfect feasibility and practicability.