Cutting force prediction in hypoid gear machining

Abstract

Hypoid gear machining is a critical process in automobile industries. Many studies have discussed the gear machining in the geometrical model for manufacturing and design of the gears. In terms of the cutting process, the accuracies of the gears largely depend on the cutting forces. Therefore, the cutting force should be estimated to perform the high accurate gear cutting. However, few studies have been done on prediction of the cutting force. Analytical predictions of the cutting forces are required for manufacturing of gears with high qualities. This study presents an analytical model to predict cutting force in the hypoid gear cutting, in which the gear grooves are machined by sets of inner and outer cutting blades. Both of the blades finish the side and the end faces in the gear grooves. Different chip flows occurs on the end and the side edges of the blades. The chip flows are modeled by piling up orthogonal cuttings containing the cutting and the chip flow directions, where the chip flow direction is determined to minimize the cutting energy. The cutting forces loaded on the inner and the outer blades are predicted in the chip flow models. The presented model is validated in the cutting tests with measuring the cutting forces.