Gleason Corp.

A stick blade-type face hobbing system used for completing operations. In the face hobbing process, the cutting action causes the blades to cut on both the pressure angle side and the top portion of the clearance side. Because of the negative rake on the clearance side of a conventional blade, excessive tool wear is produced. The TRI-AC® System solves this problem with a patented rake angle modification on the front face of the blade. This modification produces a positive hook of front rake on the top portion of the clearance side, thus eliminating the need for a bottom cutting blade. The continuous indexing method requires a second rotational coupling (electronic gear box) between the cutter head rotation and the workpiece rotation. For this reason the method is also called a three-axes process. This is where the name TRI-AC is derived. Each blade group of a TRI-AC cutterhead has only two blades, one outer blade and one inner blade. While one blade group passes through a slot, the work gear rotates in the counter direction of the cutter. This relative motion produces an epicycloidal function along the face width of the work gear. After the blade group leaves the slot, the next blade group enters the next slot. The ratio between the cutter head and the gear must be the number of the teeth of the work divided by the number of starts (Blade groups) of the cutter head. In the generation process the roll motion is used as cutting feed. This roll is very slow compared with the face milling process. Since face hobbing cuts tooth after tooth immediately in about the same roll position, the roll motion can be slower (by the number of teeth of the work gear) and still have about the same cutting time as face milling. Of course the Gleason face hobbing is based on a uniform tooth depth. This simplifies the design calculation dramatically.

Straight bevel gears are an increasingly popular choice for certain applications. Prior to the introduction by Gleason of a 6-axis machining process for straight bevel gears in 2006, there was no modern machinery or process to cut or grind straight bevel gears. The process introduced in 2006 was a wet cutting process, using traditional high speed steel cutting tools. The new CONIFLEX®Plus system raises the bar by allowing the use of coated carbide cutting tools in a high-speed dry cutting environment. This new process is up to three times faster than its predecessor, avoids the use of cutting fluids, and consumes only 25% of the energy of traditional straight bevel gear cutting. The geometry of existing straight bevel gear designs will be exactly duplicated using the new CONIFLEX®Plus cutter system. Furthermore the new system provides additional freedoms for strength and noise optimizations due to the free design of profile curvature, dish angle edge radius and blade point.. The PENTAC® stick blades, used in CONIFLEX®Plus cutter heads can be sharpened on existing standard Gleason stick blade sharpening machines, no additional software or fixtures are required.

Gleason Corporation introduces its latest innovation in gear inspection technology with the 300GMS®L Multi-Sensor Inspection Machine; providing the capabilities of four instruments on one platform. Designed for manufacturers of automotive, aircraft and other like-sized gears, the 300GMSL offers a single, compact, reliable and easy-to operate inspection solution to apply the most desirable gear measurement and analysis methods for both R&D and production applications. An extremely versatile platform, the 300GMSL is capable of performing tactile probing to support traditional gear feature data collection on spur and helical gears, spiral and straight bevel gears up to 300mm in diameter. In addition, the platform supports non-contact, laser, full form scanning for a wide range of workpieces to support gear development efforts where large amounts of data need to be collected faster than possible with conventional tactile probing. Optional features include surface finish measurement and Barkhausen Noise Analysis; to further improve throughput while reducing cost of ownership and floor space requirements. The integration of advanced technology such as laser scanning expands the functionality and application range of this platform. The advanced laser scanning probe delivers faster data collection speeds than conventional probing methods with comparable accuracy; making the 300GMSL a perfect solution for research and development applications such as rapid prototyping and reverse engineering. The 300GMSL is also well suited for normal production operations requiring high-speed topography inspection as well as increased non-gear inspection capabilities and the ability to inspect soft, compliant materials such as plastic gears. The optional Advanced Operator Interface puts a number of powerful tools right at the operator’s fingertips including video telephony, note pad and voice mail messaging capability along with QRbar code reading. The user-friendly, fully Windows® compatible GAMA™ application software suite provides users a highly intuitive interface with simple input screens for programming workpiece data.

Cutter System for both face hobbing and face milling. It's easier to build than conventional cutters, more rigid and durable, and features the first-ever positive 3-point stick blade seating design. As a result, the blades aren't susceptible to cutting forces that can "rock" conventionally designed blades in their slots. Pentac® uses a pentagon-shaped stick cross section with two seating surfaces (60 and 30 degree) to ensure that the blades are held in position between the clamp block and the cutter body more accurately and remain more stable throughout the cut.

Gleason Corporation’s new 300GMSL Multi-Sensor Gear Inspection System to have European première at the Control Show in Stuttgart, Germany May 09 - 12, 2017. The versatile platform of Gleason’s 300GMSL Inspection System provides the classic tactile probing methods for inspecting conventional gear data on spur and helical cylindrical gears as well as straight, spiral and hypoid bevel gears with a diameter of up to 300 mm. In addition, the new inspection system allows non-contact laser sensor scanning of tooth flanks to support gear development. Complete topography data can be recorded far more rapidly than with conventional tactile probing, with comparable results. The integration of laser scanning and associated 3D graphics with CAD interface considerably expand both the functionality and the range of applications for this machine platform. The new option makes the 300GMSL the ideal solution for research and development applications, for both prototype and production parts or when reverse engineering is required. The 300GMSL Inspection System is also an ideal fit for rapid measurement of topography in regular production operation and satisfies the increasingly stringent requirements on gear inspection. Compliant, soft materials (such as plastic gears, for example) can be inspected without sustaining damage. Further options such as surface finish measurement or Barkhausen noise analysis to inspect grind burn reduce operating costs, annual maintenance and certification costs and space requirements by offering multiple technologies on a single machine platform. Another highlight at the Control Show in Stuttgart is the 300GMSP Analytical Gear Inspection System which was designed for use directly in the production environment and which yields reliable measured results in demanding environmental surroundings. To achieve this, the 300GMSP has integrated systems to compensate for temperature fluctuations and to dampen vibration in the production environment. The 300GMSP is especially suitable for applications in the aerospace and automotive industries, but of course also well suited for the inspection of high-quality gears in other sectors of industry. The Closed-Loop Function, available for many years in bevel gear production and developed by Gleason for cylindrical gears in 2015 for direct transmission of measured data to the production machine, is part of the standard repertoire of the GMS series of machines from Gleason metrology Systems. The inspection systems presented will be accompanied by high-precision workholding solutions for metrology applications to boost measuring efficiency to the next level.

An inserted-blade face mill cutter designed for high production pinion roughing operations where an increased number of blades equates to decreased production cycle times. The use of wedges for clamping permits the maximum number of cutter blades within a given circumferential diameter.