A new electronic gearbox for gear hobbing machines

This article presents a new kind of software-defined electronic gearbox for gear hobbing based on a theoretical model of the hobbing process. The electronic gearbox implementation and structure are studied in an embedded numerical control system (numerical control/computer numerical control). Data flow among the electronic gearbox modules is also analyzed in the numerical control system. Special G-codes with parameters are designed, and the electronic gearbox control implemented through numerical control programming is realized in a custom gear hobbing numerical control system. In addition, two different hobbing methods (axial and diagonal) are tested on the computer numerical control platform. Results show that the hobbing computer numerical control with the proposed electronic gearbox functions accurately, and error is measured using tracking errors in different axes and gear pitch error of the machined gear. As will be shown, the gear pitch error was found to be 0.0147 mm for axial hobbing and 0.0176 mm for diagonal hobbing.

[1]  P. Mckeown.  High Precision Manufacturing and the British Economy , 1986 .

[2]  K. Srinivasan,et al.  Cross-Coupled Control of Biaxial Feed Drive Servomechanisms , 1990 .

[3]  R. Alvarez,et al.  Comparison of multi-motor synchronization techniques , 2004, 30th Annual Conference of IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, 2004. IECON 2004.

[4]  Ruei-Hung Hsu,et al.  Analysis of auxiliary crowning in parallel gear shaving , 2010 .

[5]  Miguel Ángel Sotelo,et al.  Using Fuzzy Logic in Automated Vehicle Control , 2006 .

[6]  Suk-Hwan Suh,et al.  Theory and Design of CNC Systems , 2008 .

[7]  Jie Zhou,et al.  Research on thermal deformation of large-scale computer numerical control gear hobbing machines , 2013 .

[8]  D. Sun,et al.  A Synchronization Approach for the Minimization of Contouring Errors of CNC Machine Tools , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering.

[9]  Yoram Koren,et al.  Cross-Coupled Biaxial Computer Control for Manufacturing Systems , 1980 .

[10]  Xiaoyu Wang,et al.  A novel architecture of the embedded computer numerical control system based on PLCopen standard , 2014 .

[11]  P. B. Leadbeater,et al.  A unique machine for grinding large, off-axis optical components: the OAGM 2500 , 1989 .

[12]  Lian Xia,et al.  A linkage model and applications of hobbing non-circular helical gears with axial shift of hob , 2013 .

[13]  Chin-Sheng Chen,et al.  Robust Cross-Coupling Synchronous Control by Shaping Position Commands in Multiaxes System , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.

[14]  M. Thorneycroft,et al.  The Electronic Gearbox — Computer Software Replaces Mechanical Couplings , 1982 .

[15]  Jack Dinsdale.  Mechatronics-where motors meet microprocessors , 1991 .