Innovative CNC Honing Machine Accelerates Production of Precision Gears [Aug 2012]

By admin August 23, 2012 9:09 am IST

A high performance 11-axis CNC system from NUM has enabled machine tool manufacturer Sicmat to create a gear honing machine that sets a new industry standard for post-hardening fine finishing. Using an innovative honing wheel with external teeth, and an ultra-precise application-specific CNC program developed by NUM, the Grono 250 machine provides the accuracy of gear shaving – but in a process that is applied after the gear has been case hardened – and eliminates the need for shaving and grinding stages.
Sicmat is a leading manufacturer of gear finishing machine tools for the automotive and automotive supply industries. Until relatively recently, the company specialised exclusively in machines that used shaving technology to obtain the necessary finish to gears; this type of finishing process is used extensively by companies producing medium to high quality gears for the automotive industry. However, shaving generally has to be performed before the work piece is case hardened by heat treatment, and any heat-induced deformation then has to be corrected by grinding or honing. Sicmat therefore set out to develop a high power honing machine that would help gear manufacturers accelerate production throughput by reducing the number of process stages.
Until now, gear honing automation has used highly specialist machine tools, comprising circular ring type assemblies with teeth cut in their internal face. These tools are expensive and time-consuming to set up. Sicmat believed that by using a honing wheel with external teeth, the accuracy of the process could be improved to such an extent that it could replace gear shaving in many applications, with the added advantages of lower tooling costs and much simpler set up. Initial research conducted in collaboration with the Faculty of Engineering at Turin Polytechnic University – Italy’s top engineering university – proved the practicality of the proposed new method.

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