Study on Face-Milling Roughing Method for Line Gears–design, Manufacture, and Measurement

Line gear (LG) is a recently proposed gear, which can realize transmissions between the parallelaxis, crossing-axis, and skewing-axis. To extend LG from basic research to practical application, efficient machining methods and measuring methods are necessary. In this paper, based on the LG meshing theory, driving contact curves and driven contact curves were solved. And the LG generated by the face-milling method was proposed, which was abbreviated as FMLG. The virtual simulations for machining the FMLGs were studied, and the models obtained by simulations were used for finite element analysis (FEA). From FEA results, the feasibilities of the design of contact curves and the models obtained by simulations were verified. Afterwards, three pairs of FMLGs were processed by using of special machine tool, and the measuring methods and accuracy evaluations of FMLGs were studied. Finally, performance experiments of FMLG boxes were carried out. From the measurement and experiment results, it can be concluded that the face-milling method is feasible for the rough machining of LG. Furthermore, the measuring method and accuracy evaluation are helpful for the subsequent optimization of processing parameters.