Evaluation of Gear Flank Surface Structure Produced by Skiving

Abstract

The surface structure of gear flanks has an impact on the performance of the gear mesh. Especially clearly visible structures are often expected to severely influence noise behavior. However, the evaluation proves to be difficult. Gears produced by skiving have a particular surface structure that is different from hobbed gears. Skiving is a continuous cutting technology for rotational symmetric and periodic structures. It is a very productive manufacturing process that can be used for internal and external gears. Soft machining as well as gear finishing is possible. This leads to increased use of skiving in gear production and the requirement to characterize the resulting flanks. Standard modifications and periodic flank modifications will lead to low noise excitation. On a smaller scale, even the traces of the tooling from the manufacturing process have an impact on gear noise. The present study offers a geometrical approach to derive the microstructure of the flank surface from the skiving process. The effects of machining parameters on the microstructures are analyzed and the impact on noise is discussed.