Novel Third-Order Correction for a Helical Gear Shaping Cutter Made by a Lengthwise-Reciprocating Grinding Process

Although the Isoform® lengthwise-reciprocating grinding process is considered as one of the most accurate methods for generating the tooth profile geometry of a helical gear shaping cutter, the tooth profile accuracy produced by the Isoform® with a straight cone grinding wheel is not accurate enough for high precision requirement. That is why the shaper cutter is used as a rough cutting tool for most cases. A third-order profile correction to the cone grinding wheel is proposed to increase the accuracy of the work gear profile. A novel topography is developed to schematically show the work gear tooth profile accuracy cut by a resharpened shaping cutter. The profile errors corresponding to the varied resharpening depth are shown in the topography with information of true involute form diameter and semitopping depth. The usable resharpening depth of the shaping cutter can be determined by this topography. The numerical result indicates that third-order correction reduces the profile error of the major cutter enveloping gear to submicro and extends the resharpening depth.