Face-milling spiral bevel gear tooth surfaces by application of 5-axis CNC machine tool

In order to solve some common problems of CNC-machined spiral bevel gears such as small cutting strip width and poor surface quality, while milled by the ball-end, a machining method of face milling using a disk cutter with a concave end is presented. The research theories are based on the foundation of spiral bevel gears’ geometry structure. Firstly, a bigger diameter disk cutter with a concave end is selected. Then, change the setting order of cutter orientation angles. The functions of cutter tilt and yaw angle are separated, and tooth surfaces machined with big cutting strip width and no bottom land gouge can be expected. Since the cutter yaw angle, determined firstly by cutting contact point, positions in the tooth surface machine, the bottom land gouge interference can be avoided effectively. Then, the tilt angles of the gear pair, both side tooth surfaces, are determined by the theory of sculptured surfaces machined by the flat-end cutter, respectively. As a result, the improved cutting strip width and machining efficiency can be realized. Finally, feasibility of this method is verified through machining experiment and measurement of a spiral bevel gear pair.