Gear honing machine sets new industry standard, eliminates shaving and grinding stages
1 min read
A gear honing machine that sets a new industry standard for post-hardening fine finishing has been designed and built by Italian machine tool maker Sicmat, supported by French CNC specialist NUM.
The Grono 250 machine fitted with 11-axis NUM CNC 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 set out to develop a high power honing machine that would help gear manufacturers accelerate production throughput by reducing the number of process stages.
Sicmat will be present its innovation at the International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago, held from 10 to 15 September.