Hermle 5-axis machining centre streamlines automotive gear cutter production

The machining centre, which has taken over the work of a horizontal-spindle profiler and a bed mill, was chosen due to the generous working volume, which allows the largest Gleason cutter to be produced. The availability of an HSK A 100 spindle option also steered Gleason towards this machine. It allows extended tooling to be used, providing sufficient clearance between the toolholder and workpiece, for the gear cutting blades to be milled without interference when the component is held vertically. The end product shipped from Plymouth is often not a complete cutter, but a boxed set of 15 or 16 curved steel segments carrying the cutting blades. An automotive gear manufacturer bolts the segments to an existing core disc, when the previous segments have dulled. They start life as a length of tool steel bar, from which up to 10 mm of tool steel is removed by the rigid, 60 kW spindle of the C 50 U, which also has the precision to complete relatively demanding profiling operations to the required accuracy. For some machining operations, the trunnion carrying the table and workpiece is swung through 90 degrees and clamped so that the table and component are vertical. Productivity is high owing in part to 6 m/s² acceleration and rapid traverse rates of 60 m/min in the X-axis and Y-axis, 55 m/min in the Z-axis. Now that the process has been established, the entire line will be shipped to the parent company's headquarters, in Illinois, during the first half of 2010. Engineers from the UK will be employed in the US for several weeks to ensure correct installation, knowledge transfer and smooth handover.