What Is Spline Milling?

 

What Is a Spline?

Typically made of stainless steel, carbon steel, alloy steel, or aluminum alloy, a spline is a shaft that features a series of equally spaced teeth that can be slotted into a mating piece for the purposes of transmitting torque or serving as a means of anti-rotation. They can be internal or external and comprise a variety of tooth shapes depending on function. Rotary devices such as gears can also be fitted onto the spline to serve a variety of functions. Splines are primarily found in rotating mechanisms such as drive shafts.

 

What Is Spline Milling?

Spline milling is one of the processes of machining grooves into a chunk of raw material to create the teeth of a spline. The following steps outline the process of spline milling:

• The chunk of raw material that will become the shaft of the spline is fitted into the indexing fixture of the milling equipment.
• Side milling cutters are mounted onto the arbor of the fitting equipment with a spacer and shims inserted between them, depending on the desired width of the spline.
• The arbor is mounted onto the spindle of the milling machine, and the cutters are centered over the raw material that will become the shaft of the spline.
• The splines are cut into the shaft by a process called straddle milling. The indexing fixture holds the shaft of the spline steady while a groove is cut by the rotating milling cutters along its length. Depending on the depth of the spline, multiple passes along the same groove may be needed. Multiple passes also help to guarantee uniformity throughout the spline.

 

How to Cut Splines on a Shaft?

Spline milling is one of several processes of spline cutting, which is the process of machining teeth into internal or external splines. Spline cutting can be used to create shafts, gears, and other mechanical components that mesh into one another and allow power to be transferred throughout a mechanical system.

There are four main spline cutting techniques:

• Broaching
• Hobbing
• Milling
• Shaping

 

Know about Geepro Machinery YK631 CNC Spline Milling Machine

 

 

YK631 CNC spline milling machine is five-axis linkage machine tool with the movement form of workshaft, tool spindle, servo feed (X axis), servo feed (Z axis), tool lift (Y axis). Mainly use rolling and milling processing straight slot spline shaft, inclined tooth spline shaft, tooth shaft and straight gear, and can process cone spline and step spline shaft.This machine tool is suitable for the machining of automobile, tractor industry and machine tool manufacturing industry, hydraulic parts manufacturing industry, lifting machinery, construction machinery and other industries.This function realizes the rolling for two or more splines with the same number / analog of teeth on the workpiece.

Rob speed range of this machine tool: from 100-1500 turn CVT adjustable, can double improve the cutting efficiency.The machine tool can select air-cooled and wet cutting according to the tool and production process.

Know The Difference Between Gear Shaping And Gear Hobbing

 

Just like any sheet metal is fabricated to form the right mold, shape, size, and so on, gear manufacturing has certain machining processes such as shaping, hobbing, and so on. Gears are required to be set in motion, rotate, and raise the speed of any machine, industrial equipment, automobiles, and so on. So, how are these gears made? CNC machining methods are widely applied in the last stages of gear manufacturing, and milling, casting, forging, and so on are some of the methods used. Gear shaping and hobbing are also two important processes of gear manufacturing. The process to be used depends on gear specifications such as the shape and size required, among other parameters. This post discusses and compares the two methods- gear shaping and gear hobbing.

 

What is Gear Shaping?

Shaping is almost a subset of the milling process. This process helps form the gear teeth with the help of a rotating cutter tool, wherein its axis is parallel to that of the gear. The rotating speed and velocity of the cutter must match with the gear blank for teeth formation. A train of gears helps achieve the relative motion between the cutter shaft and the gear blank. Here the cutting may happen either at a downward or upward stroke. This is suitable for shaping of gears closely located toward the flanges or other obtrusive surfaces. This is widely used process for making internal and external gears. High dimensional accuracy is one of the major benefits of the shaping process apart from its cost-effective tools. After this process, surface finishing may be required depending upon the application.

 

What is Gear Hobbing?

Hobbing is a method also used for teeth formation in gear manufacturing. This teeth formation is done on the gear blank with the help of a hob on CNC gear hobbing machines. This machine is a type of special milling equipment. It could be an index hob or a master hob. There are various other types of hobs such as spline, spur, helical, chamfer, roller chain sprocket, straight side, and so on. The gear blank and the hob rotate simultaneously and produce continuous cuts on the blank gear which gives the required depth to the teeth. As mentioned above, the machining processes chosen are largely based on the shape and size of the gear. Likewise, hobbing is applicable for gear shapes such as helical, straight bevel, crowned, worm, face, and chamfering. Also, it is suitable for medium to high production volume. This cost-effective yet efficient process is useful to make several parts irrespective of the quantity.

 

Accuracy

There are benefits that come with each gear production. For example, the movement accuracy of gear hobbing is high. While that is not the case for gear shaping, gear shaping is more accurate in the surface finish. This is because the mechanic gear shaper is more complex. When comparing the two even further, the manufacturing process is simpler and easier to manufacture more accurately.

 

Productivity

In most scenarios, gear hobbing is more productive than gear shaping. This is because, in gear hobbing, there is not a large number of redundant metals. There is an instance, however, where gear shaping can compete with gear hobbing in terms of productivity. That scenario occurs when the gear is smaller in size and the teeth have a large and small-tooth width.

 

The conclusion

Looking at the accuracy and productivity allows you to better see the difference between gear shaping and gear hobbing. These two gear producing systems are alike, yet have their differences. Hopefully, this explanation gives you a better foundation to understand that.

If you notice, the difference between these two methods is really in the way the gear teeth are formed.

If you happen to be searching for a company that can create custom made gears, look no further. Not only do we have skilled professionals who can create exactly what you need, but we will provide you with insight on all things gears as well.

A Short History of Gears

 

 

Gears are considered as one of the oldest equipment known to mankind. The origin of gears goes down to the Chinese South-Pointing Chariot in the 27th Century B.C. This chariot was known to pointing to the south no matter how it was turned.

Aristotle has the credit to his name of giving the earliest description of gears in the 4th century B.C. According to his definition, the direction of rotation is reversed when one ear wheel drives another gear wheel. Gears have been used by the Greek Inventors in water wheels and clocks. The sketches of various types of gears of this time can be found in the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci.

Even after these ground-breaking discoveries, no major development concerning wheels was made until the 17th Century. In this time, first attempts were made to provide constant velocity ratios. These attempts utilized the involute curves. This was just the beginning of something that changed the world for all the good reasons. However, in the 19th century, form cutters and rotating cutters were first used and it was then in 1835 when the English inventor Whitworth patented the first gear hobbing process.

Various other patents followed until 1897 when Herman Pfauter of Germany invented the first hobbing machine capable of cutting both spur and helical gears. Through the 20th century, various types of machines developed. But, the next major step came in 1975 when the Pfauter Company in Germany introduced the first NC hobbing machine and in 1982 the Full 6 axis machine was introduced.

 

Today

Gears or Cogs are in just about everything containing a spinning part, that is, from cars to clocks. Car's transmissions and engines contain lots of cogs that help in reducing the gear in motorized equipment. There're other lots of important jobs performed by these simple machines.

Besides being used in the industry, gears are also being used in different toys and they are one of the major components in toy cars and other toys to help them move. Even in smaller toys, gears are used in different sizes to ensure the proper functionality of them.

Gear manufacturers primarily use CNC machines to cut gears from blanks, and our level of precision is driven by sophisticated design software and advanced engineering theories. Modern gears are exceptional pieces of work, capable of lasting centuries (or longer, if cared for properly), and technology continues to advance to bring us better ways of producing gears.

 

If you have a custom made gear to order, or need a quote for a large project, be sure to contact us today!