Gear Production

MAR 2014

Gear Production

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March 2014—15 F E A T U R E Speeding Up Splines Moving small- to medium-batch production from outsourced, dedicated hobbing operations to in-house, CNC multitasking machines helps job shops achieve quick turnarounds and fexibility in supplying splines for the heavy-vehicle industry. Inserted disc cutters make this transition possible. S plines are often lost in the greater gear discussion. However, much of the same rotational geometry that goes into complex gear machining also applies to spline production. Given how commonplace splines are in heavy vehicles, mining, construction, agriculture and other massive, earthmoving-types of machinery, it's a wonder they don't get frst billing as often as they ought to. A spline is involved practically anytime rotary motion needs to be transmitted from one shaft to another. Given the load requirements of, say, axle splines in heavy machinery, increasingly complex splines—spline shafts with more teeth at different geometries— are required to maximize the contact surface area, and evenly distribute heavy loads from male to female splines. OEMs and their Tier-One suppliers are asking for high-quality components from job shops and other producers. This isn't especially new; component suppliers have long had the technology to produce splines that are ready for heavy-vehicle applications. As for meeting productivity needs with huge batch sizes, traditional high speed steel (HSS) tools, such as spline rolling racks, hobs, broaches and shaving cutters, have done the job admirably. However, there is a push for increased fexibility. The Milling with disc cutters ftted with indexable inserts is a fexible approach that enables a shop to machine splines without a large inventory of specialized hobbing tools on hand. 0314_MMS_Gear_MarkFeature.indd 15 2/13/2014 2:43:55 PM

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