Field controlled electrochemical honing of gears

Abstract

Electro-chemical honing of gears is a recent development. A new gear-shaped cathode has the ability to vary the intensity of electro-chemical dissolution steplessly along the full profile of the gear. As adjustment of field intensity can be made during the process of machining, it is not only very easy to produce any sort of tip or root relief, but the accuracy of tooth profile can also be greatly improved provided that the errors in tooth profile of all the teeth are nearly the same. Results of the involute profile tester before and after FCECH are presented.

For the future, the authors advance a new idea in computer integrated precision engineering—field-controlled ECH incorporating in situ measurement and computer data processing and control—a machining, method with some very attractive features.