Bevel gear manufacture with face cutters without swing axis motion

A method of manufacturing bevel gears on a rectilinear multi-axis computer-controlled gear generating machine by moving a tool having a tool axis and a workpiece having a workpiece axis relative to one another according to a generating process,

• wherein said generating is defined by parameters including rotation of a cradle of a theoretical gear generating machine, said cradle comprising rotatable and positionable elements for establishing settings for radial distance S, tool axis swivel j and tool axis tilt i;
• and,
• wherein an auxiliary plane PA is defined as being connected to said rotatable and positionable elements for establishing angular settings for said tool axis swivel j and tool axis tilt i, said auxiliary plane PA further containing said tool axis;
• rotating said tool about said tool axis;
• engaging said tool with said workpiece;
• moving said tool relative to said workpiece to generate said bevel gear, said tool moving along a path described by rotation of said cradle;
• said method further comprising rotating said rotatable element for establishing the angular setting for radial distance S along with said cradle rotation, wherein during said cradle rotation, said rotatable elements for establishing angular settings for tool axis swivel j and tool axis tilt I exhibit a net amount of rotation equal to zero and wherein said auxiliary plane PA remains in a fixed angular orientation during said cradle rotation;
• said method being further characterized by no relative pivoting motion between said tool axis and said workpiece axis during said generating on said rectilinear multi-axis computer-controlled gear generating machine.