Hobbing apparatus with orbiting hob

Apparatus for generating a plurality of teeth of gears, splines or the like spaced about the periphery of a non-rotating workpiece having an axis by orbiting a rotatable hob about the workpiece, said apparatus comprising:

• a head rotatable about an axis of rotation which intersects said head and which is aligned with said workpiece axis;
• means on said head for rotatably supporting a tooth generating hob eccentrically on said head and for rotation about an axis laterally displaced from and transverse to said workpiece axis such that said hob orbits around said axis of rotation of said head and said workpiece;
• an actuator for moving at least one of said hob and said workpiece lengthwise of the workpiece during the generation of a plurality of tooth shapes on the periphery of the workpiece, said tooth shapes being conjugate to the hob during shape generation;
• and
• a drive for simultaneously rotating said head and said hob at a speed ratio predetermined such that for each orbit of said hob around said workpiece said hob revolves a plurality of revolutions determined by the number of teeth spaced about the periphery and generated thereby.