Method of making ring gear and ring gear therefrom
AssigneeEaton Corporation
InventorsJoseph A. Kovach, Dale B. McCartney
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An improved method is provided for finish machining forged and/or rough-cut teeth (8) of a ring gear (40) by which a rotary tool such as a rotary carbide milling tool (24) is rotated about a rotational axis "r" that projectionally intersects a bottom surface (12) of tooth (8) as it tracks along a predetermined tool path enabling the rotary tool to be in close proximity to sidewalls (14 and 14') of teeth (8) and thereby eliminating the practice of having to normalize the ring gear microstructure prior to machining teeth (8).
Claims19
An improved method for machining a forged or ring-cut metallic ring gear tooth having a pair of spaced-apart sidewalls respectively extending from opposite edges of a bottom surface extending therebetween and defining a curved tool path extending therealong having a median radius of curvature "R" in a plane substantially parallel to the bottom surface, said method including the step of machining said tooth by a rotary tool rotating about a central rotational axis "r" that projectionally intersects the bottom surface whilst following the curved tool path therealong.
A method for providing a metallic ring gear of the type having a plurality of teeth wherein each tooth has a pair of spaced-apart sidewalls extending from opposite edges of a bottom surface extending therebetween and defining a curved tool path extending therealong having a median radius of curvature "R" in a plane substantially parallel to the bottom surface, said method including the steps of:
- (a) forging the ring gear teeth;
- (b) machining the forged teeth of step (a) by means of a rotary tool rotating about a central rotational axis "r" that projectionally intersects the bottom surface while following the curved tool path therealong;
- and
- (c) at least one of (i) grinding or (ii) lapping the teeth of step (b).
A ring gear having teeth respectively having spaced-apart sidewalls respectively extending from opposite edges of a bottom surface extending therebetween and defining a curved tool path extending therealong having a median radius of curvature "R" in a plane substantially parallel to the bottom surface, said teeth having been respectively machined by a rotary tool that rotated about a central rotational axis "r" that projectionally intersected the bottom surface whilst having followed the curved tool path therealong.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.