Gear finishing apparatus

A gear finishing apparatus comprising:

• a bed having a horizontally extending guide member and a vertically extending guide member;
• a grinding wheel support unit movable along said horizontally extending guide member and having a grinding wheel head;
• a ring-shaped grinding wheel in the form of an internal gear rotatably supported on said grinding wheel head for rotation about a substantially vertical axis;
• said grinding wheel support unit including turning means for turning said grinding wheel head about a horizontal axis and securing the grinding wheel head after it has been turned in order to tilt said grinding wheel at a predetermined angle;
• first actuating means for moving said grinding wheel support unit along said horizontally extending guide member;
• a workpiece support unit movable along said vertically extending guide member, said workpiece support unit having holding means for holding a gear blank having external gear teeth for rotation about a substantially vertical axis;
• second actuating means for moving said workpiece support unit along said vertically extending guide member to move said gear blank into and out of said grinding wheel;
• and
• third actuating means for rotating said grinding wheel to hone the gear teeth of said gear blank while the gear blank is being positioned in said grinding wheel held by said holding means, and said grinding wheel and said gear blank are being held in mesh with each other by said first actuating means and said second actuating means.