Apparatus and method for cutting teeth in workpieces and associated tool set

A method for cutting teeth each having a finished target dimension in workpieces, the method comprising:

• a roughing operation, in which roughing operation teeth of a roughing target dimension are produced, wherein a substantially uncut blank receives rough teeth each having a tooth width using a first cutting tool having cutting teeth, the tooth width of each of the rough teeth is defined by spacing between flanks of the rough teeth and is greater than the finished target dimension;
• a subsequent deburring operation, wherein a chamfer is incorporated into an end face edge of the tooth flanks, accompanied by the removal of an end face burr;
• and
• a smoothing operation, wherein the tooth width of the rough teeth is brought to the finished target dimension by machining the tooth flanks;
• and
• wherein the first cutting tool used in the roughing operation is a roughing tool, and the cutting teeth are roughing teeth, the roughing teeth having a roughing tooth width, and the roughing teeth having a height that substantially corresponds to a target dimension of tooth gap depth, and a smoothing tool having smoothing teeth is used in the smoothing operation, the smoothing teeth having a height that is less than the roughing tooth height, and a smoothing tooth width that is greater than the roughing tooth width.