Active torque method of lapping gears

A method of lapping gears on a gear lapping machine comprising a first spindle and a second spindle with a first member of a gear set mounted for rotation to said first spindle and a second member of the gearset mounted for rotation to said second spindle, said method comprising:

• rolling said first member of the gear set together in mesh with said second member of the gear set with an initial amount of torque between said first and second members while applying an abrasive mixture to the gear set members,
• measuring motion-transmission-error of the gear-set in real time,
• obtaining a real-time measurement of run-out from the measured motion-transmission-error,
• determining a corrective torque component at one or more predetermined frequencies, wherein said frequencies comprise at least one of a time-based frequency and a spatial frequency,
• adding the corrective torque component to the initial amount of torque to produce a corrected amount of torque for reducing the run-out,
• lapping said gear set members with said corrected amount of torque.

A gear lapping machine comprising a computer control, a first spindle rotatable about a first axis via a first spindle motor and a second spindle rotatable about a second spindle axis via a second spindle motor, said first motor being in communication with said computer control and said second motor being in communication with said computer control, said first spindle motor and said second spindle motor being operable to rotate a first member of a gear set mounted in said first spindle and a second member of said gear set mounted in said second spindle in mesh with a predetermined amount of torque between said gear set members, said machine further comprising:

• a motion-transmission-error measurement data acquisition system for determining run-out of said gear set, said system communicating with said first and second spindles,
• a torque command generator communicating with at least one of said first and second spindles,
• an active torque process controller communicating with said motion-transmission-error measurement data acquisition system and said torque command generator, said active torque process controller providing parameters to said torque command generator based on the measured run-out for determination of a corrective torque signal, said corrective torque signal comprising one or more corrective torque components at one or more predetermined frequencies, wherein said frequencies comprise at least one of a time-based frequency and a spatial frequency,
• whereby said torque command generator provides said corrective torque signal for addition to said predetermined amount of torque resulting in a corrected amount of torque for reducing run-out of the gear set.

A method of lapping gears comprising rolling a first member of a gear set together in mesh with a second member of the gear set with an amount of torque between said first and second members while applying an abrasive mixture to the gear set members, said method further comprising:

• measuring motion-transmission-error of the gear-set in real time,
• obtaining a real-time measurement of run-out from the measured motion-transmission-error,
• determining a corrective torque component at one or more predetermined frequencies,
• introducing the corrective torque component for reducing the run-out, wherein the corrective torque component is introduced out-of-phase with the rolling gear set,
• lapping said gear set with a torque defined by said amount of torque adjusted in accordance with said corrective torque component.