Gear Grinding Machine Offers Fast Change-Overs

The RZ 303C precision gear grinding machine incorporates gearless planetary drives; acoustic sensing for alignment of dressing diamonds; and low noise shifting, which is a feature that produces a random surface structure on the teeth to prevent excitation. The machine’s working-area design facilitates fast change-overs. According to the company, convenient location for the setup of the dressing unit, ergonomic ease of wheel change and virtually unlimited restriction of the gear location on the shaft or arbor allows the grinding machine to provide maximum machine uptime. The main column that carries the grinding spindle and slide rotates 180 degrees in total—from its grinding position, it rotates 90 degrees to facilitate wheel change and another 90 degrees to perform the wheel-dressing operation. Specific gear tooth geometry is created using part-specific galvanic plated composite diamond rolls manufactured by the company. Using the machine axis, the wheel moves during the dressing cycle to produce root, flanks and tip modifications in a minimum number of passes that will be imparted to the gear when grinding. The primary onboard loading system transports un-ground parts into a high-production gear grinder. The parts can be organized in stacks of steel or plastic baskets and served by an in-plant conveyor style, table or basket buffering handling systems. The compact cell creates a flexible and efficient manufacturing environment by de-coupling individual processes, the company says. Each machine and cell has a buffer of parts that is said to provide machine autonomy with minimal operator attendance.