Hobbing Machine Gears Up to Meet Industry Needs

Supply chain issues are driving more companies to bring manufacturing back in-house. Parallel to this trend in the automotive industry is the rise of electric vehicles and increasing automation. Nidec Machine Tool, responding to the needs of the industry, is debuting its GE15HS gear hobbing machine. With emphasis on high speed, precision and efficiency, Nidec designed the machine to produce gears for electric and hybrid cars and serve in robotic and automation applications.

The GE15HS model is designed for gears with a maximum diameter of 150 mm, a size widely used in automobiles and motorcycles. The high-speed, high-torque direct-drive motor for the main cutting spindle provides a maximum spindle speed of 6,000 rpm —  three times faster than previous models. The direct-drive mechanism motor uses the torque coming from a motor without passing through a gear box or other mechanism in order to control driving loss due to friction and reduce wear on parts. The high-efficiency spindle holding the workpiece uses a special table. This table, in turn, provides rigidity and high-speed rotation to handle the necessary thrust load for high-efficiency machining.

Used in combination with Nidec Machine Tool’s new materials and coatings for cutting tools, the GE15HS model provides stable mass production with a maximum cutting speed of 1,500 meters per minute. According to an in-house test result, cutting gears with Nidec’s super-hard cutting tools yields a surface roughness of less than Ra 0.4 — on par with gear grinding.

The goal of the GE15HS is to provide process efficiency. By eliminating the finishing process of shaving prior to heat treatment, Nidec says the GE15HS can improve productivity and reduces processing cost.