What is Gear Cutting in Milling Machine?

In machine tool, gear cutting is a method of shaping and machining metals, using a knife with many teeth. The speed of the knife, its feed, and how much material it removes are all variable. Softer materials are generally milled at high speeds, while harder materials require slower speeds and smaller amounts of material to be removed at one time.

Gear generating machines cut bevel gears with spur teeth by generation with a gear-cutting head consisting of a disk with cutters mounted on its rim. The first half of the cutters shapes one side of the tooth; the second half shapes the other side.

A gear generating machine may also be used to finish a gear with standard teeth, by working the gear and the standard teeth in tandem. The pressure of the standard teeth on the gear being cut, as well as the surface work hardening that takes place during the generating process on the teeth being formed, smooths out uneven areas.

In milling, the gap between gear teeth is created by a rotating multi-edge cutter at a time. This creates a cross-section that is similar to the cross-section of the cutter.

The width of the cutting chips is maximum at the beginning of the feed and decreases as the cutter continues to cut. This will result in less tool wear.

There are two primary methods of gear manufacturing, namely, gear milling and gear hobbing. The main difference between the two is that gear milling uses a single-edge cutting tool to create a single tooth spacing or gap, while gear hobbing uses a rotating multi-edge cutting tool to create several gaps simultaneously.