celerate production throughput by reducing the number of process stages. Until now, gear-honing automation has used highly specialized machine tools, comprising circular ring-type as- semblies with teeth cut in their internal face. These tools are expensive and time-consuming to set up. Sicmat believed that by using a honing wheel with external teeth, the accuracy of the process could be improved to such an extent that it could replace gear shaving in many applications with the advan- tages of lower tooling costs and simpler setup. Needing high mechanical rigidity for accurate and repeat- able results, Sicmat chose to base its new honing machine on the proven mechanical platform of its Raso TP 250 gear-shaving machine, a platform with exceptional stiffness and resistance to vibration. Also, the physical layout provides excellent accessibility for operation and maintenance, and features vertical workpiece positioning to simplify integration with other production line automation.
NUM Flexium CNC system provides control on the 11-axis Grono 250 gear honing machine.