EMAG’s Loetzner views the issue of gear material much
the same as Gleason’s Shaeferling: many automakers tend to be conservative and would prefer to stick with the tried, true and inexpensive unless faced with a compelling reason to change.
The ‘Gear Factory’
Loetzner believes EMAG has that compelling reason. It is a multiprocess machining line nicknamed the gear factory. An improved gear material is required because induction harden- ing is incorporated into the inline manufacturing process, allowing for streamlined material flow because the workpiece is not taken out of the workflow.
The gear factory incorporates all essential processes, from green turning to hobbing, to hardening, hard turning, laser welding and grinding. The first machine element is known as a pendulum machine with two spindles. The term pendulum is used because the turret “swings” between the two spindles.
A blank is loaded in the first spindle and the turret machines it, Loetzner said, while the second spindle unloads and loads a blank. Once the blank in the first spindle is complete the turret moves in less than a second to the second spindle and machining begins there while the first spindle unloads and then reloads. Loetzner said this is the fastest process for machining in the green stage.
“The chip-to-chip time is below a second,” he said. “That is the initial throughput improvement.”
Automation moves the green turned part to the second machine element, a traditional hobbing machine. The third stop, Loetzner said, “is the induction hardening and quench unit and then [the workpiece] goes into a hard turn grind process, or a laser welding module, which allows you to put on synchronizing gears or other secondary components that are required, and after that you can add another turning unit. So that whole line allows the gear manufacturer to make gears in a very small footprint in a very flexible manner.”
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