Gear honing, because of its economical feasibility, has become an essential part in the production of high-speed transmissions. This is especially true in the automotive and truck industry as honed gears, in comparison to ground gears, are extremely quiet and have excellent wear characteristics due to their typical surface finish. Recently, Fässler has taken the gear honing process a step further and has enhanced the economic feasibility and increased the process capability. Of special interest are the tool developments, machine developments and new process strategies which were adapted specifically to the customers' needs due to results of computer simulations in conjunction with the know-how over many years.
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Honed gears produce less noise and have a longer use life than other gears due to their typical surface structure. The structure of the surface of a honed gear, which resembles a fish skeleton, facilitates the formation of a lubrication film surface from the tip of the flanks to the pitch diameter and thereby positively influences the noise behavior in the gearbox. The special process kinematics cause this surface structure by which the honing tooling makes rolling contact on opposed axes of the work piece. The resulting speed division on the gear flanks results in having a cutting speed component in the axial direction so that the cutting grain comes into contact with the entire flank.
A further important advantage as a result of these low cutting velocities is the induction of high residual compressive stresses on the flank surface. These residual compressive stresses are minimum 1,000 N/mm2 up to 1,600 N/mm2. Increasing the residual compressive stresses benefits the wear behavior of the gears, which results in greater wear resistance and a longer gear lifetime than gears, which have been hard finished by using other processes.
