15th.

Annual (International) Conference on Mechanical Engineering-ISME2007

May 15-17, 2007, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
ISME2007-1268

Use of Mechatronic System to Manufacture Spiral Bevel Gear using 3-Axis CNC Milling
Machine
S.Mohsen Safavi
S.S. Mirian
M. Karimian Sichani
Assistance professor
Lecturer
MSc. student
Isfahan University of Technology Islamic Azad University of Najafabad Isfahan University of Technology
mosafavi@cc.iut.ac.ir
mirian@cc.iut.ac.ir
mkarimian@me.iut.ac.ir
R. Abedinzade
MSc. student
Isfahan University of Technology
abedinzade@me.iut.ac.ir
Abstract
Gears are crucial components for modern precision
machinery as a means for the power transmission
mechanism. Due to their complexity and unique
characteristics, gears have been designed and
manufactured by a special type of machine tools, such
as gear hobbing and shaping machines. The spiral bevel
gears (SBG) are the most complex type and are used to
transmit the rotational motion between angularly
crossed shafts. In this paper, we attempt to manufacture
the spiral bevel gear by a three-axis CNC milling
machine interfaced with an additional PLC module.
This consists of (a) Geometric modeling of the spiral
bevel gear. (b) Simulating the traditional and our new
non-traditional method using a CAD/CAE system. (c)
Process planning for CNC machining and PLC
programming. Experimental cuts were made to discover
the validity of the presented method with a three-axis
CNC milling machine.

precise gears [2].

Among the various types of gears (Figure 1), the spiral
bevel gears (SBG) are the most complex type and are
used to transmit the rotational motion between angularly
crossed shafts. Spiral bevel gear is a term generally used
in case of bevel gears that have teeth curved
longitudinally along the length of the teeth. The main
advantage of these gears over the straight-toothed
varieties lies in the fact that as more teeth are in contact
at the same time because of the curved-shaped contour
of the teeth, a smoother meshing action between the
mating pair is ensured [3]. The design and
manufacturing of spiral bevel gears is still a hot topic of
research that is vital for application of such gears in
helicopter transmissions, motorcycle gears, reducers,
and in other branches of industry.

Keywords: Gear manufacturing, Spiral bevel gear,

CNC, PLC, AC motor, Sensor, AC drive, CAD/CAM,
Rotary Encoder
Introduction
Gears are important and precision mechanisms for
industrial machinery as a means for mechanical power
or motion transmission between parallel, intersecting
and non-intersecting cross-axis shafts. Although hidden
from sight, gears are one of the most important
mechanical elements in our civilization. They operate at
almost unlimited speeds under a wide variety of
conditions. The machines and processes that have been
developed for producing gears are among the most
ingenious we have. Whether produced in large or small
quantities, in cell, or job shop batches, the sequence of
processes for gear manufacturing requires four sets of
operations [1]:
1. Blanking
2. Gear cutting
3. Heat treatment
4. Grinding
Dependent on their type and application or required
strength and resistance, gears are manufactured by
casting, extruding, forging, powder metallurgy, plastic
molding, gear rolling and machining. Among these
processes, machining is more frequently used for high

Figure 1: Various industrial gears

As far as manufacturing is concerned, the gears are

machined by a special type of machine tools, such as
gear hobbing and shaping machines. Recently, special
CNC based gear manufacturing machine tools are used
in industrial practice. Figure 2 shows one of those
special machines used to manufacture Spiral Bevel
Gears. This may be why literature on gear
manufacturing is sparse in the open research domain.
Recently, CNC based gear manufacturing machine tools
have been developed and increasingly used in industrial
practice. However, their kinematic structure is still
inherently different from the industrial CNC milling
machine, as the former is designed for a special type of
cutter. [4].

tool path planning for sculptured surface machining

(SSM) of SBGs) for a ball endmill which is used for
cutting the surface model of the spiral bevel gears based
on basic gearing kinematics and involute geometry
along with tangent planes.
Geometric specification of the Spiral Bevel Gears
Most of the time, the geometric parameters of a gear are
provided with an engineering drawing, Figure 3 shows
Spiral-Bevel-Gear nomenclature. Some parameters
(principal parameters) are required for defining the
geometry.
Table 1 summarizes these parameters
including relationships among parameters for the gear
which has been manufactured in our test. To calculate
these parameters we have used drive component
development software called GearTrax.
The design of spiral bevel gear require high-accuracy
mathematical calculations and the generation of such
gears drives require not only high-quality equipment
and tools for manufacturing of such gear drives, but the
development of the proper machine-tool settings. Such
settings are not standardized, but have to be determined
for each case of design (depending on geometric
parameters of the gear drive and generating tools) to
guarantee the required quality of the gear drives.

Figure 3: Spiral-Bevel-Gear nomenclature

Figure 2: Special machine tool and cutter for
manufacturing SBGs
In this paper, we attempt to present a new
manufacturing procedure of SBGs by using a three-axis
milling machine interfaced with a PLC module which
operates as an indexing table. In terms of production
rate, it is obvious that this method will be lower than
that of the special machine tool. Other than production
rate, this method is advantageous in the following
respects: (1) the conventional method requires a large
investment for obtaining various kinds of special
machinery and cutters dedicated to a very limited class
of gears in terms of gear type, size, and geometry; (2)
by this method, various types of gears can be
manufactured with the industrial three-axis CNC milling
machine; (3) this method is more economical than using
the special machine tool. In [4], Suh and Jih presented a
complicated mathematical tool path planning (called

Table 1: Gear Data

Spiral Bevel Gear Specification
Term
Pinion
Gear
Module
M=3
n = 20
Pressure Angle
Spiral Angle

= 35 o

Shaft Angle
No. of Teeth
Spiral direction
Face Width
Pitch Angle

= 90 o

Root Angle
Face Angle of
Blank
Tooth Thickness

Z 1 = 20
Left Hand

Z 2 = 20
Right Hand

b=15

1 = 45

2 = 45

f 1 = 40.802

f 2 = 40.802

k 1 = 49.198

k 2 = 49.198

K=4.4584

Some of the formulas which are used to calculate the

above data sheet are as follows;
1 = tan 1 (Z 1 Z 2 )
(1)
2 = 90 1
(2)

f 1 = tan 1 (h f 1 R )

(3)

f 2 = tan

(4)

(h

f2

R)

k1 = 1 + f 2

(5)

k2 = 2 + f1

(6)

f 1 = 1 f1

(7)

f 2 = 21 f 2

(8)

Manufacturing the SBG

As it is discussed in the introduction, by machining all
types of gears can be made in all sizes and machining is
still unsurpassed for gears that most have very high
accuracy. Form milling is one of the most common
machining processes used to manufacture any types of
gears. The cutter has the same form as the space
between adjacent teeth. Standard cutters usually are
employed in form-cutting gears. In the United States,
these come in eight sizes for each diametral pitch and
will cut gears having the number of teeth indicated in
standard tables.
To manufacture the SBGs with the 3-axis CNC milling
machine, we first test the process by developing a
CAD/CAM system composed of geometric modeling
and graphic simulation modules. The commercial
software SolidWorks is used for creating CAD model
and Visual Nastran is used for simulating the process of
gear manufacturing.
As far as machine tool configuration is concerned, it is
obvious that a rotational motion of the workpiece is
required for NC machining of the SBGs. Based on the
machinability analysis [5], at least four-axis controls are
required for NC machining of SBGs by one set-up.
Thus, a rotary table to be interfaced with the three-axis
milling machine is required.
Form cutting or form milling is used in our tests. The
tool is fed radially to ward the center of the gear blank
to the desired tooth depth, then across the tooth face,
while the rotary table rotates the workpiece around its
center, to obtain the required tooth width. When one
tooth space has been completed, the tool is withdrawn,
the gear blank is indexed using a dividing head, and the
next tooth space is cut. Basically, this method is a
simple and flexible method of machining SBGs. The
equipment and cutters required are relatively simple,
and standard 3-axis CNC milling machine is used.
However, considerable care is required on the part of
tool feed which should be a small value in each step to
prevent any spoil.
Although the form cutting of this kind of gears is
currently done on universal milling machine, using an
indexing head, the process is slow and requires skilled
labor and operator. Figure 4 shows the arrangement that
is employed when the work is done on a universal
machine in Isfahan-Ferez workshop. As it is shown, the
cutter is mounted on an arbor, and a dividing head is
used to revolve (required to cut the gear tooth) and
index the gear blank. The table is set at an angle equals

to the spiral angle (35 degrees), and the dividing head is

geared to the longitudinal feed screw of the table so that
the gear blank will rotate as it moves longitudinally.
In the presented method we have used an AC motor
interfaced with a worm gearbox. Worm gearbox is used
to reduce the output speed of AC motor and also to set
the angle between the tooth trace and the element of the
pitch cone, known as spiral angle [6].
Because of the needed synchronization between tool
path planning and rotary motion of outward shaft of
worm gearbox is required, we used a mechatronic
system to control all the four axes (one-axis motion for
the rotary table and three-axis motion for the cutting
tool) simultaneously.

Figure 4: A photograph of manual cuttig on universal

milling machine
This mechatronic system contains four major parts: (1)
PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), one of
electronic equipments, which can be called Sequence
Controller. It uses internal microprocessor to execute
the calculation of sequence of the work according to the
status and the value of the input signal of Encoder and
Sensors; (2) Inverter, which is used to operate a
standard 3-phase motor and act as an intermediate
device between PLC and AC motor. It has different
input terminals which can be used to rotate AC motor in
Forward/reverse direction; (3) Rotary Encoder, a
feedback system which determine the position of
outward shaft or measure the revolution of workpiece
mounted on outward shaft; (4) Proximity sensors, which
produce an output signal if a metal object (form cutter in
our experiment) enters the electromagnetic field of its
oscillator. Two proximity sensors are placed on the
system where define the start and end of the tool path.
We used ladder diagram, common program language, to
operate the PLC in the mechatronic system. The
operation of the PLC based on the ladder diagram is as
follows:
Step 1: Read the external input signal, such as the status
of sensors or rotary encoder.
Step 2: Calculate output signal, according to the value
of the input signal in the step 1 and send it to AC drive
(Inverter) to run the AC motor in Forward/reverse
direction or turn the motor for a special angle (Circular
pitch) using a rotary encoder.
The procedure of the whole system is accomplished in
five stages;

Stage 1: Form cutter reaches the first proximity sensor

and sends a signal to the PLC. As its mentioned before,
PLC sends out an output signal to the AC drive to run
the motor in forward direction.
Stage 2: Form cutter machines the rotating workpiece.
Stage 3: Cutting tool reaches the second proximity
sensor and sends the second signal to the PLC. PLC
sends a stop command to the inverter.
Stage 4: Milling tool withdraws the stopped workpiece
and returns to its first place. Simultaneously, the PLC
uses the measured value of rotary encoder to rotate the
workpiece in reverse direction until it reaches the first
position.
Stage 5: Stage 1 through stage 4 continues till the first
tooth space is cut. PLC count a number for each of the
above four stages till it reaches the predefined number
of machining sequences. Then it sends out a signal to
the AC drive to index the gear blank a diametral pitch
and all the above stages will be repeated again.
The traditional procedure (Figure 4) is quite slow, and
considerable care is required by the operator. The
procedure utilized is essentially the same as on a
universal milling machine, except that, after setup, the
various operations are completed automatically.
The machining configuration and a photocopy of the
experimental cutting are shown in Figures 5 and 6 and
7.

Figure 1 A photograph of electrical panel including PLC

and Inverter

Machining Strategy
The workpiece is wood and the blank material is premachined as a conic (Face Angle of the gear) form by
turning operation. Standard cutter No.5 used in our
experiment is mounted on the machine spindle and the
gear blank is mounted on outward shaft of worm
gearbox. The tool is fed subsequently (around 30
machining sequence to prevent spoiling work) toward
the center of the gear blank to the desired tooth depth.
When one tooth space has been completed, the tool is
withdrawn; the gear blank is indexed using the AC
motor based on explained procedure, and then is
followed by cutting the next tooth space.

Figure 5: A photograph of the experimental cutting

Figure 6: A photograph of tooth cutting and AC motor

utilized as an indexing head

Conclusions
In this paper we attempted to manufacture the spiral
bevel gear using a three-axis CNC milling machine
based on form milling method. Basically, form cutting
uses a simple and flexible method of machining of
gears. The equipment and cutters required are relatively
simple and inexpensive, and standard CNC milling
machine is used. Compared to the conventional gear
cutting method in which dedicated machine tools is
required, the presented method can easily be modified
to produce any type and size of SBGs or any other types
of gears. Also it is a multi-deception system which is a
dynamic and constant evolving technology.

References

[1]

[2]

[3]
[4]

[5]

[6]

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