feature

Making Room for Productivity and

Quality Requirements in Gear Grinding
Matthew Jaster, Senior Editor

Gear grinding comes with

unique production challenges
today. Customers often request higher
and faster speeds for continuous genera-
tion gear grinding. They also struggle to
find a balance between productivity and
quality requirements. While many appli-
cations are utilizing less gears in their
equipment, the quality and production
values continue to increase. Therefore,
the gears found in the automotive, aero-
space and industrial segments in 2021
need to cost less, reduce gear noise and
work as efficiently as possible. As with
any other area of manufacturing, gear The 3M Nano 2.0 Series features a newly
developed bond system that allows the company
manufacturers are going to need the to reduce the amount of unloved bond volume.
right tools—in this case grinding wheels,
spindles, hobs, etc.—to meet greater pro-
duction demands in 2021. have invested heavily in our produc- challenges for the gear industry.
tion lines for gear grinding wheels at “Our customers are often struggling
Norton | Saint-Gobain Abrasives our plant in Worcester, MA U.S.A. High between high productivity and high
Develops Grinding Innovations wheel speed at 80 m/s has become the quality. Both are desired, but not always
Norton | Saint-Gobain Abrasives has industry standard, and OEMs are pro- achievable together,” said Josh Fairley,
been developing innovations in grinding viding grinding machines at even higher product engineer, Norton | Saint-Gobain
wheel technology, including advances speeds. Each worm wheel follows the Abrasives. “Our experienced Norton
in abrasives and bond technology. The strictest quality control procedures to teams are trained to help customers meet
global company is able to leverage the deliver perfect geometry, balance, their stringent quality standards as well as
technical expertise from its R&D facili- and safe grinding at high speed,” said productivity goals at the best total cost.”
ties around the world. Developments Andrew Biro, senior applications engi- With the Norton Dual Worm wheel,
include new advancements in grain, neer, Norton | Saint-Gobain Abrasives. for example, cycle times can be pushed
bond and porosity technology. With the electrification trend gain- faster while maintaining the mirror fin-
“To meet the changing and ever strin- ing momentum, the transition to hybrid ish that customers are looking for. With
gent demands on the gear industry, we and electric vehicles will create new the new TQX and Quantum Prime grain

With the Norton Dual Worm wheel, cycle times

can be pushed faster while maintaining the
mirror finish that customers are looking for.

Norton | Saint-Gobain has been developing

innovations in grinding wheel technology, including
advances in abrasives and bond technology.

22 GEAR TECHNOLOGY | May 2021

[www.geartechnology.com]
technologies, Norton is able to achieve elongated ceramic grain in
high material removal rates. These new the industry, optimized to
technologies combined with the knowl- achieve the highest mate-
edge and support from grinding experts, rial removal rates and cool-
allows Norton to help customers con- est cut. TQ technology is
vert from traditional methods of gear offered in the fastest worm
shaping (such as milling and hobbing) wheel on the market, which
to grinding from solid, which has sig- also reduces power draw,
nificant economic benefits on both increases parts per dress
tooling spend (cost) and equipment and form holding.
requirements. “Continuous Generation
To increase diamond dressing roll life, Dual wheel technology
customers require open porosity, easier enables manufacturers to
to dress bond systems and grain technol- reach finer surface finishes.
ogy that requires less frequent dressing. It combines a bonded vitri- Gear grinding technology today must provide a
higher level of consistency in surface quality.
Quantum Prime/Vit CBN can improve fied section to grind and a
diamond dressing roll life. In addition, fine grit section to super-
gear manufacturers and end users are finish the gear teeth. This is a new solu- and overall gear quality are more criti-
continuously working to improve the tion from Norton designed to provide cal while still requiring higher removal
efficiency and life of gearboxes. stronger transmissions in trucks and rates, our Quantum Prime grain tech-
Many are also working to reduce quieter gear redactors in electric vehicles nology combined with Vortex grain
the noise generated from the gearbox. due to the extremely fine surface finish and Vitrium3 bond provides the most
These goals are driving advances in gear it provides. We developed the polishing cost-effective solution. Quantum Prime
form tolerances and target surface fin- section in hard resin where the elastic- provides unparalleled sharpness and
ishes to be even tighter. To address the ity of the resin is controlled to make sure cutting efficiency because of unique
stricter form deviation requirements, ffα, there is no expansion of the resin during micro-fracturing properties. This allows
Norton offers abrasive grinding prod- grinding. This results in no deformation for increased MRR and faster overall
ucts that can maintain strong form hold- of the gear and provides a high level of cycle times. The free cutting grain also
ing, while achieving productivity goals. consistency in surface quality to achieve breaks down more consistently, lead-
When gear makers are targeting a finer a mirror finish on the polished gear,” ing to improved part quality, geometry,
than standard finish, different types of said Fairley. and better surface finishes even at high
Norton Dual grit products are specifi- “We have also made smaller diam- MRR’s,” Fairley said.
cally designed to quickly rough grind eter worm wheels available worldwide. As the transition to hybrids and elec-
out the stock material and leave the These worm wheels are able to grind tric vehicles moves forward, the demand
desired surface finish with a finish grind, gears directly on the shaft or counter- for noise level reductions will increase.
according to Fairley. shaft, avoiding the need for welding. “This will lead to tighter tolerance and
Cycle times can be pushed faster with The wheels will also allow gear makers surface finish requirements throughout
Norton’s Dual Worm wheel technology. to transition discontinuous generation the industry. Norton will continue to
Here’s a quick rundown of some of operations to a continuous generation develop products that meet these tighter
Norton | Saint-Gobain Abrasives latest process, greatly increasing productivity,” tolerances as well as maintain productiv-
product innovations: added Biro. ity goals,” Fairley said.
“There will also be vehicles that will
Continuous Generation – high Profile – TQ/TQX from solid, transition to electric at a slower pace,
speed, dual grit Quantum Prime grain for form such as large commercial trucks and
T he wor m w he els are mad e i n holding & cycle times agriculture equipment,” said Biro. “Gear
Worcester, MA and have speed capabili- With the new TQX grain technology, fast manufacturers will be more focused on
ties up to 80 m/s. grind cycles are achievable. When there increasing the fuel efficiency and over-
Quantum Prime is a new, proprietary, is a significant amount of overstock that all life of those gearboxes. We anticipate
nano-crystalline ceramic grain from needs to be removed from the gear, or if more widespread adoption of the dual
Norton | Saint-Gobain Abrasives. Due to the gear manufacturer is grinding gears grit technology as a solution.”
its unique micro-fracturing properties, from a solid blank, TQX is the ideal www.nortonabrasives.com
Quantum Prime delivers excellent grind- solution. This is the newest and longest
ing efficiency, significantly longer wheel shaped ceramic grain available, exclusive
life, while ensuring outstanding part to Norton.
quality. In addition, TQ is the newest “When form holding, surface finish,

May 2021 | GEAR TECHNOLOGY 23

 feature MAKING ROOM FOR PRODUCTIVITY AND QUALITY REQUIREMENTS IN GEAR GRINDING

Flexibility in Aerospace
Applications with Liebherr
The machining of gears with interfer-
ing contours for the aerospace indus-
try places the highest demands on the
grinding tool and often cannot be car-
ried out with standard grinding heads
due to the small tool diameters. Liebherr
has developed an auxiliary spindle for
these applications which can be retrofit- With the auxiliary spindle, the user can use the
Liebherr LGG gear grinding machine to produce
ted. This enables the production of chal- aerospace components with interference contours.
lenging aerospace components on exist-
ing LGG gear grinding machines. They
recently discussed this innovation during “We view our standard products as The additional functions of the grinding
Liebherr’s Performance Days 2021. the basis for flexible solutions that are heads, such as an inductive meshing sen-
The greatest possible flexibility, even always geared to our customers and their sor, a movable cooling lubricant nozzle
for special applications, by means of sim- requirements,” says Thomas Breith, head and a swiveling measuring probe, can
ple conversion or retrofitting of the nec- of product management gear cutting also be used in combination with the
essary tools: Liebherr has been success- machines at Liebherr. auxiliary spindle.
fully pursuing this approach for several The newly developed auxiliary spin- Machining parts with very small
years with its adaptable internal grinding dle is part of a machine purchase that grinding discs requires high spindle
arms. With the existing range of internal was recently handed over to Liebherr- speeds to ensure the required cutting
grinding arms, a machine can be con- Aerospace Lindenberg GmbH. This speeds of at least 30 m/s. At speeds of
verted from external grinding to pro- sophisticated new development is up to 30,000 rpm, the auxiliary spindle
file grinding of internal gears in a short designed in close cooperation with must meet the highest requirements in
time. Why shouldn’t this proven con- the user so that the practical needs of terms of vibration behavior and temper-
cept also work for the external grind- machine operators can be incorporated ature resistance. A bearing on both sides
ing of special aerospace components? into the design at an early stage. This ensures high rigidity, a stable concentric-
Following this thought, Liebherr devel- applies to setup procedures and service ity and additionally allows the use of a
oped an auxiliary spindle as an optional tasks, in particular. A typical aerospace longer grinding arbor, which is the tech-
accessory that can be offered for LGG application is profile grinding of what is nical prerequisite for the safe mounting
gear and profile grinding machines and known as a 3-stage planetary gear, which of several grinding discs. This enables up
can be retrofitted to existing machines. is required for the wing flap adjustment. to two duo roughing discs and two fin-
Due to the weight-optimized, compact ishing discs with increased feed rates to
component geometry, only small CBN be used, significantly reducing machin-
grinding wheels are technically possible ing times.
for final hard gear finishing. Liebherr has over 30+ years of CBN
With the auxiliary spindle, the user expertise. For this reason, a sophisticated
can use the LGG gear grinding machine development project was started for the
to produce aerospace components with extremely small CBN profile grinding
interference contours, along with their discs, in order to galvanize the extremely
special technical challenges, in small fine CBN grains (grain size ~25–35 μm)
batch sizes without having to invest in onto the high-precision main bodies, so
an expensive, possibly under-utilized, that the narrow gear tolerances and high
special machine. The geometrically surface qualities can be ensured with the
demanding components can thus be finest CBN coatings.
manufactured with high gear quality and “Liebherr aims to be able to supply all
surface quality. This expands the range the key components from a single source
of LGG grinding applications to include in order to offer customers the best pos-
an additional option for critical, very sible solution in gear grinding machines
small and high-quality components. with accessories, technological expertise
The auxiliary spindle — just like the as well as tool design and production,”
The newly developed auxiliary internal grinding arm — can be mounted according to Breith.
spindle is part of a machine purchase
that was recently handed over to on all new Liebherr grinding heads with www.liebherr.com
Liebherr-Aerospace Lindenberg GmbH. counter bearings via a changeover inter-
face, which ensures short setup times.

24 GEAR TECHNOLOGY | May 2021

[www.geartechnology.com]
 3M recently introduced the new 3M
High Performance 91VX Nano+ Series.

3M Expands and Diversifies Gear bond with higher grain retention force, are of the highest level. Be this in terms
Grinding Portfolio higher abrasive content and more flex- of the quality of the components to be
Gear grinding requires high pre- ibility in the design of the pore spaces ground, but also in terms of process time
cision throughout the process, and it for cooler grinding, higher cutting per- and tool life. We are constantly busy
is important to use the right grinding formance, longer lifetime of the grinding designing our customers’ processes to be
wheel for the application. The selec- wheel and dressing tool and the highest even more efficient.”
tion of abrasive material and wheel con- possible process stability and quality in Hechler believes the gear market is in
figuration depends on the base alloy, terms of geometry and surface quality.” the middle of complex changes.
tooth geometry, and size of the pro- For achieving high surface rough- “Smaller machine series are becom-
duction run, among other factors. 3M’s ness’s with the need to achieve the maxi- ing the rule,” he said. “There are more
recently expanded abrasives portfolio mum of performance at the same time, complex controls for even more complex
can help you meet the growing demand 3M has introduced the new 3M High machining processes. You need a higher
for tighter dimensional tolerances and Performance 91VX Nano+ Series where degree of process monitoring far beyond
shorter production schedules, even with this newly developed bond systems pure geometry control. The entire pro-
difficult-to-grind materials. meets 3M Precision-Shaped Grain with a cess chain is evolving from incoming
“We have innovated and extended the “plus” of performance. inspection of the gears, process monitor-
diversity of our gear grinding portfolio “The requirements of the automotive ing of the dressing and grinding process,
for the new challenges in the changing industry of the future were the basis for to the monitoring and evaluation of all
automotive (special focus on e-Drives) the development of our Nano 2.0 series,” axis movements of the machine includ-
as well as the wind power industry (off- Hechler said. “That means increased ing the assignment to each individual
shore),” said Juergen Hechler, global requirements for profile accuracy and component. The first gears are already
application engineering leader, trans- surface quality, grinding of asymmetrical marked with QR codes from which this
portation at 3M Abrasive Systems. “Our gears with different engagement ratios entire process chain can be documented
customers will be served with the per- of the grinding wheels and topologically and analyzed.”
fect product for their specific situation. correct gear grinding. All of this without www.3M.com/precisiongrinding
We have introduced, for example, a taking into account the process costs by
new innovative solution for achieving reducing the cost per part of the abra-
much higher surface roughness without sives and dressing rollers by significantly
significant performance redundancies. increasing the lifetime.” For Related Articles Search
This is possible with the 3M 91VX Nano The increasing requirements with
2.0 Series featured by a newly developed simultaneous cost pressure are an enor- grinding
bond system that allows us to reduce the mous challenge for our customers, at www.geartechnology.com

amount of unloved bond volume. Less according to Hechler. “The processes

May 2021 | GEAR TECHNOLOGY 25