Investigations on non-circular gear manufacturing by wire spark erosion machining and their kinematic analyses

Abstract

Due to complex design and difficulties in manufacturing, non-circular gears (NCGs) have found limited industrial applications. However, with the advent of simulation softwares, advanced CNC machine tools, additive manufacturing processes etc. some feasibility in design and manufacturing of NCGs has been achieved. Simplification in the manufacturing process without any specific machinery has made the process of research and design more accessible to larger number of people. This has also led to the advent of these gears in various fields such as replacing Cam, linkages, Geneva mechanisms etc. The manufacturing of NCGs has become an interesting research The manufacturing of NCGs has become an interesting research topic in recent times as researchers have come up with various approaches such as enveloping theory, analytical generation method etc. for the generation of tooth profiles on the pitch curve of a non-circular gear. In the present work, a new method of manufacturing oval gears using wire spark erosion machining (WSEM) has been presented. A forward approach towards designing an oval gear drive has been presented. Further, some kinematic analysis on oval gear drive has also been presented. ECOCUT model of WSEM with built in ELCAM software was used for manufacturing the Oval gears. Analytical results obtained using the true geometry of gear were compared with the results obtained using the real time images taken at discrete intervals of the gear drive in MATLAB image processing tool. And it was observed that WSEM provesto be a viable substitute to other conventional gear manufacturing processes for producing non-circular gears.