Study on the generation of spiral bevel gears with spherical involute tooth profile by the tracing line

In this article, a new gear generating method for the spiral bevel gear with spherical involutes tooth curves was proposed. It was analysed that the tooth flank with cone-spiral involute surface could be formed by the space trajectory of a straight line. The straight line was named as a tracing line. In the method, three motions were demanded; those were the rotary motion of the workpiece, the rectilinear motion of the end of the tracing line along the dedendum, and the rotary motion of the tracing line in the plane. The motion equations were derived. The plate milling cutter with face cutting edges could be used to machine the spiral bevel gears and the chord line of the face circle worked as the tracing line. By the method, the spiral bevel gears without principle errors whose tooth flanks are exact spherical involute curves that could be achieved.