Effect of Cutting Conditions on Dimensional Accuracy and Surface Roughness in Traditional Milling of Steel

Gear milling is one of the common gear manufacturing processes. In gear milling, the cutting edge of the cutting tool has an identical profile with the profile between gear teeth, and the cutting tool travels along the axial direction of the gear blank to produce the gear tooth by tooth. Due to the high requirements about the dimensional accuracy and the surface roughness during the gear manufacturing process, it is very crucial to understand the influences of cutting conditions on those requirements to improve the quality of the product and increase the production rate. In this study, a machined gear blank made from 1018 cold-rolled steel was subjected to variable speed and feed-rates in a traditional milling operation using a standard gear-milling cutter. The effect of the variable speed and feed-rates were analyzed by measuring the total lead (helix) error, total profile (involute) error, and surface finish of each gear tooth subjected to the variable cutting conditions. The objective is to experimentally investigate the correlation between the cutting conditions, i.e. cutting speed and feed, with the accuracy and quality of the machined surface during the gear milling process.