The fundamental roughness model for face-milling spiral bevel gears considering run-outs

Surface roughness is important for the machined product, especially the gear. With its influence on wear, friction and lubrication properties in driving, researches have been made on surface roughness in different machining processes. However, due to the complicated kinematics for tooth generation and tooth contact correctness, there still lacks the roughness model for face-milling of spiral bevel gears, hindering the prediction of the driving performance. For a highly accurate and efficient calculation, through fully investigating the generating process, tooth surface is found to be formed by the intersection of cutter edges in specific cutter cycles with a specific order. On such basis, the paper proposes an algorithm, which takes the insert run-out errors into consideration, for the roughness of the face-milling spiral bevel gear. Further, through both numerical study and experiment, the influence of the design and process parameters on roughness distribution is revealed.