As an additive manufacturing technology, 3D printing is a new technology that subverts the traditional manufacturing and has become the technical focus in the manufacturing field. Because 3D printing can be used to quickly manufacture gears with any complex surface and save materials, it is a clean and sustainable manufacturing technology for gear processing, which has also attracted attention in the field of gear research.
On the basis of face gear transmission, Lin Chao and others developed face gear transmission technology with variable transmission ratio. In order to quickly make the sample, 3D printing is introduced into the manufacturing of variable transmission ratio gear, the principle of processing variable transmission ratio gear by adding materials is described in detail, the motion coordinate system of each spindle of the manufacturing equipment is established, and the 3D printing sample of the variable transmission ratio gear pair is trial produced (Fig).
This provides a new perspective for the manufacture of face gear. However, as a functional part to transmit motion and power, gear works on the tooth surface, so it is very important to ensure its strength and surface quality in machining. Therefore, after 3D printing, Lin Chao and others carried out the secondary machining of variable transmission ratio gear. Although the surface quality of gear teeth has been improved, the strength problem has not been confirmed. In addition, Dong Hao and others also carried out the exploration of 3D printing surface gear.
As a traditional additive manufacturing technology, such as stamping and powder metallurgy, the blank of face gear has inherent advantages in strength, which seems to deserve more attention, but there are only a few research ideas at present. For example, Jie Tan et al. Applied for the patent of face gear stamping in the United States, but its mechanical properties have not been further studied.