Due to the obvious differences between Gleason, Oerlikon and Klingelnberg in the spiral bevel gear technology, gear processing method and the tooth surface geometry of the designed gear, the three companies have developed their own different tooth system standards, becoming the most influential competitors in the spiral bevel gear manufacturing industry. The three companies also learn from each other’s technologies, methods and theories, and have carried out corresponding cooperation, The spiral bevel gear technology has been continuously improved and developed.
Before the 1970s, due to political reasons, the U.S. government included Gleason tooth processing machine tools in the list of important strategic materials, and imposed an embargo on China since 1949. From the mid-1950s, in order to develop the automobile industry, China has introduced some Oerlikon gear processing machines. China began to develop the manufacturing technology of Gleason spiral bevel gear, which originated from the relevant technology introduced from the former Soviet Union in the late 1950s. The first spiral bevel gear processing machine tool in China was born in Tianjin No. 1 Machine Tool General Factory, the largest spiral bevel gear processing machine tool production base in China. With the development of the times, China has gradually formed and formulated some national standards for spiral bevel gears, and vigorously developed a complete set of spiral bevel gear processing equipment with independent intellectual property rights. Since 1975, China has imported a large number of Gleason tooth machine tools, so that among the spiral bevel gear processing equipment (including domestic machine tools, processing machine tools imported from the United States, and a small number of processing machine tools imported from the former Soviet Union), except for a few Oerlikon tooth machine tools, the rest are Gleason tooth machine tools. Due to the complex manufacturing of Klingelnberg’s conical hob, the scope of its popularization and application has been greatly limited. Therefore, China has not introduced Klingelnberg’s tooth machining technology. Therefore, the machining technology of Gleason hypoid gear in China is mainly studied.
Through decades of continuous efforts, China has made great progress in the manufacturing technology level of spiral bevel gear processing equipment. However, domestic gear processing equipment manufacturers are less involved in the research and development of spiral bevel gear digital manufacturing technology software based on tooth surface contact analysis, tooth load contact analysis and tooth surface error correction technology. In China, scholars from Tianjin University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Chongqing University, Huazhong University of science and technology, Central South University, Henan University of science and technology and other universities are cooperating with domestic research and production units of spiral bevel gear machine tools to do research and Exploration on relevant theories and technologies.
The traditional manufacturing method of spiral bevel gears is mainly to use mechanical gear processing machine tools for processing. Because its adjustment parameters need to be obtained through manual computer machine adjustment cards, it is necessary to achieve good processing results
In the past, it is necessary to conduct subsequent repeated trial cutting and machine tool parameter adjustment. Because of the repeated adjustment and trial cutting, the traditional spiral bevel gear processing process needs to consume a lot of machine tool working time and labor cost, and its effect is relatively slow, especially when processing small batches of gears. With the rapid development of machine tool digital control technology and computer technology in recent years, the research of spiral bevel gear theory and manufacturing technology is also developing towards the digital direction. Due to the introduction of advanced spiral bevel gear digital manufacturing technology, the gear manufacturing process using spiral bevel gear NC machining equipment reduces the repeated adjustment of trial cutting and adjustment process, and can greatly improve the machining accuracy and machining efficiency of the tooth surface; At the same time, the human factors in the adjustment and repair of the contact area are greatly reduced.