Chamfer-deburring of large gears — considered here to be those over 1-meter diameter — demand significant labor that comes with the risk of inconsistency and low quality. In partnership with Tecnomacchine, Helios announces an improvement to such applications. “For very large spur and helical gears, this deburring approach cost-effectively reduces labor and increases consistency and quality,” said Adam Gimpert, president of Helios Gear Products.

For such large gears, several challenges demand improved solutions. Because these gears take significant time to move and fixture, a dedicated machine for deburring such workpieces becomes impractical. This is due to complex setups and relatively expensive machine components, such as precision motors, electronics, and structural elements. To solve these challenges, Tecnomacchine has developed a solution that adds chamfer-deburring capability to a manufacturer’s existing finishing equipment, either hobbing or grinding. The key benefit to this “deburring unit” is that the workpiece remains fixtured from the prior finishing operation, and the same platform rotates the workpiece for the chamfer-deburring operation.

This added capability comes in a simple package for less than half of the cost of a dedicated machine. The deburring unit either mounts permanently to the existing hobbing/grinding machine structure or it uses a clamping system to temporarily mount for operation. Once the unit is positioned, the hobbing/grinding machine rotates the workpiece, and the deburring unit engages a disk-type cutter to shear away large burrs particularly at the root of the tooth. This allows consistent, high quality chamfer-deburring in subsequent steps. Next, the unit simultaneously engages two tools to deburr bottom and top of the gear.

Manufacturers with large-gear finishing machinery, such as hobbing or grinding equipment, will welcome this strategic approach. Effectively, this solution simply adds to existing machinery new chamfer-deburring capability as a subsequent cycle without the need for re-fixturing. Consequently, manufacturers can have a simple, productive means for reliable, high-quality gear chamfer-deburring.