Dr. Hermann J. Stadtfeld received in 1978 his B.S. and in 1982 his M.S. in mechanical engineering
at the Technical University in Aachen, Germany; upon receiving his Doctorate, he remained as a research scientist at the University's Machine Tool Laboratory. In 1987, he accepted the position
of head of engineering and R&D of the Bevel Gear Machine Tool Division of Oerlikon Buehrle AG in Zurich and, in 1992, returned to academia as visiting professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Dr. Stadtfeld returned to the commercial workplace in 1994 — joining The
Gleason Works — also in Rochester — first as director of R&D, and, in 1996, as vice president R&D. During a three-year hiatus (2002-2005) from Gleason, he established a gear research
company in Germany while simultaneously accepting a professorship to teach gear technology courses at the University of Ilmenau. Stadtfeld subsequently returned to the Gleason Corporation in 2005, where he currently holds the position of vice president, bevel gear technology and R&D. A prolific
author (and frequent contributor to Gear Technology), Dr. Stadtfeld has published more than 200 technical papers and 10 books on bevel gear technology; he also controls more than 50 international patents on gear design, gear process, tools and machinery.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 2024-07-23For cylindrical gears, speed-increasing transmission stages are well known, and regarding profile shift, preferred pressure angles, and helix angles a set of rules applies, which is not much different from the rules for speed reducers. It is important to acknowledge that basically, a speed increaser has to be designed just like a speed reducer, but then the gear with the lower number of teeth is the output. Of course, the torque and the speed of the gear with the lower number of teeth (output) and the gear with the higher number of teeth (input) must be the same as if this transmission was used as a speed reducer. In the case of straight bevel gears, spiral bevel gears, and hypoid gears the same rules apply with some additions. Spiral bevel gears have many applications as speed increasers.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 2016-01-01Chapter 2, Continued
In the previous sections, development of conjugate, face milled as well as face hobbed bevel gearsets - including the application of profile and length crowning - was demonstrated. It was mentioned during that demonstration that in order to optimize the common surface area, where pinion and gear flanks have meshing contact (common flank working area), a profile shift must be introduced. This concluding section of chapter 2 explains the principle of profile shift; i.e. - how it is applied to bevel and hypoid
gears and then expands on profile side shift, and the frequently used root angle correction which - from its gear theoretical
understanding - is a variable profile shift that changes the shift factor along the face width. The end of this section elaborates on
five different possibilities to tilt the face cutter head relative to the generating gear, in order to achieve interesting effects on the
bevel gear flank form. This installment concludes chapter 2 of the Bevel Gear Technology book that lays the foundation of the following
chapters, some of which also will be covered in this series.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 2003-05-01In the past, the blades of universal face hobbing cutters had to be resharpened on three faces. Those three faces formed the active part of the blade. In face hobbing, the effective cutting direction changes dramatically with respect to the shank of the blade. Depending on the individual ratio, it was found that optimal conditions for the chip removal action (side rake, side relief and hook angle) could just be established by adjusting all major parameters independently. This, in turn, results automatically in the need for the grinding or resharpening of the front face and the two relief surfaces in order to control side rake, hook angle and the relief and the relief angles of the cutting and clearance side.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 1996-01-01In recent years, gear inspection requirements have changed considerably, but inspection methods have barely kept pace. The gap is especially noticeable in bevel gears, whose geometry has always made testing them a complicated, expensive and time-consuming process. Present roll test methods for determining flank form and quality of gear sets are hardly applicable to bevel gears at all, and the time, expense and sophistication required for coordinate measurement has limited its use to gear development, with only sampling occurring during production.
