Position-dependent rough surface formation in face gear worm grinding

Generating grinding is essential for manufacturing high -end gears with complex shapes, such as face gears. The main challenges for quantifying the rough tooth surface in this process are the position -dependent geometry and kinematics, which lead to undesired variations in surface roughness. This paper presents a novel abrasive contact model to investigate the local tooth formation mechanism in face gear worm grinding (FGWG). Specifically, we define the characteristic undeformed chip thickness (CUCT) to capture the influence of local abrasive conditions, including the mapping of worm-tooth geometry, the inclination of grit rotation, and basic grinding kinematics. The abrasive contact model is utilized to simulate the micro-topography of the global tooth surface. FGWG experiments were conducted to validate the proposed method. Based on the proposed method, we analyze the formation mechanism of the position -dependent rough surface and evaluate the dispersion of tooth surface roughness. This work provides a new perspective for understanding the basic principles of continuous generating gear grinding and can be used to guide the gear manufacturing process for higher tooth surface quality.