Dependency of Gear Honing Machine Processing Accuracy on Machine Vibration and the Vibration Reduction Considering Contribution

In recent years, accurate gear processing is required for various products to improve efficient power transmission and small noise and vibration. On the other hand, the accuracy tends to be worse by high speed processing for increasing production efficiency. Therefore, we investigated relationship between gear honing machine vibration and the accuracy. The vibration acceleration of the honing machine was measured at various conditions, and the gear accuracy was measured after processing. As results, the accuracy was observed to be affected by both the original gear accuracy before honing processing and the gear secondary rotational vibration of the machine in operation. Subsequently, we applied transfer path analysis (TPA) to investigate which directional force in operation increased the vibration. As the results, the contribution from the input force at gear processing point along normal direction was the main contributor. Then, vibration transmission characteristics of the machine body were obtained by hammering tests and the transfer function at 149 Hz (gear 2nd order at 1700 rpm) was found to be much lower than that at 197 Hz (2250 rpm) where the original rotational speed. Then, honing processing experiment was again conducted under the conditions in which the rotational speed was changed from the original speed to the speed where the transfer function was low. The result showed that the vibration was decreased significantly.