Exploratory investigation of chip formation and surface integrity in ultra-high-speed gear hobbing

Gear hobbing is widely employed to manufacture automotive gears, where the productivity depends on the cutting speed. Currently, gear hobbing is performed at ∼300 m/min using high-speed steel hob cutters. In this study, ultra-high-speed gear hobbing was attempted using a large-diameter cemented carbide hob cutter on a gear grinder. This enabled a cutting speed up to 2450 m/min. Many interesting phenomena were acquired in this speed range. Chips were severely oxidized, whereas the gear surface was not affected. Compressive residual stress was generated at the gear surfaces with low surface roughness and high hardness, while the wear of hob cutter was insignificant.