Influence of cutting edge preparation on the wear resistance in high speed dry gear hobbing

Gear hobbing remains a cutting technology where high speed steels continue to find wide applications in modern manufacturing practice. The improvements in hobbing tool design are problematic due to the very long duration of wear tests. The application of an analogy process called 'fly hobbing' has been developed on a five-axes milling machine so as to improve the productivity of the investigations. This process has been used to investigate the influence of the cutting edge preparation on the wear resistance of gear hobs made of PM-HSS in the context of dry high-speed manufacturing. An original edge preparation procedure, based on the abrasive flow machining technology, has revealed a great improvement of the tool life.