Assessing the performance of high speed steep coated tools in high speed and dry gear hobbing

摘要

The hobbing process is a complicated machining technology compared in some aspects to conventional cutting processes such as turning and milling. The development of the coating technology provides great progress in these particular cutting operations. In particular, the economical and ecological needs require higher hobbing speeds and, at the same time, reduction or elimination of lubrication. So, the TiN coating, which is the most widely used, is no more suitable and does not fulfill these new requirements. In this study, a large number of hobbing and milling tests have been conducted in order to quantify the benefits of the multi-functional coatings developed in the recent years. These tests have shown the interest in use of hard coating combined with selflubricant, because it outperforms the tools for the dry and high speed hobbing. The interesting performances in high speed gear hobbing of HSS-PM hobs (ASP2052) coated with a (Ti,Al)N+MoS{sub}2 composite coating are particularly discussed.