New Business Shapes Up

It’s not surprising, given Engranajes Juaristi’s breadth of products, that shaping is a key capability. For internal gears and those that can’t be hobbed efficiently, the company uses two Gleason P600/800ES gear shaping machines. Both machines feature an electronic helical guide–an additional CNC rotary axis–to replace the mechanical helical guides required in the older generation of shaping machines that these machines replace. In the past, the cutting of a new helical gear first required the expensive and time-consuming production of a mechanical guide used to produce the necessary helix by superimposing a rotary motion on the cutting stroke. Then, there was additional time needed to change guides for a new part. Now, changeover on the Gleason machines is done in minutes, via dialog-guided input on the Siemens CNC. All gear cutting, tooling, and part parameters, including the helix angle to be shaped, are entered, and the controller calculates all the necessary machine data and settings automatically. The machines are considerably more productive as well, featuring a backlash-free direct drive for the cutter spindle to deliver flexibility and operating ranges much greater than the previous conventional shaping machines. An extended stroke length using Gleason’s optional shuttle shaping feature accommodates face widths of approximately 400 mm–well beyond what was previously possible. Finally, one of the machines is equipped with a B-axis, which enables an inclination of the column under CNC to produce tapered parts and improve quality when shaping parts made from high-strength steels.

“The added capacity and faster changeover have opened the door to many new gear shaping opportunities, and jobs we couldn’t have taken on with the older shapers,” says Inigo Juaristi. “For example, we now use the machine with B-axis to produce an important cone-shaped part for a farm equipment application. This would not have been possible before.”