feature

The Skiving Evolution

Machine Tool Providers Discuss the Latest Benefits,
Technologies and Considerations
Matthew Jaster, Senior Editor
Gleason offers Power Skiving
machines in different sizes for
internal and extrenal gears.
(Photo courtesy of Gleason).
EMO 2019 (Hannover, Germany) and
Motion + Power Technology 2019
(Detroit, Michigan) introduced the lat-
est and greatest skiving technologies
available to gear manufacturers. Both
trade shows featured several booths with techni-
cal experts on-hand to deliver news on flexibility,
tool life, machine uptime and the productivity
benefits produced from the skiving process.

Liebherr offers machines for various

cutting processes
Liebherr introduced the new Gear Skiving
machine LK 280 DC at EMO 2019. This machine
can handle parts with up to 280 mm outside or
rotating diameter. To be able to handle various processes, the special tools. This is especially useful for job shops or small vol-
machine is equipped with a tool changer with 12 stations. ume productions and will give a high value to today’s needs of
“Besides identical skiving tools to continue production, precise chamfering, according to Winkel.
roughing and finishing tools can be loaded to reduce the wear The acquisition of Wenzel Gear Tech gear measuring
of the finishing cutter,” said Dr. Oliver Winkel, head of technol- machines enabled Liebherr to complete its Liebherr Open
ogy application, Liebherr-Verzahntechnik GmbH, Germany. Connect IoT-solution, where measuring data are transferred
“In addition to skiving, the machine is prepared for other cut- back and forth between gear checker and gear cutting machine
ting processes like turning, drilling and milling as well as han- using the new GDE (gear data exchange) format. This trans-
dling a measuring probe. This gives the customer the flexibility parent and open kind of “closed loop” give the customer the
for today and tomorrow’s gear cutting applications not only for chance to minimize manual inputs and maximize uptime of the
internal but also for external gears or shafts.” machines while giving the chance to integrate existing machine
Liebherr also introduced a new chamfering process called tools (even, if not made by Liebherr).
“FlexChamfer.” Using the 6-NC-axes of the chamfering unit, the Regarding tooling and workholding, Winkel said that the
machine moves an end mill in such a way that even complex clamping fixtures are very important and often totally different to
contours like internal gears can be easily chamfered without any what customers are used to from shaping and broaching which
are more or less “stationary processes” regarding table rpm.
“For skiving, very high table rpms are required, so the
dynamic forces are much higher. The clamping fixture
design must take care of that, meaning higher prices
for tooling. We had a similar situation, when generat-
ing grinding of bigger modules came up, and customers
wanted to use their existing fixtures that they successfully
used for profile grinding many years,” Winkel said.
For Liebherr, the main application for skiving is the
manufacturing of internal gears with medium to high
batch sizes. Whenever shaping is too slow and broaching
is too expensive or geometrically not possible.
“Industrial gearbox manufacturers as well as construc-
tion or agricultural equipment manufacturers as well as
job shops might benefit the most. But even the automotive
industry has in seen an increasing number of applications,
whenever collision contours or medium volume outsourc-
Liebherr's skiving technology works well with internal gears ing come into play. This is particularly true for external
with medium to high batch sizes. (Photo courtesy of Liebherr)
gears with interference contour or the skiving of two gears

24 GEAR TECHNOLOGY | November/December 2019

[www.geartechnology.com]
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 feature THE SKIVING EVOLUTION

with a positioning between them,” Winkel added. parts with interfering geometry, such as a shoulder, are good
Winkel believes that every company with medium to big- candidates for gear skiving as well,” said Dwight Smith, vice
ger lot sizes should have a gear skiving machine. The flexibility president at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America.
to machine external and internal gears on a high productivity To benefit from the speed and greatly improved tool life of
level is very attractive for today and the future. He expects an the three-tiered Super Skiving cutters, the workholding needs
increasing amount of applications in this area because engi- to be designed to allow the cutter to feed past the end of the
neers see great potential for their gear designs. Furthermore, facewidth of the part. Rigidity and balance are also important
the tool life and the knowledge about skiving technology will due to the high speeds and process dynamics.
continue to improve. Smith said that the Super Skiving tool has three times as
For more information: many cutting blades involved in the process (compared to
Liebherr Gear Technology, Inc. conventional pinion type cutters) and a much higher metal
Phone: (734) 429-6278 removal rate. Therefore, the work holding must have suffi-
www.liebherr.com
cient rigidity to resist these forces. Mitsubishi engineers, using
Super-Skiving with MHI advanced simulation software developed in-house, can model
With highly engineered maximum rigidity and advanced high- the forces created at each discreet point in the generating pro-
speed spindle synchronization, the MSS300 takes full advantage cess. This data is then applied to the work holding design.
of the cutting performance of MHI’s Super Skiving tools. These Smith said that the software powering the MSS300 is contin-
three-tiered tools can reduce cycle time by up to 40% while uously evolving. Maximizing machine motions to accomplish
improving tool life 40%–300% compared to an ordinary pinion specific cutting operations will broaden capabilities and flex-
type skiving tool. ibility. In the engineering arena, the cutting simulation software
Because of the North American debut of the newest gear provides specific cutting tool design information to improve
grinder, the ZE26C, at Motion + Power Expo, there wasn’t room tool life and ultimate part quality. In the design of the MSS300
to display the MSS300. However, external gear skiving using the and future iterations, advanced FEM and MBD (Multibody
three-tiered Super Skiving cutter is a recently added option for Dynamics) analyses are used, and extensive natural frequency
the MSS300. analysis is performed to further refine the designs.
“Gear skiving, and Super Skiving in particular, have appli- By optimizing machine rigidity and axis synchronization,
cations primarily for internal gears which traditionally would MHI has improved tool life to allow Super Skiving to chal-
have been shaped or broached. Faster than shaping and slower lenge broaching in high volume production applications. At the
than broaching, gear skiving offers enhanced control and effi- same time, Super Skiving can supplant or replace shaping for
ciency. This is beneficial to automotive as well as truck and off- many internal and external applications and offers much better
road industry sectors. The “quick change” concept also applies throughput. The ability to make corrections and the ease of tool
to agricultural equipment manufacturers and industrial appli- change makes gear skiving a viable choice for many jobs.
cations with high mix and low to medium volumes. External “Driven by customer needs, MHI will continue to inte-
grate additional features into the MSS series of Super Skiving
machines. The recent research project in con-
junction with WZL Aachen Gear Research has
yielded valuable data to further improve skiv-
ing tool life and productivity. Another study,
recently presented at the VDI symposium in
Munich, showed reduced residual compres-
sive stress in internal ring gears cut with Super
Skiving. This suggests a potential reduction in
distortion for carburizing and hardening of this
type of parts,” Smith said.
For more information:
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, Inc.
Phone: (248) 669-6136
www.mitsubishigearcenter.com

Power Skiving enhancements at

Gleason
Gleason is building Power Skiving machines in
different sizes for internal and external gears
including the 100PS, 300PS, 400PS, 600PS,
800PS. Together with these machines, they offer
The MSS 300 Super Skiving machine features customers technology software to design the
FEM and MBD analyses. (Photo courtesy of process and skiving cutters with all the neces-
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America) sary calculations and analysis. Alternatively,

26 GEAR TECHNOLOGY | November/December 2019

[www.geartechnology.com]
GENERATING GEAR GRINDING MADE TRANSPARENT
Process monitoring

The dressing and grinding intensities are measured and monitored by smart real-time data processing
and tested algorithms. For each workpiece, all data generated during dressing and grinding are recorded
and stored in a database and remain 100% traceable. Using the stored process and tooling data,
including workpiece identification via DMC, offers the means of comprehensive analysis. Due to process
interaction, and using preset evaluation limits, workpieces that exceed or fall short of these limits are
automatically removed.

Component monitoring
Recurring automatic testing cycles measure and evaluate all the relevant grinding machine axes involved
in the process, and thus enables early detection of electromechanical deviations. Maintenance costs are
optimized both in terms of planning and diagnosis, and some potential EOL anomalies may be avoided.

Reishauer AG, Switzerland Reishauer Corp., Elgin

reishauer.com Tel.+1 847 888 38 28 / usa@reishauer.com
 feature THE SKIVING EVOLUTION

Gleason provides this service including process and All the calculation and analysis for the
skiving process is provided by Gleason's
cutter design directly to their customers for any software technology.
new job. On the base of this analysis, they manu-
facture cutters and also dedicated workholding that
is specially adapted to the Power Skiving process
and the customer application.
Although “one-way” wafer cutters for the shap-
ing process have been in use for some time,
such cutters do not improve the current Power
Skiving process by much, according to Dr. Edgar
Weppelmann, manager application engineering at
Gleason-Pfauter. Resharpening the cutter in the
Power Skiving machine enhances the process in
virtually all aspects due to the more frequent cutter
changes required because of the much faster Power
Skiving Process compared to shaping.
“For this reason Gleason has developed for their
300, 400 and 600PS machines an integrated unit to
resharpen cutters in the machine in a very short
time. The cutter face can now be resharpened fully
automatic in the machine after it has cut a certain number of Frequent cutter changes are no longer required, a single cut-
gears — without any operator involvement. The cutter geometry ter can stay on the machine for several days or weeks before it
is adjusted automatically considering the removed stock and is fully used up. The time that has been used in the past by the
the serial production is continued without further interruption. operator for a cutter change is now being used for three to four
Recoating the cutting face is not required because the origi- automatic cutter grinding cycles with a reduced stock removal
nal coating on the flanks protects the cutter teeth sufficiently,” per grinding cycle to keep the cutter constantly sharp for a high
Weppelmann said. and constant gear quality, he added.

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28 GEAR TECHNOLOGY | November/December 2019

[www.geartechnology.com]
 First part inspection and machine correction after
cutter resharpening are no longer necessary because the
same cutter is continuing the production which also
relieves the cost and capacity in the inspection room.
In addition, cutter management and handling logistics
to ordering new cutters in time, to ensure a continu-
ous production, is highly reduced. Cutter inventory can
also be drastically reduced because there is no longer the
need to circulate cutters through an external re-furbish-
ing cycle.
“Because the cost for external cutter refurbishing is
avoided, the tool cost per gear is drastically reduced.
However, the total savings are considerably higher if one
considers the other benefits described above. When car-
bide cutters are used for soft or hard skiving the savings
from avoiding the external re-furbishing are even higher.
Also, the danger of damaging expensive carbide cutters
by manual handling is highly reduced as the cutters stay
much longer in the process without being touched. The Vacuum Heat Treating Services
productivity of the power skiving process is not jeop-
ardized by the missing coating on the cutter face because re- We know high quality gears and components are
sharpening now happens more frequently compared to the cut- vital to performance. Our leading edge vacuum
ter life of the current process with external cutter re-furbishing,” technology and expertise provides precise control
Weppelmann said. and repeatability for consistently superior parts.
Not all internal ring gear geometries can be skived due to col- • Low Pressure Vacuum Carburizing (LPVC)
lision and chip evacuation requirements. Due to the cross-axis • Vacuum Gas Nitriding
angle required for Power Skiving the process needs a larger dis- • Vacuum Stress Relieving
tance to collision shoulders at the end of the cut to avoid a colli- • High Pressure Gas Quenching (HPGQ)
sion between the cutter and the workpiece.
Weppelmann said, however, typical skiving applications are Advantages
internal ring gears, spur and helical gears in soft and hardened • Uniformity of case depths
state. Electromobility with the higher quality requirements to • Minimized distortion
reduce noise, light and heavy truck gears, gears for agriculture • No IGO (Intergranular Oxidation)
and construction equipment, aircraft and robotic gears as well • Parts returned clean, free of soot – eliminating
as a wider range of gears for many industrial applications, typi- downstream cleaning processes
cally served by job shops.
“Power skiving is taking over more and more gears from the
shaping process as long as they are suitable for Power Skiving.
It is now also used for hard finishing of higher quality gears
mostly in electro- mobility and robotic applications which
require higher qualities that cannot be achieved without a hard
finishing process after heat treatment. Gleason Power Skiving
machines with integrated cutter resharpening ideally support
these requirements.
Hard Power Skiving is the technology where Weppelmann
said we will see significant developments in close combination
with integrated cutter resharpening. This is to meet the require- For more information or a quote,
ments for quieter and more precise gears. Integrated cutter call 1-855-WE-HEAT-IT or visit solaratm.com
resharpening will become increasingly accepted to lower cost
and tool inventory and to increase gear quality.
9001:2015
For more information: 9100D
AS

Gleason Corporation
Phone: (585) 473-1000
www.gleason.com Nadcap Accredited for Nondestructive Testing at our Hermitage, PA facility only

Eastern PA California VACUUM PROCESSING

Heat Treating • Brazing
Western PA South Carolina
Carburizing • Nitriding

November/December 2019 | GEAR TECHNOLOGY 29

 feature THE SKIVING EVOLUTION

Star-SU Discusses Skiving/Scudding Benefits

Star-SU and its partners Samputensili and GMTA provide the
tooling as well as the application knowhow to provide the lat-
est advancements in skiving. These advancements can lower
overall manufacturing costs by reducing the longer cycle times
found in areas like shaping operations.
“We’re currently working with GMTA on their Profilator
NEW equipment,” said Deniz Sari, sales manager at Samputensili.
“These machines are designed for dry cutting, offer excellent
Release
2019 chip evacuation and increased cutting speeds.”
Scudding from GMTA takes traditional power skiving tech-
nology for gear production and makes it much more accurate
KISSsoft Highlights and versatile. The process is extremely competitive in shaping,
broaching and other gear cutting applications for gears and
▪ Intuitive concept design on system level with splines.
KISSdesign Sari says that many customers today are looking for machines
▪ Rolling bearing calculation with connection that combine a variety of machining operations (with skiving)
to SKF cloud on a single platform. This seemed to be the consensus from
▪ Contact analysis (LTCA) of asymmetric gears
attendees at both EMO in Hannover and the Motion + Power
▪ Crossed helical gear with rack
KISSsoft AG
Technology Expo in Detroit.
▪ Feasibility assessment for „Power Skiving“
A Gleason Company The challenge, according to Tom Ware, product manager,
T. +41 55 254 20 50
info@KISSsoft.com Free trial version at www.KISSsoft.com
gear tools at Star-SU, is when machine tool providers want to
include skiving in their 5-axis milling operations.
“They typically do not have the background in gears that is
necessary, so they rely on the tool supplier to be the process
engineer,” said Ware. “This can be a huge drain on the engi-
neering capacity of the cutting tool provider. There are some
inherent mechanical issues regarding horsepower and rigid-
ity that need to be carefully examined in order to optimize the
skiving process.”
seller_KISSsoft_Release2019_89x120_5mm.indd 1 13.06.2019 12:09:31
Sari said that Star-SU and its partners are finding ways to
work through these various challenges.
Star SU provides the tooling and
application support for GMTA's Profilator
equipment. (Photo courtesy of Star SU)

mwgear@midwestgear.net

30 GEAR TECHNOLOGY | November/December 2019

[www.geartechnology.com]
 “These 5-axis machines are capable of producing gears now, corrections,” Sari said. “This is something that cannot work
mostly low-quality splines or prototypes and this makes a lot of with broaching. In skiving, you can add the lead corrections
sense,” Sari said. “They will never adequately replace dedicated into your machine control with the latest CNC technology and
gear equipment when you start looking at larger batch sizes, it’s not an issue.”
however.” For more information:
Ware believes the greatest benefit of skiving today lies in the Star-SU
internal ring gear whether it’s for an automotive application or Phone: (847) 649-1450
www.star-su.com
a more elaborate gear design in truck or tractor applications.
“Wherever you can move away from the helical broaching pro- The Evolution Continues
cess, I think we’re going to continue to see growth in skiving. Those manufacturers looking to manufacture quieter, more
Double gear applications are another area that can benefit from precise gears will continue to consider skiving technology.
skiving.” The changing landscape of both the aerospace and automotive
Sari agrees that automotive holds great potential for the industries will provide plenty of opportunities for the skiving
skiving process moving forward, particularly the electrifica- process. What’s fascinating in 2019 is the different styles, meth-
tion trend taking place today. “The electric gearbox with all of ods, tooling and workholding procedures that each machine
its advanced, integrated parts offers new opportunities for the tool provider is focusing their efforts on. These different tech-
skiving process.” nologies were on display at both EMO and the Motion + Power
While the tooling for skiving has not required a lot of new Technology Expo and it’s fair to say that the technology will con-
manufacturing technology recently, Ware said they are focused tinue to evolve by the time IMTS 2020 rolls around next fall.
on developing high-speed skiving tools that will provide longer
machine runs and better performance, “Anything new that is
happening in the skiving process is currently taking place on
the design side.” For Related Articles Search
But for flexibility, productivity and enhanced machining
operations, scudding/skiving continues to provide gear manu- skiving
facturers with additional cutting options. at www.geartechnology.com
“Gear designers like to use all the profile and lead

November/December 2019 | GEAR TECHNOLOGY 31