Roughness measurement on gears for aircraft engines

By Bhalchandra Chorghade, Editor, CNCTimes.com

Gears for aircraft engines have to meet the highest standards. The measurement data must be precise and must not damage the workpiece. When Mahr found out about the specific task of a well-known industrial company, two further criteria had to be met: the efficiency of the measurement time and the quality in the gear roughness machine had to be improved. In short, Mahr needed to deliver a measurement system that would not damage the twin helical gears while transforming the previous manual measurement process into a fully automated system to eliminate human error and save time. When Mahr's project manager assumed responsibility for this task, he knew pretty well how to solve the problem and fully satisfy his customer.

With the previous measurement solution, not only did the data fluctuate depending on the operator, sometimes the measured double helical gears were physically affected during the measurement; they could not be delivered. The reason for this: The gear wheel was clamped and turned during the measurement. Clamping forces act on the workpiece, which can lead to damage.

Mahr's project manager had a better idea and the right solution: instead of moving the workpiece, he suggested rotating the probe while the workpieces were upright. So he presented the MarSurf Engineered Series 1300that uses skidless scanning: the drive unit rotates to adjust its position to the angle of the gear, so the gear itself does not move. In addition, the MarSurf Engineered Series 1300 could be used as a fully automatic system and thus offered all the advantages that the company was hoping for.

The customer opted for an individual solution from Mahr Engineered Solutionsand was not disappointed. Previously, the gearbox was mounted on a locator. This made it difficult to mount them in the same position and was a time-consuming process. That has changed with the MarSurf Engineered Series 1300. Even the operation is easier now. The special software for measuring the gears ensures that a large number of gears can be measured quickly and easily. The relevant gear data (e.g. number of teeth, diameter, module and angle of the helical gearing) only have to be entered and the measuring process is calculated accordingly. After starting the auxiliary program, the drive unit is adjusted by the corresponding helical gear angle, the machine automatically determines the starting point and starts the measuring routine. The operator only carries out a visual check.

After the company started measuring with the MarSurf Engineered Series 1300 , the advantages became obvious: With the fully automatic measurement of the S 1300, the stability of the measurement results was improved and the measurement time was reduced from 2 hours to 8 minutes. This enabled the company to recoup its investment in the S 1300 within 2 years. With this innovative technology, Mahr has helped its customer to overcome their challenges and ensure the highest quality of double helical gears for aircraft engines.

https://metrology.mahr.com/de/news/newsroom/artikel/rauheitsmessung-an-zahnraedern-fuer-flugzeugtriebwerke

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