Gear hobbing, as any cutting process based on the rolling principle, is a signally multiparametric and complicated gear fabrication method. The model Oplitis is an effective and factual simulation of gear hobbing, based on virtual kinematics of solid models representing the cutting tool and the work gear. The selected approach, in contrast to former modeling efforts, is primitively realistic, since the produced gear and chips geometry are normal results of successive penetrations and material removal of cutting teeth into a solid cutting piece. The algorithm has been developed and embedded in a commercial CAD environment, by exploiting its modeling and graphics capabilities.

To generate the produced chip and gear volumes, the hobbing kinematics is directly applied in one 3D gear gap. The cutting surface of each generating position (successive cutting teeth) formulates a 3D spatial surface, which bounds its penetrating volume into the workpiece. This surface is produced combining the relative rotations and displacements of the two engaged parts (hob and work gear). Such 3D surface “paths” are used to split the subjected volume, creating concurrently the chip and the remaining work gear solid geometries.

Similar to gear shaping and gear planing, the final gap is produced by successive generating positions (GP), which are calculated by the relative motions of the workpiece and the hob.

For each chip produced, a series of cross-sections is performed along the revolving positions of the cutting tool trajectory. The information regarding the chip thickness of each cross-section is utilized to calculate the developed cutting forces.

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