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Tooth flank measurement accurate to one micrometre

A measuring machine for tooth flank geometry where an operator swaps the sensor in under five minutes without tools, and it never comes off by more than a micrometre afterwards.

Sensors & Metrology

Tooth flank measurement accurate to one micrometre

Sensors & Metrology

01Starting point

Gear quality shows up on the flank, measured with an inductive probe with a 50 to 70 µm range. Extremely fine, and exactly because of that, extremely sensitive to any movement. Every tooth geometry needs its own measuring tooth, swapped by hand by an operator: no tools, under five minutes, several times per shift. If the sensor shifts by more than ±1 µm in x, y or rotation while doing it, the measurement is gone. And that is across gears from Ø 0 to 300 mm, tooth height up to 150 mm, module 1.25 to 5 mm and helix angle ±45 degrees.

02Approach

Not with tighter tolerances, but by separating the degrees of freedom. Every direction of movement gets its own, clearly defined seat, instead of clamping everything together. On top of that, two direct-drive axes with no gearbox, one for the radial infeed, one for the workpiece, both accurate to ±1 µm. Before we designed anything, we crunched the numbers: compared connecting elements, derived two variants, ran the maths on six configurations and verified the best two in FEM. Only then did the quote go out.

03Result

The sensor position is now a known quantity rather than an assumption. That means you can run several units in a line, all with the same interface, and the results stay comparable. Swapping the measuring tooth costs practically no downtime, because it works without recalibration. You can run the machine straight from the touchscreen or from a higher-level system: states and axes are addressable objects, not a black box.

What is inside

Three complete systems: welded, powder-coated steel base with height-adjustable feet, finely lapped granite plate per DIN 876/00, drives and controls in a 19 inch cabinet, 17 inch touchscreen on a swing arm. Footprint 0.86 × 0.66 m, height 1.26 m, total weight 370 kg, 130 kg of which is granite. The drawers are not just furniture, they hold the set of measuring teeth right next to the machine that needs them.

What happened next

We designed it once, and it got paid for once. We assembled the first machine ourselves; the customer built the second and third, with material we sourced, following documentation written for someone who had never seen the first machine.

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