Gerb. Brinkman Goes Faster - Gleason

Gebr. brinkmann
GOES FASTER
Thomas Huneke, Production manager
of Gebr. brinkmann GmbH in Detmold
(right), and Dr. antoine Türich, Global
Product manager with Gleason, in
front of the 300TWG Threaded Wheel
Grinding machine.
Now Even Smaller Companies like Germany’s
Gebr. Brinkmann GmbH, using new Gleason Threaded Wheel Grinding (TWG) technology,
can compete for more marketshare by delivering the highest quality spur and helical
gears faster, in batch sizes as small as one.
www.gleason.com 21

O“Our specialty is the production of high-quality gears in large as
well as small batch sizes – even down to single pieces,” explains
Thomas Huneke, Production Manager of Gebr. Brinkmann
GmbH in Detmold (Germany). The 170-employee company
produces turning lathes, gearboxes and gears – for everything
from cars and trucks to machine tools, pumps to printing presses.
The installation of two new 300TWG Threaded Wheel Grinding
machines from Gleason-Hurth has today given Gebr. Brinkmann
an important competitive advantage in an industry that’s more
challenging than ever.
“Modern gearboxes have to transmit higher loads than ever
while at the same time meeting much more demanding life
expectancy and noise emission level requirements. This in turn
calls for higher quality gears,” explains T. Huneke. “In addition,
the competitive landscape has never been more challenging.
Together with the ‘bandwidth’ and quality of our production
program, our success largely depends on our ability to react with
the utmost flexibility to special demands from our customers.
This applies both for order batch sizes and for delivery times and
compliance with stringent customer specifications.”
TWG: Perfect fit. “Two years ago, we purchased our first
threaded wheel grinding machine from Gleason-Hurth because
its capabilities were the best match for our requirements,
as compared to four or five competing machines,” recalls
T. Huneke. Perhaps most decisive in the decision to purchase
the TWG, according to T. Huneke, was its impact on set-up time,
and the resultant windfall savings in workpiece cost. With the
Gleason 300TWG, loading and unloading is performed using
a robot equipped with a double gripper enabling it to unload a
finished part and replace it with a new workpiece in just seconds.
Depending on the current workflow mix, its “fodder” comes
either from a conveyor with flexible workpiece pallets or from
stacked pallets made from deep-drawing plastic sheet. Another
interesting feature is the spin station integrated into the loading
area of the machine. This makes it possible to limit oil residue
downstream while maintaining the residual oil film needed on the
gear to prevent corrosion.
Multiple helix configurations, one diamond roll dresser.
“From the viewpoint of Brinkmann, one of the most interesting
features was the possibility to dress a variety of different gears
with the same diamond roll dresser,” says Dr. Antoine Türich,
Global Product Manager Grinding with Gleason. To understand
the importance of this feature one has to know that as a result
of wear during the grinding process, the gear grinding tool has
to be periodically re-dressed to maintain the required product
quality. Normally, the diamond roll dresser used for this purpose
is shaped to exactly fit the contour of the grinding wheel rack
profile. Such a diamond roll dresser is not only expensive, but
also requires delivery times as long as 8-10 weeks.
(Above) Double-gripper robot loads/unloads 300TWG in seconds
from conveyor, equipped with flexible workpiece pallets.
(Below) Operator-friendly screen dialogues facilitate fast
and efficient setup even by less experienced operators.
As an alternative, Gleason-Hurth offers a dressing concept
based on a roll dresser design that can be used to dress a number
of different grinding wheel geometries. With a set of just six
different tools one can thus dress a wide range of grinding wheel
geometries. A further option is the so-called contour dressing,
which makes it possible to achieve an unlimited flexibility
concerning profile modifications using just one dressing disc. In

this case, the dressing disc contour does not match that of the
grinding wheel at all. Instead, it shapes the latter more or less like
a cutting tool on a lathe. This equipment gives Brinkmann the
flexibility to produce custom-specific gear wheel geometries at
short notice even in small batch sizes without having to bear the
high costs and long delays for a specialized dressing tool.
This is also important in the case of prototype manufacturing,
such as for the automotive sector, where the customer insists that
the prototypes have to be manufactured using the same tools as
for subsequent mass production.
Optimized productivity. “Notwithstanding its flexibility with
respect to the processing of small batches and its short set-up time
in the case of a product change, the Gleason machine also excels
in overall productivity,” says T. Huneke. This shows in numerous
details such as the optimized size ratio (diameter to face width)
of the grinding wheel, which directly
influences productivity. In order to
“ correctly assess this relationship, one
first has to keep in mind that a larger
wheel diameter would increase the
number of times it can be re-dressed
before having to be discarded. But on
the other hand, a larger wheel diameter
increases the stroke length to grind
across the gear, and thus increased the
grinding time With the Gleason-Hurth
machine, these parameters have been carefully optimized with a
view to maximizing overall machine productivity.
A further advantage of the machine design is an additional
ball-bearing support for the grinding helix on the side opposite
the spindle. This assures maximum rigidity and, compared to
conventional design, provides for either higher product precision
or higher productivity, depending on the specific requirements of
the workpiece.
Finally, T. Huneke cites the TWG’s outstanding user
friendliness, and the ease and simplicity of its Siemens CNC
and Gleason’s technology software. This software maintains a
Notwithstanding its
flexibility... the Gleason
machine also excels in
overall productivity. ”
— Gebr. Brinkmann’s T. Huneke
1000 University Avenue
P.O. Box 22970
Rochester, NY 14692-2970 USA
Fax: 585-461-4348
e-mail: sales@gleason.com
1000 University Avenue
P.O. Box 22970
Rochester, NY 14692-2970 USA
Tel: 585-473-1000
Fax: 585-461-4348
e-mail: sales@gleason.com
300TWG’s contour dressing
capability allows just one dressing
disk to provide unlimited custom-
specific gear wheel geometries, thus
minimizing the time and expense
usually required for a special dressing tool.
complete database of all parts that have ever been processed,
is of enormous importance at Brinkmann. If a new part has to
be “programmed”, the user just inputs some basic gear and tool
data. Based on these data the software automatically calculates
a full proposal for all relevant process data such as grinding
and dressing. An “intelligent” parameter control in conjunction
with pictogram-oriented screen dialogues greatly facilitates a
fast and efficient set-up even by less experienced operators. All
in all, this greatly reduces time and cost
expenditure before the machine will yield
the first workpiece fulfilling all quality
requirements.
Substantial advantages. “Compared to
the system it has replaced, the TWG
provides us with a number of very pleasing
advantages,” summarizes T. Huneke. “It
has, for example, been possible to reduce
the average downtime for a product change
from the 125 minutes to around 60 minutes.” Furthermore, says
T. Huneke, the company experienced a significant productivity
boost in series production where cycle time reductions by factors
ranging between two and five could be achieved.
A further point T. Huneke highlights is the good support
provided by Gleason-Hurth. This applies not only for the service,
which he qualifies as exemplary in every way, but also for more
in-depth services such as when Gleason-Hurth was asked to
implement additional features for “exotic” gear designs to the
machine software. As a result of the good experience with the
first machine, Brinkmann has recently installed a second TWG.
www.gleason.com sales@gleason.com
For Worldwide Locations and Additional Information.
Maschinen und Werkzeuge GmbH
Moosacher Straße 42-46
D-80809 München Germany
Tel: +49 89 35401 0
Fax: +49 89 35401 640