Digital closed-loop manufacturing technology of spiral bevel gear based on networked integration

In order to break the limitations of information's low inheritance and integration during the process of the spiral bevel gear digital closed-loop manufacturing, as well as achieve the integrated operation of manufacturing process and the integrated management of tooth surface manufacturing information, a networked closed-loop manufacturing model of spiral bevel gears is proposed in this paper based on the analysis of the typical digital closed-loop manufacturing process of spiral bevel gear. In the model, by building a networked integration environment, the following technologies, including design and calculation, computer numerical control machining, tooth surface digital detection and correction, detection of noise and vibration, control management, can be organically combined, which not only forms a networked closed-loop manufacturing model and an information network, but also really realizes the transformation from the traditional closed and independent mode to the more flexible and integrated mode that includes the design, machining, measurement, noise and vibration detection of spiral bevel gear tooth surfaces. On this basis, the operation mechanism of networked closed-loop manufacturing is established. The communication network for spiral bevel gear digital closed-loop manufacturing is built through the distributed integration control mode and the Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol. The integrated control of numerical control equipment with different communication interfaces and communication protocols is realized. For the traditional numerical control equipment with serial communication interfaces, their network communication is realized through the serial port servers and the protocol conversion. Correspondingly, for the advanced numerical control equipment with manufacturing automation protocol interfaces, their network communication is realized directly with the network interfaces. On this basis, the reliable transmission and management of numerical control program is achieved by the developed numerical control integration system. The corresponding function modules such as the modular communication protocol conversion program, machine management, program management, and the communication transmission of numerical control programs are also developed, which realizes the distributed integration control of computer numerical control gear milling equipment. On this basis, the information integration framework model and the implementation mechanism of closed-loop manufacturing process are established with the Web service application integration methodology. The loose coupled integration of different application systems participating in the closed-loop manufacturing process is realized through the Web service interface encapsulation and call mechanism. Thereafter, the closed-loop manufacturing integration system is developed to realize the integrated unified management of manufacturing information based on the idea of hierarchicality and modularization. The functions of the integration system such as system management, gear design management, tooth surface measurement management, numerical control equipment management, and vibration noise detection management are correspondingly developed. Finally, the validity and availability of the proposed model and its implementation technologies are verified through the networked closed-loop manufacturing application test with one kind of hypoid gears. Application results show: the proposed model and its implementation technologies are feasible and practical. It can realize the digitalization and integration operation of tooth surface manufacturing process, as well as obviously improve the tooth surface precision and meshing performance of gear pairs. The hypoid gear pairs scroll detection experiments in this paper show that the radiation noise reduction is around 7%, the vibration acceleration amplitude is reduced by about 15%, and the whole tooth surface quality also meets the requirements of the original gear design. The study can provide a reference for the networked manufacturing and integrated manufacturing of spiral bevel gears.