Development of an affordable and flexible fixing system for a hobbing machine

Sammanfattning: Last years, lead time, flexibility, cost, and quality have become significant factors for the manufacturing industry. This also applies to gears, which could be manufactured using hobbing and grinding. Fixing systems are used to precisely center and fully fix gears to reach high quality. These are expensive and not flexible which requires a new one for each gear dimension. This limits the production of prototypes and so new product for the market. Developing a 3D concept for affordable and flexible fixing is the purpose. Through literature research, analyzing the current process, discussions with the company, desk research, and benchmarking, requirements are made for the new concept. Then brainstorming sessions are done to come up with new concepts. The concepts are analyzed, discussed with the company, and combined into two better concepts. Even though the higher flexibility of the other concept, the robustness of the winning concept “CoNut”. The principle is that only a few parts have to be changed instead of the whole system. The concept is further developed in 3D, where design for cost and manufacturing are applied. Finally, test procedures are drafted to validate the concept against therequirements. While some require a prototype, others are already validated by using the 3D model. Ultimately, an affordable and more flexible fixing system is developed as a 3D concept, by using a structural design process, which is likely to meet all the requirements. Since the model is cheaper and easier to change within meeting the other requirements, the purpose is reached.