A method and system is provided for responding, from internally within a patient, to an atrial arrhythmia in a heart including measuring from within the patient at least one electrocardiogram characteristic indicative of the atrial arrhythmia, and controlling from within the patient drug therapy delivery to the patient responsive to measuring the at least one electrocardiogram characteristic. Drug therapy is initiated to the patient responsive to measuring the at least one electrocardiogram characteristic. According to one aspect of the present invention, the drug therapy is staged within the patient prior to measuring the at least one electrocardiogram characteristic. According to another example embodiment, the heart is paced from within the patient at a predefined rate responsive to measuring the at least one electrocardiogram characteristic, pacing occurring alone, or in combination with drug therapy.

Cardiac signals are used to measure the health of a patient's heart muscle and are typically obtained from patients by physicians using electrocardiogram (ECG) tracings. FIG. 1 illustrates a portion of an ECG tracing of two complete cycles of the cardiac signal. Each cardiac signal comprises five major signal portions that are identified respectively as the P, Q, R, S and T waves. The P wave represents electrical depolarization of the atrium. The Q wave represents the initial stages of ventricle depolarization and the R wave represents the peak of the depolarization of a ventricular myocardium. The S wave represents the final stages of ventricular depolarization and the T wave represents ventricular repolarization. The QRS complex of the ventricle generally masks atrial repolarization. Under conditions of normal cardiac activity, the R wave represents the conducted sinus beat of the heart. The interval between each apex of consecutive R waves represents the heart period in units of time, with the heart rate being the reciprocal of the RR interval expressed as beats per minute.
FIG. 1 further illustrates a normal cardiac signal labeled with two Q–T intervals, Q–T1 and Q–T2. Each Q–T interval is usually measured from the beginning of the Q wave to the end of the T wave. Studies indicate that the duration of the Q–T interval may be an indicator of cardiac electrical abnormalities. A prolonged Q–T interval, under certain conditions, can indicate a risk of sudden cardiac arrest. Electrical heterogenerty is a substrate for ventricular arrhythmia. A prolonged Q–T interval can also indicate that a ventricular arrhythmia (i.e., an irregular heartbeat or rhythm) in the patient's heart may be imminent. Left untreated, sustained ventricular arrhythmia can detrimentally impact a patient's health.
Implanted medical devices exist today that are capable of detecting and treating arrhythmia of a patient. In one example, the implanted medical device includes a defibrillator that applies an electrical therapy to a patient's heart upon detecting an atrial fibrillation. Cardioverters or defibrillators discharge relatively high energy electrical shocks across cardiac tissue to arrest a life threatening atrial or ventricular fibrillation that is detected by the implanted medical device. Defibrillation shocks, while highly effective at arresting the fibrillation, may cause considerable patient discomfort.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method for terminating an arrhythmia that will not cause patient discomfort, the effectiveness of which can be easily verified by analyzing the patient's cardiac signal. An approach that addresses the aforementioned problems, as well as other related problems, is therefore desirable.

Method and system for terminating an atrial arrhythmia


Irradiated nuclear fuel is separated from the protective metal sheath in which it is enclosed by treating the sheath with an embrittling agent which effects embrittlement of the sheath, breaking up the sheath and separating the nuclear fuel material from the embrittled and broken-up sheath.

This invention relates to the recovery of nuclear fuel material from irradiated nuclear fuel elements in which the nuclear fuel is contained in a protective metal sheath and in particular it relates to the recovery of nuclear fuel material from nuclear fuel elements in which the protective metal sheath is manufactured from austenitic stainless steel or austenitic nickel alloy.
Prior to the processing of irradiated nuclear fuel to separate fission products from the nuclear fuel material it is preferable to separate the nuclear fuel material from its protective sheath. It is present practice to shear fuel elements into short lengths mechanically and to dissolve out the fuel material preferentially. However the maintenance of a mechanical shear in a situation where it is exposed to radioactive conditions is difficult and the shearing operation gives rise to dust which contaminates the immediate area around the shear and has to be controlled. After the nuclear fuel material has been dissolved the resulting solution is further processed to separate the fission products from the reusable nuclear fuel material (uranium and plutonium) which is recovered and may be used to manufacture further fuel elements for use in a nuclear reactor. The separation processes are well known in the art and include solvent extraction processes using tributyl phosphate as the extracting agent.


A method and system for real-time analytics of sensor-based data is disclosed. Also disclosed is a Cloud-based Paltform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering for sensor driven applications with services and features for their complete life-cycle management including prompt development, testing, deployment and so forth. The method of the present disclosure enables real-time tracking of various physical parameters and attributes related to smart-spaces using sensor devices implemented in the premises of the smart-space environment and using crowd-sourced user input data. Further, the parameters obtained are sent to the cloud-computing server, wherein the analytics are performed in real-time based on the obtained parameters.

Smart ubiquitous computing systems have been developed and deployed in order to observe, monitor and track the state of various physical infrastructures, state physical objects, environment, human beings and their activities and utilize these observations to provide applications and services that enrich the lives of people and help them in their day-to-day activities. The environments in which such smart ubiquitous systems are deployed are referred to as "smart spaces".
In general, smart spaces includes various categories of sensors adapted for sensing and observation of various parameters in the environment that may enable to perform analytics on them to alert the end-users about the consequence of changes in the state, if any. For example, sensors may be deployed to observe and track location of any physical object, observe weather conditions to monitor natural calamities, observe traffics on the road to enable traffic shaping and vehicle surveillance systems etc.
Observations as described above are made by sensors and increasingly more and more sensors will be embedded in physical objects and things in the smart spaces. These sensors have transducers that transform a real life event or phenomenon into an electrical signal or digital data. In addition the sensors have computation and networking capabilities. Increasingly many of these sensors will directly or indirectly be connected to the Internet. Many of the sensors will be deployed by organizations, companies or public sector entities such as city governments or utilities or government departments. Also, many of the sensors will actually be owned and operated by private individuals. In case of private individuals, sensors embedded in mobile phones used by individuals will be an important class of sensors.
A critical requirement for development of smart ubiquitous computing environments leading to development of "smart spaces" is the ability to collect data from a large set of diverse sensors, aggregate and store the sensor data, perform specialized analytics on the data and combine and correlate observations from multiple diverse and geographically dispersed sensors. There is a need for scalable computing platforms that are able to provide these capabilities to software developers, including third party software developers, who can use the sensor data and the derived analytics to create new novel applications. Also, such platforms may be made available as web services accessed over the Internet, In such cases, these platforms can be categorized under the class of cloud computing services referred to as Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS).
In the background art, several systems have been implemented that perform the task of analysis of data captured by different category of sensors or telecommunication devices having sensing capabilities which are deployed in any smart space environment. These systems incorporate sensor devices that sense the state of various physical entities in any smart-spaces environments that could be processed and analyzed further to monitor, administer and control the services catered through these smart-spaces remotely. Though, there has been efforts made in the past for real-time data capture and analysis thereof meant for remote smart-space monitoring, the need for a unified platform that integrates the suite of services capable of provisioning the development of real-time applications and management thereof from sensor data captured through any sensor device still exists in the art.
As of today, there are various PaaS available including Google App Engine, Heroku, and Microsoft Azure etc. However, these are limited to general purpose application development and therefore do not provide specific support for development, deployment and management of sensor-based applications. These platforms do not provide specialized services required in IOT/Cyber Physical Systems domain. In this domain, there is a need for specialized services to cater to applications that leverages web connected sensors and sensors available as part of smart mobile devices. Sensor discovery, description, interfacing, query and tasking are some of the key requirements. Additionally, the sensor driven applications need to be event driven and therefore require capabilities such as event processing or stream processing. Further, these domains may require support for various types of databases such as RDBMS, NOSQL and Object Stores, etc., for scalable storage of different types of sensor observations. Also, the diversified domains may require specialized analytics and data visualization for deriving inferences and value addition. None of the above disclosed PaaS platforms provide support for all these features in a single platform.
On the other hand, there are some sensor platforms available as cloud computing services such as Pachube (Cosm), Sun Microsystem Sensor Networks etc. However these platforms mainly focus on sensor data publishing, subscription and storage services with very elementary support for application development. Additionally, there is very little support in these platforms for location based processing, spatial and spatio-temporal processing. Additionally, these sensor platforms provide no support for crowd sourced applications to be developed and deployed on these platforms.
Further, there are some sensors and gateway device vendors in the market including companies such as Digi, Mobile Devices etc. who provide a cloud based web services for remote device monitoring, management and data acquisition. However, these services cater for sensors and devices from a particular vendor only and are therefore not suitable for multi-vendor generic sensor device management, data capture and observation processing. Additionally, these services have very limited support for sensor data storage and analytics and almost no support for application development and deployment.
Additionally, a behavior based machine-to-machine (M2M) platform is known in the art that facilitates communication with global sensor network to enable sensor device management and generate composite applications without direct programming. Another implementation facilitating sensor-device management in the art uses cross APIs for accessing the sensor data across different platforms in a real-time. Further, an activity management system particular to specific domain such as semiconductor manufacturing is known in the art that comprises the steps of data collection, data storage and activation of services enables for improving the operational efficiency of the semiconductor manufacturing plant. An architecture facilitating automatic generation of software code for development of sensor driven applications is disclosed in the art.
Further, a framework facilitating context-aware advertising is known in the art, wherein the framework delivers relevant contents/ads to the end-consumer in context with the consumers behavior/habits tracked through sensors deployed in a smart-space environment. Further, an application scope management platform is known that works on the aspects of crowd sensing adapted for web-application deployment and management thereof. An enterprise resource management analytics platform enables data integration from remote resources to facilitate remote surveillance, monitoring and real-time events of agencies, organizations and communities to ensure safety and security in their campuses. Further, a system implementing graph pattern query to simplify writing Stream Processing application by application developer is known. Further, systems facilitating efficient resource management in general for processing tasks in virtualized environment are known that utilizes sharing of resources for effective task management.
However, none of the existing systems, methods, platforms or frameworks provide a unified system that facilitates sensor driven distributed application development, testing, deployment, application life cycle management, analytics service, data storage service, sensor services and modeling and simulation for analytics. Also, existing systems lack comprehensive hosting of services such as sensor service, analytics service, identity & access control service, data storage service that are required for prompt and speed-up sensor application development. Further, none of the platforms disclosed in the art facilitates real-time development and deployment of sensor-based applications using a rich suite of services that enables sensor data reusability, data normalizing and data privacy. As most of the platforms lack generic capabilities of sensor data processing, this further leads to increase in costs and effort required for development and deployment of sensor based applications. Further, since the platforms are designed with specific to particular devices thereby bounded with security and privacy policies, there is a little scope of further application developments using third-party resources.
In the background art, there have been efforts made in the past for providing vehicle telemetry applications that enables intelligent transportation services to end-user subscribers. In general, these applications are either provided vertically by the vehicle manufacturers/OEMs etc. or made available to the driver's Smartphone. In both cases, the applications development is enabled by using sensor data from various vehicle on-board/off-board sensors such as GPS, accelerometer and the like. Further, there have been efforts made in the art for implementing cloud computing technologies in the vehicle for providing vehicle telemetry applications. Further, there are vehicle to vehicle ad-hoc networks (VANETs) available in the art facilitating the provision of vehicle telemetry applications in a specific transport domain. However, the need for a single unified platform facilitating an intelligent transportation system by way of providing intelligent transport services in the platform for develop, test and deploy various telemetry applications using these services still exists in the art.
Thus, in view of the above, there is a long-felt need in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Computer platform for development and deployment of sensor data based applications and services


A pump apparatus includes: a pump that ejects a hydraulic fluid; and a selector valve that switches a direction of a flow of the hydraulic fluid to be supplied to one of a first chamber and a second chamber of a cylinder apparatus, which is internally partitioned by a piston into the first chamber extending during an extending stroke of the cylinder apparatus, and the second chamber extending during a shortening stroke of the cylinder apparatus, and the selective valve has, at a channel connected to the second chamber, an orifice that is narrower than a channel connected to the first chamber.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pump apparatus and a hydraulic actuator.
2. Description of the Related Art
A hydraulic actuator used to, for example, change the inclination of an outboard motor with respect to a hull is provided with a selector valve in a channel between a pump and a cylinder apparatus internally partitioned into a lower chamber (first chamber) and an upper chamber (second chamber) by the piston; the selector valve directs a flow of a hydraulic fluid to the lower chamber or the upper chamber in a switchable manner. The selector valve includes an open valve located on a side of the selector valve which leads to the lower chamber and an open valve located on a side of the selector valve which leads to the upper chamber; the open valves are interlocked with each other. Each of the open valves is a combination of an actuation valve and a check valve which slide in a valve chamber.
The selector valve operates as follows. When a hydraulic fluid flows into a valve chamber for the open valve located on the side of the selector valve which leads to the lower chamber, the lower chamber-side check valve is opened under the pressure of the hydraulic fluid to cause the hydraulic fluid to flow to the lower chamber. In parallel with the operation of the check valve, the lower chamber-side actuation valve pressed by the inflow of the hydraulic fluid is displaced inside the valve chamber. The pressure of the displaced actuation valve displaces, via a communication path, the actuation valve in the open valve located on the side of the selector valve which leads to the upper chamber. Then, the displaced upper chamber-side actuation valve pushes and opens the upper chamber-side check valve to return the hydraulic fluid from the upper chamber to the pump. This operation extends the shortened cylinder apparatus to increase the inclination of the outboard motor.
On the other hand, when the hydraulic fluid flows into the valve chamber for the open valve located on a side of the selector valve which leads to the upper chamber, an operation opposite to the above-described operation is performed to feed the hydraulic fluid to the upper chamber, while returning the hydraulic fluid from the lower chamber to the pump. This operation shortens the extended cylinder apparatus to reduce the inclination of the outboard motor.
If the outboard motor has a weight larger than an expected value or air is mixed into a channel between the upper chamber in the cylinder apparatus and the check valve located on the side of the selector valve which leads to the upper chamber, when the tilted-up outboard motor is lowered, the outboard motor may move jerkily. This is because, as the cylinder apparatus shortens, the pressure in the above-described channel lowers excessively to prevent the upper chamber-side actuation valve from maintaining a displaced state, causing the check valve located on the side leading to the lower chamber to be repeatedly opened and closed.
Thus, to restrain this jerky motion, a narrowed orifice is provided in the channel (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H9-11987).
The above-described channel is formed in a manifold (housing) via which the pump and the cylinder apparatus are connected together, and thus, a machining operation needs to be performed on the manifold in order to form the narrowed orifice.
With the foregoing in view, it is an object of the present invention to provide a pump apparatus and a hydraulic actuator which allows jerky motion of the hydraulic actuator to be suppressed without the need to add a machining operation for providing a narrowed orifice.


A capture-tool for manipulation of tissue utilizes vacuum to hold the tissue in place. An extension attached to a vacuum source at one end and a vacuum arm at another end creates a vacuum force through the extension and vacuum arm. The vacuum arm has a support surface with ports therein at which low pressure areas are formed by the vacuum force. The low pressure areas draw tissue against the supporting surface to hold it in place, as long as the vacuum force is active.

Manipulation of tissue for surgical repair can be challenging. Nerve tissue is particularly susceptible to damage and care must be taken to handle only the thin outer epineurium to avoid trauma to the internal fascicles. Improper handling can result in poor functional outcomes, extended healing times, pain, neuromas, or other undesirable side-effects.
Standard surgical instruments often utilized for manipulation require grasping or pinching a nerve to place it in position for entubulation or other repairs.
It has been shown that with current procedures and instruments 13 of 15 connector-only nerve repairs performed by inexperienced surgeons are judged to be fair or poor. (Isaacs, J., Journal of Hand Surg Am. 2016 July; 41(7):760-6). While these numbers can be attributed somewhat to the skill of the surgeon, there is clearly a need for a surgical instrument that can capture and manipulate delicate nerve tissue that does not require pinching or other application of force to the tissue, which can contribute to the inferior quality of a repair.

Capture-tool for manipulating and entubulating nerves


A broadcast datastream is received, and audio identifying information is generated for audio content from the broadcast datastream. It is determined whether the audio identifying information generated for the broadcast audio content matches audio identifying information in an audio content database. In one preferred embodiment, the audio identifying information is an audio feature signature that is based on audio content. Also provided is a system for monitoring broadcast audio content.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the monitoring of audio content, and more specifically to systems and methods for automatically identifying audio content that is broadcast.
2. Description of Related Art
Copyrighted audio content such as music is broadcast to listeners over various mediums that include radio, television, cable television, satellite television, and Internet web sites. Each time a copyrighted song is broadcast, a performance royalty is due to the holders of the performance rights in the song (e.g., the songwriter and music publisher). Typically, each broadcaster (i.e., radio station, television network, television station, cable or satellite system, and web radio station) obtains a general license from a licensing organization such as ASCAP or BMI to broadcast a wide range of audio content. The performance royalties received for these licences is then divided between all performance rights holders (e.g., songwriters and publishers) that are members of the licensing organization based on the number of times each song is performed.
However, this assignment of royalties to individual rights holders is currently done through manual review and a very sparse sampling of broadcasts. Thus, performance royalties for less popular songs are most likely being underestimated. Further, the sparse sampling that is undertaken is at least partially based on the honor system, so the royalties received for even the most popular songs are dependent on the accuracy of the broadcasters. Thus, for copyright enforcement of performance rights, there is a need for a system and method for automatically identifying copyrighted audio content that is broadcast.
One difficulty in developing a practical system for automatically monitoring performance rights is providing a mechanism for automatically identifying audio content. One solution that has been proposed is to tag copyrighted music by using digital watermarking technology. Another solution is to identify the audio content itself. However, the identification of music even from a digital source, such as an MP3 file, is not a trivial problem. Different encoding schemes will yield a different bit stream for the same song. Even if the same encoding scheme is used to encode the same song (i.e., sound recording) and create two digital audio files, the files will not necessarily match at the bit level.
Various effects can lead to differentiation of the bit stream even though the resulting sound differences as judged by human perception are negligible. These effects include: subtle differences in the overall frequency response of the recording system, digital to analog conversion effects, acoustic environmental effects such as reverb, and slight differences in the recording start time. Further, the bit stream that results from a recording will vary depending on the type of audio source. For example, the bitstream for a song created by encoding the output of one stereo receiver will generally not match the bitstream for the same song created by encoding the output of another stereo receiver.
In addition, there are forms of noise and distortion that are quite audible to humans, but that do not impede our ability to recognize music. FM broadcasts and audio cassettes both have a lower bandwidth than CD recordings, but are still copied and enjoyed by some listeners. Likewise, many of the MP3 files on the Internet are of relatively low quality, but still proliferate and thus pose a threat to the profitability of the music industry. Furthermore, some intentional evasions of copyright protections schemes involve the intentional alteration or distortion of the music. These distortions include time-stretching and time-compressing. In such cases, not only may the start and stop times be different, but the song durations may be different as well. All such differences may be barely noticeable to humans, but can foil many conventional copyright protection schemes.
There is a need for systems and methods for automatically enforcing copyright holder rights for audio content such as sound recordings that is broadcast over a medium such as radio, television, or the Internet, such as by automatically and effectively identifying copyrighted audio content that is actually broadcast.

System for monitoring broadcast audio content

International Business Machines Corporation


The present disclosure relates to a method of dressing a tool which can be used for the gear manufacturing machining of a workpiece on a dressing machine, wherein the dressing takes place with line contact between the dresser and the tool; wherein a specific modification of the surface geometry of the tool is produced in that the position of the dresser with respect to the tool during dressing is varied in dependence on the tool width position.

Such a method is known from DE102012015846A1 in which a modification of the surface geometry is produced by additional movements when dressing on the tool, said modification having a constant value in the generating pattern at least locally in a first direction on the tooth flank and being given by a function f(x) in a second direction which extends perpendicular to the first direction. A method is known from EP1995010A1 and WO 2010/060596A1 of dressing a worm in a crowning manner over its width during dressing by changing the center distance. A method is known from DE19624842A1 and DE 19706867A1 in which a worm whose profile angle changes over its width is produced by a constant change of the position of the dresser with respect to the tool during dressing. Methods are likewise known from DE 102005030846A1 and DE 102006061759A1 in which a worm is manufactured by corresponding dressing kinematics either over its total width with a constantly modified profile angle or the profile angle is modified over the worm width. A two-flank dressing for twist-free generating grinding is known from Kapp, Effizient and produktiv mit technologischer Flexibilitat, JOSE LOPEZ [Kapp, Efficient and Productive with Technological Flexibility, JOSE LOPEZ].
However, in the methods in accordance with the prior art, the available possibilities for producing specific modifications of the surface geometry of the tool have not yet been fully exploited.
It is therefore the object of the present disclosure to further develop a method for the modified dressing of a tool such that additional possibilities result with respect to the configuration of the achievable modifications.
This object is satisfied in accordance with the disclosure by the methods in accordance with the independent claims of the present application. Advantageous embodiments of the disclosure form the subject of the dependent claims.
The present disclosure shows in a first aspect a method of dressing a tool, which can be used for the gear manufacturing machining of a workpiece, on a dressing machine, wherein the dressing takes place with line contact between the dresser and the tool. In this respect, a specific modification of the surface geometry of the tool is produced in that the position of the dresser to the tool during the dressing is varied in dependence on the tool width position. In accordance with the disclosure, the method in accordance with the first aspect comprises a plurality of variants which will be shown in more detail in the following:
In accordance with a first variant, the specific modification of the surface geometry of the tool produced by the change of the position of the dresser with respect to the tool when dressing in dependence on the tool width position is specifiable at a rolling angle as a function C0FS of the position in the tool width direction and at least the pitch of the surface geometry of the tool in a first direction of the tool which has an angle ρFS to the tool width direction is specifiable as a function of the position in the tool width direction. The function C0FS with which the modification is specifiable at a rolling angle and the pitch are optionally specifiable independently of one another.
In accordance with a second variant, the specific modification of the surface geometry of the tool produced by the change of the position of the dresser with respect to the tool when dressing in dependence on the tool width position can be specifiable as a function of the tool width position at at least two rolling angles. The modification is advantageously specifiable at both rolling angles independently of one another.
In accordance with the first and second variants, a specification of the pitch of the modification or a specification at a second rolling angle is thus possible in addition to the specification of the modification at at least one rolling angle in the tool width direction. The modifications which can be produced in accordance with the disclosure are hereby substantially expanded.
In accordance with a third variant, the specific modification of the surface geometry of the tool produced by the change in the position of the dresser with respect to the tool during dressing in dependence on the tool width position can be specifiable at at least one rolling angle as a function of the tool width position and additionally an association of a specific radius of the dresser with a specific radius of the tool can take place. The association is optionally likewise specifiable as a function of the tool width position. The association can furthermore be specifiable independently of the specification at at least one rolling angle.
The association of a specific radius of the dresser with a specific radius of the tool can have technical production advantages, on the one hand in that an undercutting of the worm thread is prevented, for example. Alternatively or additionally, such an association can in particular be used with a modified dresser to define the position in which the modification of the dresser is mapped on the tool. It the association takes place as a function of the tool width position, the position in which the modification of the dresser is mapped onto the tool can be varied in the tool width direction.
In accordance with a fourth variant, at least the pitch of the specific modification of the surface geometry of the tool in a first direction of the tool which has an angle C0FS to the tool width direction is specifiable as a function of the position in the tool width direction and an association of a specific radius of the dresser with a specific radius of the tool can additionally take place. The association optionally takes place as a function of the tool width position and/or independently of the specification of the pitch. The association of the radius in accordance with the fourth aspect has the same advantages which were already described with respect to the third aspect.
In accordance with a fifth variant, the crowning of the specific modification of the surface geometry of the tool in a first direction of the tool which has an angle ρFS to the tool width direction is specifiable as a function of the position in the tool width direction. Unlike in accordance with the prior art, not only the pitch of the modification is thus specifiable, but alternatively or additionally its crowning.
In accordance with a sixth variant, a specific modification of the surface geometry of the tool is specifiable or can be produced which can be described at least approximately in the generating pattern at least locally in a first direction of the tool by a linear and/or quadratic function, with the coefficients of these linear and/or quadratic function being formed in a second direction of the tool which is perpendicular to the first direction by coefficient functions FFtC,1 for the constant portion and FFtL,1 for the linear portion and/or FFtQ,1 for the quadratic portion, with FFtC,1 depending non-linearly on the position in the second direction and FFtL,1 not being constant. Provision can optionally be made that the coefficient function FFtC,1 quadratically depends on the position in the second direction and/or that the coefficient function FFtL,1 linearly depends on the position in the second direction.
In accordance with a seventh variant, a specific modification of the surface geometry of the tool can be specifiable or can be produced whose pitch and/or crowning varies in dependence on the angle of rotation of the tool and/or on the tool width position, with additionally the tooth thickness varying non-linearly in dependence on the angle of rotation of the tool and/or on the tool width position. Provision can optionally be made that the modification of the tool has a pitch which varies linearly in dependence on the angle of rotation of the tool and/or on the tool width and the tooth thickness varies quadratically in dependence on the angle of rotation of the tool and/or on the tool width position.
In accordance with an eighth variant, at least two degrees of freedom of the relative position of the dresser with respect to the tool can be specifiable and/or can be controlled independently of one another as a function of the tool width position when dressing in line contact. A control in accordance with the sixth variant is optionally used to produce a geometry or association which is specified in accordance with one of the first five variants. Further optionally, at least three degrees of freedom, further optionally at least four and at least five degrees of freedom of the relative position of the dresser with respect to the tool during dressing in line contact are specified and/or controlled independently of one another as a function of the tool width position.
In accordance with the disclosure, one or more of the above-named variants can also be combined with one another. Alternatively, a plurality of or all of these variants can be available and can be selected by a user in dependence on the machining job.
Embodiments of all variants of the present disclosure will be shown in more detail in the following:
In accordance with the disclosure, the specific modification of the surface geometry of the tool produced by the change of the position of the dresser with respect to the tool when dressing in dependence on the tool with position can be described at least approximately in the generating pattern in a first direction as a linear, quadratic or cubic function whose coefficients in the tool width direction are given by functions C0FS, C1FS, C2FS and/or C3FS and/or by coefficient functions FFtC,1 for the constant portion, FFtL,1 for the linear portion and/or FFtQ,1 for the quadratic portion.
FFtC,1 is optionally non-constant and further optionally depends non-linearly on the position in the second direction. FFtL,1 is furthermore optionally non-constant and further optionally depends linearly or non-linearly on the position in the second direction. FFtQ,1 can be equal to zero or can be constant in a first embodiment of the disclosure. In a second embodiment, FFtQ,1 can be non-constant and can optionally linearly or non-linearly depend on the position in the second direction.
The modification of the tool in the generating pattern can optionally be described not only locally, but also at least in a part region of the gearing and optionally also over the total gearing at least approximately globally by the constant, linear, quadratic and/or cubic function optionally specified in more detail above.
If it is stated in the present application that a modification can be described at least approximately by a specific function, this optionally means that the specific function describes the modification within the framework of a specified permitted tolerance and/or that the difference between the specific function and the modification lies within a specified permitted tolerance range. The method in accordance with the disclosure can include the step of specifying a permitted tolerance and/or a permitted tolerance range. The gear manufacturing machine in accordance with the disclosure or the computer system or computer program can furthermore comprise a function for specifying a permitted tolerance and/or a permitted tolerance range.
The specific modification of the surface geometry of the tool produced by the change of the position of the dresser with respect to the tool when dressing in dependence on the tool width position can furthermore be specifiable at at least three or four rolling angles as a function of the tool width position.
Alternatively or additionally, an association of a specific radius of the dresser with a specific radius of the tool can take place, with the association optionally being specifiable as a function of the tool width position.
An association of two specific radii of the dresser with two specific radii of the tool can furthermore take place. The association is optionally specifiable as a function of the position in the tool width direction.
Provision can furthermore be made that at least one of the rolling angles and further optionally two or three rolling angles at which the modification is specifiable is/are selected differently in the tool width direction. The rolling angle or angles can in particular also be specifiable as a function in the tool width position.
The dressing method in accordance with the disclosure can take place both on one flank and on two flanks.
The dressing method in accordance with the disclosure can in particular take place on one flank and the at least two or three rolling angles which are specified can be arranged on one flank.
Alternatively, the dressing can take place on two flanks and the at least two or three rolling angles at which the modification is specified can be distributed over the two flanks. During the two-flank dressing, the modifications for every single flank are naturally more limited than is the case with single-flank dressing.
In a possible further development of the present disclosure, however, dressing can take place at two flanks and a tool having a conical basic shape can be used. An expansion of the possible modifications results from the conical base shape. In particular, the conical angle of the tool can be used for setting the modification.
In accordance with a second aspect, the present disclosure comprises a method for the modified dressing of a tool which can be used for the gear manufacturing machining of a workpiece on a dressing machine, with a modified dresser being used for dressing the tool. Provision is made in accordance with the disclosure that the position in which the modification of the dresser is applied to the tool during dressing is specifiable in dependence on the tool width position or is changed by controlling the axes of movement of the dressing machine during dressing. In accordance with the disclosure, the position in which the modification produced by the dresser is mapped onto the tool can be varied in the tool width direction.
The method in accordance with the disclosure in accordance with the second aspect is optionally combined with a method in accordance with the disclosure in accordance with the first aspect, and in particular with one of the variants shown there.
In accordance with a third aspect of the present disclosure, it comprises a method for the modified dressing of a tool which can be used for the gear manufacturing machining of a workpiece on a dressing machine, with the dressing taking place in at least one first stroke and one second stroke with line contact in each case. Provision is made in accordance with the disclosure that the position at which the modification produced in a first stroke adjoins the modification produced with a second stroke is changed in dependence on the tool width position. The possibilities which are provided by the multi-stroke dressing are thus substantially expanded in accordance with the disclosure. More than two strokes can also be used in accordance with the disclosure. The position at which the modifications produced by the respective strokes adjoin the respective adjacent modifications is changed in dependence on the tool width position.
Provision is optionally made that the axes of movement of the dressing machine are set differently during dressing in at least one first stroke and one second stroke in addition to the changes required for the different positioning between the dresser and the tool in the two strokes in order to influence the pitch and/or crowning of the modification in at least one of the strokes. In addition to the different positioning of the strokes, the modification produced by at least one of the strokes can thus also be set by a corresponding setting of the movement axes. The pitch or the crowning are optionally specifiable as a function of the tool width position and/or are varied as a function of the tool width position.
Provision can furthermore be made that the specific modification is set in at least one of the strokes such that the surface geometry produced by the first stroke adjoins the surface geometry produced by the second stroke at a desired angle and in particular tangentially. If more than two strokes are used, the modifications are optionally set such that the surface geometry produced by the respective stroke adjoins the adjacent regions which are produced by different strokes at a desired angle and in particular tangentially.
Provision can furthermore be made that a desired modification of the tool is specified at at least two rolling angles and optionally at three rolling angles for at least one stroke and optionally for every stroke. The modification is optionally specified as a function of the tool width position.
An association of a specific radius of the dresser with a specific radius of the tool can furthermore take place for at least one stroke and optionally for every stroke. The association is optionally specifiable as a function of the tool width position.
In accordance with the disclosure, different regions of the dresser can be used for the first and second strokes or different dressers can be used for the first and second strokes. Provision can be made that one of the strokes is used for producing a modification of the tooth root or of the tooth tip, for example for producing a relief of the tooth tip or of the tooth root. A further stroke can be used for producing the tooth flank.
Embodiments of the present disclosure which can be used in each of the above-named aspects and in each of the named variants will be explained in more detail in the following:
In accordance with the disclosure, a modification produced by a modification of the dresser is superposed with a specific modification of the surface geometry of the tool produced by the change of the position of the dresser to the tool during dressing. This makes it possible, for example for the case that the modification produced by the dresser does not correspond to the desired modification, to superpose a further modification on it to achieve the desired modification at least within the permitted tolerance.
The position of the modification on the tool produced by a modification of the dresser can optionally be specifiable, in particular as a function of the position in the tool width direction. The specification of the position can take place by an association of a specific radius of the dresser with a specific radius of the tool.
A desired stretching or compression of the modification of the dresser on the tool can further optionally be specifiable. The inventor of the present disclosure has recognized that a modification produced by a modified dresser can be compressed or stretched by a change of the relative position between the dresser and the tool during dressing. This can be used, on the one hand, for producing a desired stretching or compression of the modification. Alternatively, this compression and/or stretching can be taken into account, for example, within the framework of curve fitting. The compression or stretching is optionally specifiable as a function of the position in the tool width direction, in particular by an association of two specific radii of the dresser with two specific radii of the tool.
In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the modified dresser can have an unchanging modification, for example an unchanging crowning, for its complete, active profile.
Alternatively, the modified dresser can have a modification in a first part region of its profile which differs from the profile shape in a second part region. The modification of the dresser in the first part region advantageously has a different profile angle and/or a different crowning than in the second part region. The modification can furthermore have an edge. The first and second part regions, for example, can be connected to one another via an edge.
If the dresser has at least two part regions having different modifications, its first and second regions are optionally simultaneously in contact with the tool surface during dressing so that the two part regions are simultaneously used for dressing. Alternatively, the two part regions can, however, also be used for dressing in different strokes.
Furthermore, in accordance with the disclosure, a combination dresser can be used for a simultaneous dressing of the tooth tip and of the tooth flank. In this respect, the height of the tooth tip can be specified and can be produced by setting the axes of movement of the dressing machine during dressing. The height of the tooth tip is optionally specified as a function of the tool width position. The corresponding production of the tooth tip with variable height can be produced by an association in accordance with the disclosure of a specific radius, in particular the radius of the tooth tip, on the dresser with a specific radius of the tool.
The dressing machine can furthermore be configured such that a plurality of different settings of the axes of movement of the dressing machine are present which produce the same relative position between the dresser and the tool. This can in particular be the case when more axes of movement are present for setting the relative position between the dresser and the tool than degrees of freedom are available. In this case, a setting is optionally selected from such a plurality of settings of the axes of movement which better satisfies specified conditions.
A setting can in particular be chosen which provides the desired relative position with a higher accuracy and/or with smaller positional errors. It can in particular be taken into account that the physical axles of movement can move to a position with higher or lower accuracy depending on their specific position.
A setting can furthermore be chosen which requires smaller travel movements of the machine axles. It is in particular possible to proceed in this way if the modification is varied in the width direction, for which purpose the machine axles of the dressing machine have to be moved during the dressing process. The smaller travel movements achievable in accordance with the disclosure then make lower demands on the kinematics of the dressing machine.
A setting can furthermore be chosen which avoids mutual collisions of the dresser, the tool and/or of machine parts. It is taken into account that, in accordance with the present disclosure, relatively large travel movement may be required to provide the desired modifications. It can therefore only be checked in accordance with the disclosure whether mutual collisions of the dresser, of the tool and/or of machine parts are present and they can be avoided either by a corresponding selection of the settings and/or by limiting the modification.
The gear geometry produced on the workpiece by the tool or the ear geometry produced by the dressing can furthermore be measured and the deviations of the axes of movement of the dressing machine from its desired settings present during dressing are determined from a deviation from a desired geometry. These data are optionally then used to compensate the deviation of the axes of movement of the dressing machine from its desired settings.
In a possible embodiment, at least three degrees of freedom, and optionally four or five degrees of freedom can be used during the relative positioning between the dresser and the tool for producing the desired modification. The degrees of freedom are optionally changed and/or controlled independently of one another for producing the desired modification.
It can furthermore be a case in accordance with the disclosure of at least three, four or all of the following five degrees of freedom: Angle of rotation of the tool; axial position of the tool; y position of the dresser; center distance; and/or axial cross angle. These degrees of freedom are purely geometrical definitions of the relative position between the dresser and the tool. Different physical axles of the dressing machine can be used to set and/or to change these geometrical degrees of freedom.
The axial position of the tool, i.e. the tool width position, can furthermore be used in accordance with the disclosure to displace the contact line of the dresser and two, three or four degrees of freedom of the remaining four degrees of freedom can be used independently of one another as a function of the axial position of the tool, i.e. of the tool width position, for influencing the modification along the contact line.
The modifications which can be produced in accordance with the disclosure can be used in a plurality of application cases:
An error in the surface geometry of a dresser can, for example, be corrected at least partly by specifying corresponding correction values in the setting of the axes of movement of the dressing machine. The dresser therefore does not have to be separately post-machined. The error can rather be compensated by the dressing method in accordance with the disclosure.
The dresser which has been designed for a tool having a first macrogeometry and/or a first desired surface geometry can furthermore be used for dressing a tool having a second macrogeometry and/or a second desired surface geometry. The errors resulting in the machining of the second tool due to the configuration to the tool with the first macrogeometry and/or with the first desired surface geometry can be compensated at least partly by a corresponding setting of the axes of movement of the dressing machine during the dressing of the second tool.
The setting of the axes of movement of the dressing machine during dressing and/or the macrogeometry or modification of the dresser and/or the macrogeometry of the tool can furthermore be determined in accordance with the disclosure by means of curve fitting. The modifications achievable by the change of the setting of the axes of movement of the dressing machine can in particular be varied in the generating pattern in a direction having an angle ρFS to the tool width direction at two, three or four rolling angles and can optionally be interpolated between these rolling angles and such a function can be compared with a desired modification. The modification can be interpolated as a linear, quadratic and/or cubic function.
In accordance with the disclosure, a distance function can be used within the framework of the curve fitting for quantifying the deviation. In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the distance function can have a weighting dependent on the position in the generating pattern. It can hereby be taken into account that the permitted tolerances can be of different sizes in different regions of the generating pattern.
In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, a tool can be used with which at least one thread is inactive and/or omitted. It can hereby be taken into account in accordance with the disclosure that the changes in the position of the dresser with respect to the tool in accordance with the present disclosure may have to be relatively large in part in order to generate the desired modifications. It can occur in this case that the dresser at least partly engages into the contour of the oppositely disposed flank when dressing a first flank. If at least one thread is inactive and/or omitted, there is hereby more room for the dresser during dressing.
In accordance with the disclosure, a tooth flank can be dressed for this purpose such that it does not come into contact with the workpiece on the machining of the workpiece and is therefore inactive. It is hereby of no significance if this thread accidentally moves into contact with the dresser when dressing the oppositely disposed flank and is therefore given an unwanted contour. In this respect, at least one thread is optionally dressed such that it does not come into contact with the workpiece on the machining of the workpiece and is therefore inactive.
In an embodiment, at least one inactive and/or omitted thread is provided between two active threads. There is hereby respectively more space for the dresser for the dressing machining of the flanks of the active threads since at least one inactive and/or omitted thread is provided between the two active threads.
On the machining of a workpiece using such a tool in a generating coupling, a maximum of every second tooth of the workpiece comes into engagement with the tool after one another in a possible embodiment of the present disclosure. This is due to the fact that at least one inactive and/or omitted thread is optionally provided between two active threads so that the tooth of the workpiece associated with this inactive or omitted thread remains omitted during the machining.
In accordance with the disclosure, a first portion of the teeth of the workpiece can be machined in dependence on the number of teeth of the workpiece and/or on the number of starts of the workpiece in at least one first pass, whereupon the workpiece is rotated relative to the tool to machine at least one second portion of the teeth in at least one second pass. It is hereby ensured that all the teeth of the workpiece are also actually machined. In this respect, more than two passes can optionally also be used to machine the teeth of the workpiece.
In addition to the method in accordance with the disclosure for dressing a tool, the present disclosure furthermore comprises a method for producing a workpiece with a modified gearing geometry by a generation method by means of a modified tool, wherein a specific modification of the surface geometry of the tool is produced by a dressing method in accordance with the disclosure and the specific modification of the tool by the generation method produces a corresponding modification on the surface of the workpiece. A diagonal generating method can in particular be used for machining the workpiece. It is possible by such a diagonal generating method to map a topological modification of the surface geometry of the tool on the workpiece.
A modification of the surface geometry of the tool varying in the width direction in accordance with the dressing method in accordance with the disclosure can in particular be used to produce a corresponding variation of the modification of the workpiece in the workpiece width direction by a diagonal generating method. The diagonal generating method maps the modification of the tool on the surface of the workpiece. The present disclosure can, however, also be used for producing a simple profile modification of the workpiece.
In accordance with the disclosure, a desired modification of the surface geometry of a workpiece to be machined using the tool can be specified and the specific modification of the surface geometry of the tool required for its manufacture can be determined from it. In this respect the specifications of the surface geometry of the tool possible in accordance with the disclosure which were described above with respect to the dressing of the tool are optionally replaceable with corresponding specifications of the surface geometry of the workpiece or are specified by them.
In addition to the method in accordance with the disclosure, the present disclosure furthermore comprises an apparatus and/or a software program in accordance with a first aspect for calculating the relative position between the dresser and the tool required for producing a desired modification of a tool on dressing in line contact with a specified dresser or for calculating the settings of the axes of movement of a dressing machine required for their provision. The present disclosure claims protection both for the apparatus and for the software program per se and independently of one another. In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the software program can also be worked through on the apparatus in accordance with the disclosure. The software program can be stored on a data carrier or in a memory, for example. The apparatus can in particular be a computer and/or a machine control. A software program in accordance with the disclosure can optionally run thereon.
The apparatus in accordance with the disclosure and/or the software program in accordance with the disclosure in accordance with the first aspect comprises an input function by which the desired modification of the tool can be specified and comprises a calculation function which determines from the desired modification of the tool the relative position between the dresser and the tool required for producing said modification during dressing with line contact between the dresser and the tool or determines the settings of the axes of movement of the dressing machine required for providing said modification as a function of the tool width position.
The apparatus or the software program in accordance with the first aspect comprises different variants which will be shown in more detail in the following:
In a first variant, the input function and the calculation function can be configured such that the specific modification of the surface geometry of the tool is specifiable at a rolling angle as a function C0FS of the position in the tool width direction and at least the pitch and/or crowning of the surface geometry of the tool in a first direction of the tool which has an angle ρFS to the tool width direction is specifiable as a function of the position in the tool width direction. The calculation function is configured such that the modification can be produced by the calculated progression of the relative position or by the calculated progression of the setting of the axes of movement of the dressing machine.
In a second variant, the input function and the calculation function can be configured such that the specific modification of the surface geometry of the tool at at least two rolling angles is specifiable as a function of the tool width position. The calculation function is configured such that the modification can be produced by the calculated progression of the relative position or of the setting of the axes of movement of the dressing machine.
In a third variant, the input function and the calculation function can be configured such that the specific modification of the surface geometry of the tool at at least one rolling angle is specifiable as a function of the tool width position and in addition an association of a specific radius of the dresser with a specific radius of the tool takes place. The calculation function is configured such that the modification can be produced by the calculated progression of the relative position or of the setting of the axes of movement of the dressing machine. The association is optionally specifiable as a function of the tool width position.
In accordance with a fourth variant, the input function and the calculation function can be configured such that the specific modification of the surface geometry of the tool is specifiable or is produced which can be described at least approximately in the generating pattern at least locally in a first direction of the tool by a linear and/or quadratic function, with the coefficients of these linear and/or quadratic function being formed in a second direction of the tool which is perpendicular to the first direction by coefficient functions FFtC,1 for the constant portion and FFtL,1 for the linear portion and/or FFtQ,1 for the quadratic portion, with FFtC,1 depending in a non-linear manner on the position in the second direction and with FFtL,1 being non-constant. Provision can optionally be made that the coefficient function FFtC,1 quadratically depends on the position in the second direction and/or that the coefficient function FFtL,1 linearly depends on the position in the second direction.
In accordance with a fifth variant, the input function and the calculation function can be configured such that the specific modification of the surface geometry of the tool is specifiable or is produced whose pitch and/or crowning varies in dependence on the angle of rotation of the tool and/or the tool width position, with the tooth thickness additionally varying non-linearly in dependence on the angle of rotation of the tool and/or on the tool width position. Provision can optionally be made that the modification of the tool has a pitch which varies linearly in dependence on the angle of rotation of the tool and/or on the tool width and the tooth thickness varies quadratically in dependence on the angle of rotation of the tool and/or on the tool width position.
The input function and the calculation function are optionally configured such that a plurality of the just-named variants are implemented. The user can therefore optionally select from a plurality of these variants provided by the input function and the calculation function. The input function and the calculation function optionally provide at least two, further optionally at least three, of the above-named variants.
The input function in accordance with the disclosure and the calculation function are optionally each configured such that they can be used for carrying out a method in accordance with the disclosure such as was described above, in particular for carrying out a method in accordance with the first above-described aspect. The specification or the calculation in particular takes place such as already shown above in more detail with respect to the method in accordance with the disclosure.
The input function can, for example, be configured such that a desired modification of the surface geometry of the workpiece which is to be machined using the tool is specifiable, wherein the input function generates the above-named data for the specific modification of the surface geometry of the tool from this.
The present disclosure furthermore comprises an apparatus and/or a software program in accordance with a second, independent aspect for calculating the relative position between the dresser and the tool required for producing a desired modification of a tool on dressing in line contact with a specified dresser or for calculating the setting of the axes of movement of a dressing machine required for their provision. The present disclosure claims protection both for the apparatus and for the software program per se independently of one another. In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the software program can be worked through on the apparatus in accordance with the disclosure. The software program can be stored on a data carrier or in a memory, for example. The apparatus can in particular be a computer and/or a machine control. A software program in accordance with the disclosure can optionally run thereon.
The apparatus or the software program in accordance with the second aspect comprises an input function by which a specified modification of the dresser can be input and a desired position of the modification of the dresser on the tool is specifiable. The specification of the desired position of the modification of the dresser on the tool is optionally possible by associating a specific radius of the dresser with a specific radius of the tool. The apparatus or the software program furthermore comprises a calculation function which determines from the specified modification of the dresser and from the desired position of the modification of the dresser on the tool, the relative position between the dresser and the tool required for the production of said specified modification during dressing with line contact between the dresser and the tool or the settings of the axes of movement required for providing said specified modification.
The input function and the calculation function are optionally configured such that they can be used for carrying out a method in accordance with the present disclosure such as was described in more detail above. The input function and the calculation function can in particular be configured such that they can be used for carrying out the method in accordance with the disclosure in accordance with the second aspect.
The input function and the calculation function are optionally configured such that the position of the modification on the tool is specifiable via the input function in dependence on the tool width position and the calculation function determines the required relative position between the dresser and the tool or the settings of the axes of movement required for providing said relative position as a function of the tool width position.
The present disclosure furthermore comprises an apparatus and/or a software program in accordance with a third, independent aspect for calculating the relative position between the dresser and the tool required for producing a desired modification of a tool during multi-stroke dressing in line contact with a dresser or for calculating the setting of the axes of movement of a dressing machine required for their provision. The apparatus or the software program in accordance with the third aspect comprises a multi-stroke calculation function which determines the settings of the axes of movement required for multi-stroke dressing with line contact between the dresser and the tool.
In a first variant, an input function is provided by which the position at which the modification produced in a first stroke adjoins the modification produced using a second stroke is specifiable as a function of the tool width position.
In a second variant, an input function and a determination function are provided, wherein a desired modification of the tool is specifiable by the input function and the determination function determines the strokes required for producing said desired modification, with the determination function varying or determining the position at which the modification produced in a first stroke adjoins the modification produced using a second stroke as a function of the tool width position.
Provision is made in the first and second variants that the multi-hub calculation function determines from the position at which the modification produced in a first stroke adjoins the modification produced using a second stroke, the settings of the axes of movement required for producing said modification during dressing with line contact between the dresser and the tool.
The input function, the calculation function and the control function are optionally configured such that they can be used for carrying out one of the above-described methods in accordance with the disclosure. They are in particular configured for carrying out a method in accordance with the third aspect.
The present disclosure provides protection for the apparatus and/or software programs in accordance with the first, second and third aspects independently of each other in each case. The present disclosure furthermore also provides protection for a combination of the apparatus and/or software programs in accordance with the first, second and/or third aspects. An apparatus in accordance with the disclosure and/or a software program in accordance with the disclosure can in particular comprise the functions which were described in accordance with the first aspect and/or the functions which were described in accordance with the second aspect and/or the functions which were described in accordance with the third aspect. The user optionally has the choice of which of the functions should be used.
The present disclosure furthermore comprises a dressing machine in accordance with a first, independent aspect comprising a tool holder for holding the tool to be dressed and a dresser holder for holding the dresser used for this purpose. The dresser holder has an axis of rotation by which the dresser can be set into rotation. The dressing machine furthermore has an axis of movement by which the tool width position of a tool held in the tool holder is settable relative to a dresser held in the dresser holder. The present disclosure comprises a plurality of variants of a dressing machine in accordance with the first aspect which will be looked at in more detail in the following:
In accordance with a first variant, the dressing machine comprises further axes of movement by which at least a further two degrees of freedom, and optionally three or four degrees of freedom, of the relative position between the tool and the dresser can be set independently of one another, wherein the dressing machine has a control by which the setting of the further two degrees of freedom, and optionally three or four degrees of freedom, can be specified and/or controlled in line contact with the dresser independently of one another as a function of the tool width position.
In accordance with a second variant, the dressing machine comprises a control having an input function by which the desired modification of the tool is specifiable as a function of the tool width position, with the control having a calculation function which determines from the desired modification the settings of the axes of movement required for the production of said desired modification as a function of the tool width position during dressing with line contact between the dresser and the tool, and with the control furthermore having a control function which performs the corresponding setting of the axes of movement as a function of the tool width position during dressing with line contact between the dresser and the tool.
In accordance with a first sub-variant of the second variant, the input function, the calculation function and the control function are configured such that they can be used for carrying out one of the methods in accordance with the disclosure such as was described above. The input function, the calculation function and the control function can in particular be used for carrying out a method in accordance with the first aspect of the present disclosure.
In a second sub-variant of the second variant, the input function, the calculation function and the control function are configured such that the specific modification of the surface geometry of the tool is specifiable at a rolling angle as a function C0FS of the position in the tool width direction and such that at least the pitch and/or crowning of the surface geometry of the tool is specifiable in a first direction of the tool which has an angle ρFS to the tool width direction as a function of the position in the tool width direction, with the modification being able to be produced by the setting of the axes of movement of the dressing machine carried out by the control function.
In a third sub-variant of the second variant, the input function, the calculation function and the control function are configured such that the specific modification of the surface geometry of the tool at at least two rolling angles is specifiable as a function of the tool width position, with the modification being able to be produced by the setting of the axes of movement of the dressing machine carried out by the control function.
In a fourth sub-variant of the second variant, the input function, the calculation function and the control function can be configured such that the specific modification of the surface geometry of the tool at at least one rolling angle is specifiable as a function of the tool width position and an association of a specific radius of the dresser with a specific radius of the tool additionally takes place, with the modification being able to be produced by the setting of the axes of movement of the dressing machine carried out by the control function. The association is optionally specifiable as a function of the tool width position.
In accordance with a fifth sub-variant of the second variant, the input function, the calculation function and the control function can be configured such that the specific modification of the surface geometry of the tool is specifiable or is produced which can be described at least approximately in the generating pattern at least locally in a first direction of the tool by a linear and/or quadratic function, with the coefficients of these linear and/or quadratic function being formed in a second direction of the tool which is perpendicular to the first direction by coefficient functions FFtC,1 for the constant portion and FFtL,1 for the linear portion and/or FFtQ,1 for the quadratic portion, with FFtC,1 depending in a non-linear manner on the position in the second direction and with FFtL,1 being non-constant. Provision can optionally be made that the coefficient function FFtC,1 quadratically depends on the position in the second direction and/or that the coefficient function FFtL,1 linearly depends on the position in the second direction.
In accordance with a sixth sub-variant of the second variant, the input function, the calculation function and the control function can be configured such that the specific modification of the surface geometry of the tool is specifiable or is produced whose pitch and/or crowning varies in dependence on the angle of rotation of the tool and/or the tool width position, with the tooth thickness additionally varying non-linearly in dependence on the angle of rotation of the tool and/or on the tool width position. Provision can optionally be made that the modification of the tool has a pitch which varies linearly in dependence on the angle of rotation of the tool and/or on the tool width position and the tooth thickness varies quadratically in dependence on the angle of rotation of the tool and/or on the tool width position.
The input function, the calculation function and the control function of the dressing machine are optionally configured such that they provide or carry out one or more variants of the method described in more detail above in accordance with the first aspect.
The dressing machine in accordance with the first aspect optionally comprises a control which provides a plurality of and optionally all of the above-named sub-variants. The sub-variants can in particular be available to the user as separate functions.
The present disclosure comprises in a second, independent aspect, a dressing machine having a tool holder for holding the tool to be dressed and having a dresser holder for holding the dresser used for this purpose, wherein the dresser holder has an axis of rotation and wherein the dressing machine has further axes of movement by which further degrees of freedom can be set when dressing the tool in line contact with the dresser as well as having a control. The control can in particular control the axes of movement of the dressing machine.
The control of the dressing machine in accordance with the second aspect comprises an input function by which a specified modification of the dresser can be input and a desired position of the modification of the dresser on the tool is specifiable. The specification of the desired position of the modification of the dresser on the tool optionally takes place by associating a specific radius of the dresser with a specific radius of the tool. The control furthermore has a calculation function which determines from the specified modification of the dresser and from the desired position of the modification of the dresser on the tool, the settings of the axes of movement required for the production of said modification during dressing with line contact between the dresser and the tool. The control further has a control function which carries out the corresponding setting of the axes of movement during the dressing with line contact between the dresser and the tool.
The input function, the calculation function and the control function are optionally configured such that they can be used for carrying out one of the above-described methods in accordance with the disclosure. The input function, the calculation function and the control function can in particular be used for carrying out a method in accordance with the above-described second aspect.
Alternatively or additionally, the input function, the calculation function and the control function can optionally be configured such that the position of the modification on the tool is specifiable via the input function in dependence on the tool width position and the calculation and control function carries out the setting of the axes of movement as a function of the tool width position.
The present disclosure furthermore comprises a dressing machine in accordance with a third, likewise independent aspect, having a tool holder for holding the tool to be dressed and having a dresser holder for holding the dresser used for this purpose, wherein the dresser holder has an axis of rotation and wherein the dressing machine has further axes of movement by which further degrees of freedom can be set when dressing the tool in line contact with the dresser. The dressing machine furthermore has a control, in particular a control for controlling the axes of movement of the dressing machine. The control has a multi-stroke dressing function which carries out a dressing procedure with at least one first stroke and one second stroke in which the dresser is respectively in line contact with the tool. The multi-stroke dressing function can optionally also carry out dressing procedures having more than two strokes.
In a first variant, the control has an input function by which the position at which the modification produced in a first stroke adjoins the modification produced using a second stroke is specifiable as a function of the tool width position.
In a second variant, the control comprises an input function by which a desired modification of the tool is specifiable, with the control having a determination function for determining the strokes required for its production, which determines the position at which the modification produced in a first stroke adjoins the modification produced with a second stroke as a function of the tool width position.
The control in accordance with both variants can have a calculation function which determines from the position at which the modification produced in a first stroke adjoins the modification produced with a second stroke the settings of the axes of movement required for its production during dressing with line contact between the dresser and the tool as well as a control function which carries out the corresponding setting of the axes of movement during dressing with line contact between the dresser and the tool.
The input function, the calculation function and the control function are optionally configured such that they can be used for carrying out one of the above-described methods in accordance with the disclosure, in particular for carrying out a method in accordance with the disclosure in accordance with the third aspect.
The present disclosure provides protection for the dressing machine in accordance with the first to third aspects independently of one another. A dressing machine in accordance with the disclosure, however, optionally combines the operation possibilities and/or functions present in accordance with the first, second and/or third aspects.
The dressing machine can furthermore comprise an apparatus and/or a software program such as were described above.
The present disclosure furthermore comprises a gear manufacturing machine having a dressing machine and/or an apparatus and/or a software program such as were described above.
The gear manufacturing machine can have a workpiece holder and a tool holder optionally provided in addition to the tool holder of the dressing machine. The gear manufacturing machine further optionally as a gear manufacturing machining control for controlling the workpiece holder and the tool holder for carrying out a gear manufacturing machining, in particular for carrying out a method such as was described above.
The dressing machine can be a machine which is only used for dressing tools and has no additional function for machining workpieces using such tools. The dressing machine is, however, optionally a combination machine which allows both a machining of workpieces and the dressing. It can in particular be a gear manufacturing machine having a dressing machine in accordance with the disclosure, wherein the gear manufacturing machine comprises, in addition to the dressing machine, a manufacturing machine via which a gear manufacturing machining is possible using the tool dressed in accordance with the disclosure. In this respect, the manufacturing machine and the dressing machine can optionally share individual holders or axes of movement or a plurality of holders or axes of movement.
The gear manufacturing machining in accordance with the disclosure is optionally a generating machining method, in particular a generating grinding method. A diagonal generating method is particularly optionally used.
The tool which is dressed or used in accordance with the disclosure is optionally a grinding worm. A profile roller dresser or a form roller is optionally used as the dresser in accordance with the disclosure. The dressing can take place on one flank or on two flanks.
The method in accordance with the disclosure and the apparatus or tools in accordance with the disclosure are optionally configured such that an involute gearing is produced on the workpiece.
As already described above, the dressing can take place within the framework of the present disclosure with a line contact between the dresser and the tool which covers the total tooth flank. Alternatively, the dressing can, however, also take place in a plurality of strokes by which different regions of the tooth flank are dressed. Different regions of the dressers and/or different dressers can be used for the individual strokes for this purpose.
In accordance with the disclosure, the relative position of the dresser to the tool during dressing with line contact can be specifically set such that the contact line between the dresser and the tool on the dresser is displaced in order hereby to influence the active profile transferred to the tool along the contact line. The desired modification on the tool is optionally hereby produced. The pitch and/or crowning along the contact line can in particular be set or varied. This contact line on the tool optionally defines the first direction of the modification on the tool.
In general, the pitch of the specific modification in the sense of the present disclosure is understood as the pitch in a first direction of the tool which includes an angle ρFS or ρF1 other than zero with respect to the tool width direction and which in particular has a portion in the profile direction, i.e. the pitch of the modification corresponds to the profile angle or to a profile angle difference.
Furthermore, a crowning of the modification in the sense of the present disclosure is understood as a crowning in a first direction which includes an angle ρFS or ρF1 other than zero with respect to the tool width direction and which in particular has a portion in the profile direction, i.e. the crowning of the modification corresponds to a profile crowning.
The present disclosure will now be explained in more detail with reference to embodiments and to drawings.