Used Gear Hobber for Sale

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A Gear Hobber is a type of milling machine which uses a process referred to as Hobbing to cut gears, splines, and sprockets. In this process, a cutting tool called a hob progressively cuts teeth or splines into a workpiece by using a series of cuts. Modern machines may produce thousands of gears in a single hour.

Process

Hobbers use two spindles in the machining process. One spindle holds the hob while the other spindle holds a black workpiece. Depending on what is being produced, the angle between the hob and the workpiece can vary. During the Hobbing process, the spindle that holds the hob rotates a set amount of times per turn of the blank workpiece. For example, the gear ratio for a part could be 40:1 which would indicate that the hob spindle rotates 40 times per rotation of the workpiece spindle. This rotation allows the hob to cut into the workpiece and produce the finished product. For most modern Hobbing machines this process is automated and a worker would only need to do minimal setup before starting a production run.

Uses

A gear hobber is suitable for the production of small instrument gears all the way up to 10-foot diameter gears. Hobbing machines may be used in the production of the following:

  • Involute gears
  • Cycloid gears 
  • Helical gears
  • Ratchets
  • Sprockets
  • Splines
  • Spur gears
  • Worm gears

While Hobbing may be used to produce all of these parts, only certain tooth profiles may be hobbed. If any part of the Hobbing profile is perpendicular to the axis of the hob, the material will not cut well as there will not be enough cutting clearance.

Types of Hobs

The Hob is the cutting instrument on a Hobbing machine. Depending on the type of gear you want to cut, the production rate you want to achieve, and the size of the gear you may require one type of Hob over another. You may need hobs with larger or smaller teeth to make the proper size and depth of cuts, multi-threaded hobs to increase production, or specialty hobs to fabricate specific parts. Below is a short list of the different types of hobs that may be available to you:

  • Roller chain sprocket hobs
  • Serration hobs
  • Worm wheel hobs
  • Spline hobs
  • Semi topping gear hob
  • Chamfer hobs
  • Spur and helical gear hobs
  • Straight side spline hobs
  • Involute spline hobs

You may also want to purchase a custom hob depending on the specific part that you may want to produce.