“The combination of cutting material and coating is decisive”
Professor Karpuschewski, what are users particularly concerned about in gear cutting?
The quality of the gearwheel is the decisive factor. You can already see that in everyday life: it is extremely rare for a gearbox to fail in a modern vehicle. At most, that only occurs under extreme conditions, such as Formula One racing. In all other applications – from vehicle manufacturing to wind turbine transmission systems – failures of this kind are simply no longer accepted. At the same time, manufacturers face enormous cost pressures. The goal of manufacturing is therefore always the optimum combination of quality and productivity.
How do users achieve this ideal combination?
By using the most up-to-date tools, machines and manufacturing processes. In the case of gearwheel production that involves hobbing. It is the most productive technique and simply irreplaceable in the production chain.
What lines of development do you currently see in relation to hobs?
Development is very clearly heading towards the increasing use of tailormade coatings and combining these with the best possible cutting material. A second trend is dry machining. Making do without cooling lubricants enables us to take into account ecological aspects of manufacturing.
You were involved in the development of the SpeedCore cutting material. What role did you play in that project?
We have already worked with LMT for a long time now. Among other things, we were involved in the development of the Nanosphere coating. In the process we improved an established process, the so-called “strike tooth test”, which we also used during the trials on the SpeedCore material. The advantage of this process is that it enables you to make reliable forecasts about the performance of the entire hob cutter on the basis of the results of machining with only one or two teeth. This saves time and money.
What potential do you see for the new cutting material?
When it comes to performance, this cutting material bridges the gap between conventional PM-HSS and carbide, but in terms of its usage properties it is closer to HSS. That means SpeedCore is easy to handle because the material is more resilient. And it’s significantly cheaper.
In conclusion, let’s look into the future. What are the prospects for the gearwheel in the age of electromobility?
We will continue to use gearwheels very long into the future. It will certainly remain a fixture in the automobile, even when alternative propulsion systems are used. In addition, gears play a decisive role in wind energy. And gearwheels and turbines could even make a comeback in the aviation industry. There are serious proposals for turbines with planetary gears. The prospects are thus excellent.
Professor Karpuschewski, thank you for this interview.
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