A Comparative Analysis of Ech, Pech and Uvech for Surface Quality Improvement of Bevel Gears

Abstract

Surface finishing of bevel gears is an main requirement in various machining shop floors. Variants of electrochemical honing (ECH) could be probable solutions for finishing such complex geometrical parts. This paper presents a comparative analysis of classical ECH, pulse-assisted ECH (PECH) and ultrasonic vibration assisted (UVECH) for tooth flank surface quality enhancement of bevel gears made of EN8 steel. The developed setups and the process has been compared with suitable illustrations. The tooth flank finish was analysed in terms of improvement in surface roughness, morphology of the finished surface and processing time. It was found that the UVECH finished gear exhibited better surface quality and lower processing time as compared to ECH and PECH finished gears. The PECH finished surface also gives better surface quality as compared with ECH, but the use of pulse-on and pulse-off time combination in PECH increases the time required to achieve the desired quality.