Research on precise modeling and grinding methods for full tooth surfaces of nonorthogonal face gears

Face gear drives exhibit smooth transmission, low noise, and insensitivity to pinion axial installation error. Nonorthogonal face gear pairs enable torque transmission and speed variation under diverse shaft intersection angles, thus expanding their engineering applicability. At present, mathematical modeling of face gears generally considers only the tooth flank surface, while neglecting the tooth bottom surface. This leads to missing data in partial regions of the accurate tooth geometry of face gears. This paper focuses on the precise modeling algorithm and grinding methodology for the full tooth surface of nonorthogonal face gears. The tooth surface generation principle is analyzed, and the meshing kinematics between the grinding wheel (acting as the generating gear) and the nonorthogonal face gear are established. The full tooth surface is divided into five regions, and boundary conditions are defined separately for each region. Mathematical expressions for the generating gear and the full tooth surface of the nonorthogonal face gear are derived. The parameter boundaries for dish-wheel grinding are determined to guarantee full-tooth-surface completion. According to the common gear grinding machine configuration, the kinematic coordinate system for dish-wheel grinding is formulated, and virtual machining and grinding test are implemented. Comparative results demonstrate that the theoretical tooth surface matches the virtual machining outcome without noticeable deviation, validating the accuracy of the full tooth surface modeling and grinding motion. In this study, the proposed grinding method overcomes the limitation that non-orthogonal face gear grinding can only be performed on a few dedicated machine tools, thereby further expanding the application scope of face gear grinding technologies.