Gear Hobbing – Research Activities and State of the Art

In this presentation at first the overall economic importance of gear manufacturing is highlighted. Main application areas of gear boxes are analysed with regard to their future orientation, namely the automotive industry, the wind energy sector, aircraft applications as well as machine tools. Still by far the most important and dominating technology for gear manufacturing is gear hobbing. This process is briefly explained and main characteristics are mentioned. Besides the industrial aspects there is also a strong attention for a better understanding of the fundamental aspects of gear hobbing.