I'm early in developing a gear hobbing add-on to my Deckel manual mill along the lines of what Andy Pugh (YouTube and YouTube) and John Stevenson (Electronic hobber - test run) did but with more professional components. The approach is to have an encoder on the spindle, a PLC controller, a horizontal rotary axis with support and the work piece on an arbor, and quality gear hob. I'm hoping to create very high quality gears. My question goes like this:
- should I use a stepper motor or a servo motor on the rotary?
My inclination is to go with a very high quality servo motor such that there is absolutely no discrete movement in the axis, just really smooth movement. The thought is that the stepper motor might introduce discrete errors in the cutting process.
What are your thoughts on this?
P.S. I would be programming the PLC myself with tight closed-loop processing to keep the spindle and rotary motor in perfect sync, and would use very high sampling rates on the spindle encoder. The Deckel offers a lot of flexibility in terms of setting the helix angle, the ability to use horizontal spindle,etc
- should I use a stepper motor or a servo motor on the rotary?
My inclination is to go with a very high quality servo motor such that there is absolutely no discrete movement in the axis, just really smooth movement. The thought is that the stepper motor might introduce discrete errors in the cutting process.
What are your thoughts on this?
P.S. I would be programming the PLC myself with tight closed-loop processing to keep the spindle and rotary motor in perfect sync, and would use very high sampling rates on the spindle encoder. The Deckel offers a lot of flexibility in terms of setting the helix angle, the ability to use horizontal spindle,etc