In a head to head race to a quality gear, we put a seasoned Barber-Colman 6-10 operator up against a rookie sales engineer on our 100H. The Barber-Colman operator had over 40 years of experience cutting gears and setting up Barber-Colmans. The sales engineer had less than 40 hours in the seat of a 100H and had taken the AGMA Basics of Gear Manufacturing course a few weeks prior to the race. Who wins in this test of speed and quality?
The Barber-Colman clocked in at 34 minutes and 31 seconds to cut a gear. This was a single climb cut. A respectable 10 minutes and 32 seconds was required to set up the hob and workholding for the gear blank, while 8 minutes and 20 seconds was required to locate and install the change gears required. The actual machining time required for the single climb cut was 15 minutes and 39 seconds. The quality results were a Q-7 on index, Q-0 on lead, and Q-3 on involute. While this gear would be acceptable for some applications, the overall quality of the gear was unacceptable by most industry standards.
The Bourn & Koch 100H was timed at a total of 25 minutes and 43 seconds for cut the same gear. This was a double cut with both a climb and convention pass. The hob and workholding were installed and set up in 9 minutes and 35 seconds. The machine took 4 minutes and 11 seconds to program with Bourn & Koch’s new hobbing HMI. The gear was cut with a climb pass and conventional pass in 11 minutes and 57 seconds. While the quality results were not perfect, the gear checked out at Q-11 on index, Q-9 on lead, and Q-9 on involute. The gear would be well within the standards required for many applications.
Overall, the main advantage the 100H has over the Barber-Colman 6-10 is speed of programming. The HMI is very intuitive and easy to use, even for a novice gear operator. The new HMI will be on display with our redesigned 100H at Gear Expo 2017 in Columbus, OH. Visitors to the show will be able to demo the HMI to see how easy it is to program for themselves.
Bourn & Koch invites you to send us your application information and cycle times for a head to head comparison on how your Barber-Colman stacks up to a 100H. We’ll provide a detailed time study, quality results, and a formal quote for a 100H. Contact machinesales@bourn-koch.com to start the process!
