For transmitting a driving force e.g. in a gear box, it is known to use e.g. gear wheels or cone friction clutches, respectively curvic couplings. A gear wheel coupling is formed with two mating components, each comprising teeth that are engagable with each other for transmitting force. A cone friction clutch consists of two corresponding coupling parts, one coupling part forms a female part comprising an inner conical recess and one forms a male cone part with a truncated cone. The outer surface of the male cone part fits to the inner surface of the cone female part. I.e. the two conical surfaces (cone female part, cone male part) transmit torque by friction if they are pressed together. The cone friction clutch may transfer higher torque than dress clutches of the same size due to the wedging action and an increased surface and contact area due to the cone shaped of the inner conical surface of the female cone part and the outer cone surface of the cone male part.
In order to provide a large friction area between the female cone part and the male cone part, the inner surface of the female cone part and the outer surface of the male cone part have to correspond to each other with its profiles. In case of a gear wheel coupling the shape of the teeth on each gear wheel have to correspond precisely in order to prevent keying. Thus, a precise manufacturing method and precise manufacturing devices have to be provided. In other words, it is important that the produced mating components, i.e. its profiles, match to ensure a perfect bed between the two mating components, in particular the female cone part and the male cone part of the curvic coupling.
In order to manufacture the profile of the male cone part and the female cone part or to manufacture the teeth of a gear wheel, a grinding wheel may be provided, wherein the grinding wheel comprises a grinding surface with the desired profile that has to be formed on the surface of the mating components. Thus, it is important to manufacture the grinding wheels for producing the female cone profile and/or the male cone profile (mating components) of the cone friction clutches and the teeth of the gear wheel very precisely. Therefore, dressing methods may be provided that form a grinding wheel with the desired inner and/or outer profiles.
To produce the form respectively the desired profile on a grinding wheel a single/multi-point diamond dressing method as shown in FIG. 4 is known. Referring to FIG. 4, a grinding wheel 100 comprising a rotary axis 103 is shown. The grinding wheel 100 comprises an outer profile 101 and an inner profile 201. To a base device 105, a single point dresser 401 is fixed. By driving the grinding wheel 100 around its rotary axis 103, the single point dresser 401 forms the desired profile (inner profile or outer profile of the grinding wheel).
As shown in FIG. 5, instead of the single point dresser 401 a rotary disc dresser 501 may be used that is rotatable around a rotary axis 502.
As shown in FIG. 6, the rotary disc dresser 501 may comprise a rotary axis 502 that is nearly parallel to the rotary axis 103 of the grinding wheel 100. The outer profile 101 may be created by the rotary disc dresser 501 either by flanging the grinding wheel 100 into the rotary disc dresser 501 or vice versa.
FIG. 7 illustrates the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 6 wherein the rotary disc dresser 501 is arranged below the grinding wheel 100.
GB 2164279 A1 describes an apparatus for dressing a grinding wheel with an outer profile with a radius R1. The apparatus comprises a dressing roller having a circular dressing profile with the radius R2. In order to be able to dress grinding wheels with different profile radii, the dressing roller and the grinding wheel can be moved in relation to each other, so that the relative motion has the shape of a circular arc with the radius R2-R1. The radius is adjustable in order to obtain the desired profile radius of the grinding wheel.
EP 0 858 865 A1 describes a method and a device for dressing a grinding wheel. The grinding wheel is trimmed and pressed together via a drive and pressure appliance with a dressing roll. The dressing roll may be hard metal disk, wherein one end side of which is smoothly coated with polycrystalline diamond material. The hard metal disk may be moved with respect to the grinding wheel so that a desired profile may be formed.