GEAR HOBBING CUTTER SYSTEM

摘要

A gear hobbing cutter system (40) that includes a cutter head body (42) having a plurality of cartridge-receiving slots (90) arranged in pairs comprising an inside and an outside cartridge-receiving slot (50A and 50B). Each pair of inside and outside cartridge-receiving slots (50A and 50B) are capable of receiving a respective inside and outside cartridge assembly (10A and 10B). To ensure that the inside and outside cartridge assemblies are properly positioned within their respective cartridge-receiving slots, one of the dimensions, preferably the length (LI or LO), of the inside cartridge-receiving slot and its respective inside cartridge assembly of a pair is different than the outside cartridge-receiving slot its respective outside cartridge assembly so as to form an error proofing system. A deformable area (58) is provided between the cartridge-receiving slot (50) and the cutter head body (42). The deformable area (58) includes a flex area (58a') for controlling an amount of deformation of the deformable area when a clamping member (46) bears against a clamping pad (56). The invention provides for a cartridge assembly (10) including a cutting insert (12) that can be indexable to at least two cutting edges, thereby providing cost savings as compared to conventional cutter systems that use cutter blades that required to be entirely scraped when worn or broken.