Manufacturing an involute spline cutting tool on wire EDM using SolidWorks and ESPRIT

Today's Mechanical Engineering field is growing rapidly in designing techniques to manufacture Splines and Gears. Over the decades, numerous methods and manufacturing processes have been used in making the various kinds of Splines based on various criteria, including applications, reliability, life time, processing time and manufacturing cost. This thesis is also carried out with the same notion of experimenting to manufacture an External Involute Spline cutting tool using state-of-art CAD/CAM package and current trend CNC machines like Brother HS-70A Wire Electrical Discharge Machine and HAAS VF-2 Vertical Milling Machine. This thesis is divided into two distinct phases: (1) analysis phase and (2) manufacturing phase. The analysis phase is dedicated to the study and simulation of involute splines, while the manufacturing phase covers the actual manufacturing process. This thesis starts with the extensive study of splines and the two different kinds of splines; a) Internal Involute splines and b) External Involute splines. The primary objective is to design the internal involute spline in Dassault Systems' SolidWorks®. This entire design process is to be automated with embedding Microsoft EXCEL Spreadsheet with SolidWorks. Using this EXCEL spreadsheet, spline design parameters iterations are carried out in SolidWorks with the help of design tables. Based on the calculations made in EXCEL Spreadsheets and CAD design in SolidWorks, CNC machining parameters are defined in DP Technology's CAM package ESPRIT and the machining process as well as tool/insert design is simulated. The main objective is to manufacture a spline cutting tool using Wire EDM machining process. For this Solid Carbide Machine Inserts are chosen as a cutting tool which cuts the external splines. Once the machine insert was manufactured, it was tested on 6061 Aluminum test specimen and successfully cut on 4340 Steel Drive shaft on the CNC Milling machine. These external splines are the inverse of the Involute splines on the drive shaft hub of the FSAE Formula one car. It can be concluded that, the involute spline cutting tool was successfully manufactured and tested by cutting external involute splines on drive shaft which match with internal splines on drive hub.