Gleason Corporation has announced the introduction of Opti–Cut™, a new family of cutting tools for gashing, shaping, and hobbing of gears. Employing the latest in replaceable, indexable insert technology, the new line is targeted for larger gears, particularly for the wind energy, truck, tractor, and power generation markets. Opti–Cut is being offered through a cooperative venture with Ingersoll Cutting Tools Company, one of the world’s leading suppliers of metal removal tooling and a pioneer in the development of indexable carbide cutting tools.
The entire line of Opti–Cut tools is designed to operate on customers’ existing equipment and is available for internal or external rough or finish gashing, as well as shaping and hobbing. The replaceable indexable inserts offer a number of distinct advantages in production, including more efficient cutting action with higher feeds and speeds, lower cost per work piece, and optimized machine power consumption. In addition, tool life, surface finish, and part accuracy are more consistent. The time and expense of resharpening solid tools is eliminated, and cutting tool inventory is dramatically reduced.
Robert Phillips, senior vice president of Gleason’s Tooling Products Group, says that "Gleason is the world leader in the production and sale of hobbing and shaping machines for larger module gears. Our new line of OptiCut cutting tools perfectly complement our technologically advanced machine products by extending our capabilities to provide a complete solution to our customers’ gear processing needs in this industry segment."
Opti–Cut tools were exhibited at EMO in Hannover, Germany, September 17–22, and at the AGMA’s Gear Expo in Detroit October 7–10.
Gleason Corporation is the world leader in the development, manufacture and sale of gear production machinery and related equipment. The company’s products are used by customers in the automotive, truck, aircraft, agriculture, construction, power tool, and marine industries and by a diverse set of customers serving various industrial equipment markets. The company, founded in 1865, employs approximately 2,800 people worldwide. Gleason has manufacturing operations in Rochester, New York; Rockford, Illinois; Dayton, Ohio; Plymouth, England; Munich and Ludwigsburg, Germany; Bangalore, India; Studen, Switzerland, Harbin and Suzhou, China, and has sales and service offices throughout North and South America, Europe, and in the Asia–Pacific region. More information is available at [http://www.gleason.com].
