Calculation of a disc milling cutter for cutting a helical gear with classical (in SolidWorks) and discrete solid modeling

Designing disk modular cutters for cutting helical gears includes defining the tool profile. The problem of profiling tools that work according to the form-generating method has been solved for decades using analytical, graphic-analytical and graphical approaches. The modern practice of tool design is increasingly based on the use of CAD/CAM/CAE systems. Programs such as Solidworks allow us to create complex solids by stretching an elementary solid along some guide line. This corresponds to the formation of a concave surface of the part by the convex surface of the tool. Thus, at present, a basis has appeared for solving the problem of shaping disk tools using the indicated above CAD or CAM systems. Meanwhile, examples of solving such problems using CAD systems could not be found in the literature. The paper proposes a solution to this problem for the case of profiling a disk cutter when processing a helical gear. The direct problem was solved using one of the most common programs - Solidworks. The inverse problem was solved only using the discrete solid modeling method. The imposition of the original CAD-profile of the gear on the similar wheel obtained by modeling the processing with the calculated cutter showed their qualitative coincidence. Therefore, theses simulation and calculation methods can be applied in the production practice of design work on gear cutting.