The watchmaking gears and wheels are strategic parts in the good functioning of a watch. The machining of these parts, carried out on an automatic lathe or on a dedicated cutting machine, often uses gear hobbing technology and requires special precision hobs. In these small sizes, each module and number of teeth involves the use of a dedicated hob. Meeting with MM. Arnaud Maître and Pierre Falbriard respectively Director and technical manager at Louis Bélet in Vendlincourt (Switzerland).
Gear hobbing operations on microtechnology parts - Picture by Affolter Technology.
Traditionally the realization of precision hobs is done by copying and inevitably requires numerous adjustment steps. It is not the case in the Jura company. Work basis is the CAD file of the part to be machined and the entire process remains digital until the realization of the hobs. Even more, this "digital integration from A to Z" allows to manufacture tools to make very small series (or single part) under very short deadlines and at very attractive prices.
All kinds of wheels…et more! Hobs as presented above are perfectly suited to tangential mill any profile, even asymmetric wheels are possible. Louis Bélet SA also offers all hobs for the realization of all front and conical teeth and offers particularly effective tools such as the "E2F" frontal hobs which drastically reduced the level of burr. Mr. Falbriard adds: "Gear hobbing, synchronized hobbing and polygon milling offer very many opportunities for parts manufacturers. We can offer them hobs to machine all kind of teeth but also polygon milling to change external geometry of their parts. For example, for milling of an ellipse, of a polygon with n sides or any other external form".
Research and development The company offers a very large product range of tools dedicated to Microtechnology (more than 6’500 different standard tools), Mr. Maître says: "The market of Microtechnology is a niche where high precision and quality always make a difference. We are known on these two aspects. The innovations proposed by the company often come from customer requests but we also have a Research & Development department that works continuously to develop new solutions".
Production means… and men The company has very elaborate machines and software, but these are nothing without the skills and expertise of employees. All tools are realized internally and "anything is possible". In the case of precision hobs, the inside diameter is H3 grinded and gear cutting and profiling operations are performed on numerical manufacturing machines specially developed by Bélet for this application. It is not uncommon to see 0.05 modules realized. As in all the company’s departments, each technician is responsible for the quality of the tools he manufactures. Everyone performs the necessary controls on the tools over every stage of production. The company has hired more than 10 people over the past months and ensures itself the training of its employees.
Further and further Are you looking for customized tooling solutions or standard high-quality solutions? Both available under short deadlines? Louis Bélet SA is organized to deal with these two challenges. The company will be present at the EPHJ show in Lausanne on its brand new booth… to be absolutely discovered.
Louis Bélet SA Les Gasses 11 - CH-2943 Vendlincourt Tel. +41 (0) 32 474 04 10 - Fax +41 (0) 32 474 45 42 [email protected] - www.beletsa.ch
We will publish a complete article in our next issue.
