Tag: hobbing machine

Gear History at New Year’s: The Mechanics Behind the Date Jump

Posted on by Samantha Hambleton

On New Year’s Day, it’s easy to focus on the countdown to midnight. But if you wear a mechanical watch, there’s another transition happening in the background: a small gear train advances the date disc by one exact step.

That seemingly simple jump is the product of more than a century of incremental work on calendar displays, culminating in the mid-20th century with robust date and day-date mechanisms that are still the template today.

How Mechanical Date and Day-Date Mechanisms Work

Mechanically, most traditional date and day-date systems share the same basic architecture.

The hour wheel drives an intermediate wheel. That intermediate wheel drives:

  • A star or date wheel with 31 teeth (date).
  • A star wheel with 7 teeth (day of the week) in day-date watches.

Each of these star wheels advances by one tooth every 24 hours.

The intermediate wheel is important: without it, the calendar would advance twice per day. With it, the system steps once per 24-hour cycle and typically changes around midnight.

To hold each indication precisely in place, the system adds:

  • A jumper spring that engages between teeth on the date (and day) wheel.
  • A shaped cam or finger that gradually loads the jumper and then lets in snap into the next tooth, depending on whether the change is standard, semi-instantaneous, or instantaneous.

From a gear-engineering perspective, that means very small modules and teeth must withstand:

  • Cyclic loading from the daily change.
  • Long-term boundary lubrication.

Backlash and tooth form must be controlled so the indication:

  • Lands on center.
  • Resists vibration or partial movement between jumps.

It’s essentially a micro indexing drive synchronized to a 24-hour input.

Short Months and Manual Corrections

Standard date and day‑date mechanisms are built on a simple assumption: every month has 31 days. In a non‑perpetual system, this means the date must be corrected five times each year, whenever the actual month length falls short of 31 days 

That simplification keeps the movement compact and relatively straightforward, but it pushes some of the complexity onto the user. To deal with real‑world calendars, watchmakers provide ways to “force” the date mechanism to advance. In modern quick‑set systems, the crown (or, on some watches, corrector pushers) lets the wearer rapidly click the date forward, and in some designs also change the day or month, one indexed tooth at a time. Earlier non‑quick‑set watches are less forgiving: the only way to update the date is to repeatedly rotate the hands past midnight, cycling the 24‑hour mechanism over and over.

In both approaches, the calendar train has to tolerate behavior that goes far beyond the gentle, once‑per‑day change it was nominally designed for. Rapid corrections impose many small, user‑driven shock loads in quick succession. On top of that, there’s the risk of overlap between human inputs and the watch’s own automatic changeover. If the wearer tries to adjust the date too close to midnight, while the change mechanism is partially engaged, there’s potential for damage. 

For gear designers, this will feel familiar. The mechanism is sized and optimized for the ideal operating case: one clean step per 24 hours. But its durability and real‑world reliability are defined just as much by edge conditions: irregular month lengths, impatient users advancing the date as fast as they can, and ill‑timed inputs right in the middle of an automatic change.

What This Means for Modern Gear and Mechanism Design

For engineers working on other gear-driven systems such as indexing tables, rotary actuators, and small step-feed mechanisms, there are a few direct takeaways:

  • Continuous rotation to discrete steps: Calendar mechanisms show a clean way to derive discrete, repeatable steps from a continuous drive, using gear ratios and spring-based jumpers rather than electronics.
  • Load and tolerance discipline at small scale: Because the teeth are tiny and the loads are light but persistent, tooth geometry, backlash, surface finish, and material choice become critical over long life.
  • Designing for human interaction: Manuals from brands and historical overviews emphasize care when changing dates, especially around midnight. The mechanisms are robust but not invincible, a reminder that real users will always push designs outside nominal states.

A New Year’s Perspective

Each New Year’s Day, when the date rolls over from 31 to 1, the same fundamental mechanism that advances the date every night does its job once more: a small, carefully cut set of wheels moves exactly one tooth.

2025 Year in Review: Advancing Manufacturing with NIDEC

Posted on by Samantha Hambleton

As 2025 comes to a close, NIDEC MACHINE TOOL AMERICA is reflecting on a year that combined strong technical progress with deeper collaboration across our customers, partners, and global NIDEC teams.

From gear machining and broaching to advanced metal additive manufacturing, our focus remained constant: deliver reliable, production-ready solutions.

Meeting Customers Where They Are: A Year on the Road

In 2025, our team spent a significant amount of time in the field, at trade shows, technical conferences, and customer facilities. These interactions shaped how we think about the next generation of manufacturing challenges.

Formnext, ICAM, and Rapid +TCT: Advancing Metal AM

At Formnext in Frankfurt, we met with partners, customers, and additive manufacturing leaders to discuss the future of large-format metal AM, hybrid machining, and how to move directed energy deposition (DED) from the lab to the production floor. Conversations around industrial readiness and process standardization reflected the direction of the broader AM community.

At ICAM and Rapid + TCT, our experts took a closer look at the economics of metal AM, especially when comparing DED and laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) for parts above 300 mm. The takeaway: when the right geometry, material, and application are matched with the right process, DED can open the door to larger, more complex parts with competitive cost structures and shorter lead times.

Motion + Power Technology Expo and EMO

Events such as Motion + Power Technology Expo and EMO Hannover gave us a chance to reconnect with long-time partners and meet new ones.

At these shows, we highlighted technologies including:

  • High-speed hobbing for higher throughput and lower noise gears
  • Internal gear grinding and finishing solutions
  • Broaching systems designed for precision, rigidity, and flexible productivity
  • Cutting tools engineered for consistency, tool life, and surface finish

Gear Manufacturing Highlights: GE25CF, MGC300, and Beyond

2025 was a year of meaningful progress, strong customer adoption, and important new product introductions.

GE25CF: Integrated Hobbing and Chamfering on a Single Platform

A key highlight was the continued momentum of the GE25CF, our hobbing machine that integrates gear cutting and defined chamfering on a single platform. Customers are leveraging the GE25CF to:

  • Combine hobbing and chamfering in one process
  • Achieve precise root chamfers and improved surface quality
  • Shrink floor space requirements with the smallest-in-class footprint for its category

Powered by our ChamferX tooling, the GE25CF is enabling manufacturers to meet demanding requirements, especially for quieter, higher-efficiency gears.

Introducing the MGC300: Multitasking Gear Center for Small-Batch Flexibility

In 2025, we also introduced the all-new MGC300, a multitasking gear center now available. The MGC300 combines a vertical 5-axis machining center with advanced gear-processing functions such as hobbing, skiving, and chamfering, delivering precision and efficiency in a single setup. With:

  • A powerful spindle speed up to 15,000 rpm
  • A compact, rigid gantry design
  • An intuitive interface and seamless process integration

… the MGC300 is designed to reduce operator workload and streamline production for small-batch, high-mix gear manufacturing. By unifying milling and gear cutting processes, it helps manufacturers:

  • Boost productivity without adding multiple specialized machines
  • Reduce changeovers and handling
  • Lower total manufacturing costs
  • Stay competitive in a fast-evolving market

The MGC300 is a key example of how NIDEC is shaping the future of gear machining with multitasking platforms tailored to modern production realities.

End-to-End Gear Machining and Broaching Solutions

More broadly, our hobbing, grinding, shaping, and broaching solutions continued to help:

  • Consolidate legacy machines into smaller, more capable cells
  • Reduce setup and cycle times
  • Improve consistency and gear quality across a wider range of workpieces

For customers, these improvements translated directly into higher productivity, better machine utilization, and stronger ROI.

NIDEC also advanced its portfolio globally with the ZFA series, reflecting our ongoing investment in precision finishing for demanding applications.

Additive Manufacturing with LAMDA

On the metal additive manufacturing side, our LAMDA systems demonstrated what is possible when process expertise and innovation move in lockstep.

  • High-quality metal printing without an inert chamber is made possible by our unique local shield nozzle technology.
  • New material development, including the ability to mix powders and explore custom alloys for high-performance applications.
  • Hybrid and near-net strategies, where DED is used to add features and repair components.

These capabilities are especially relevant for aerospace, energy, and heavy industry applications, sectors where part size, lead time, and material flexibility all matter.

As DED adoption grows, we continue to support customers through application engineering, process development, and collaboration with universities and technology partners. Our goal is to help manufacturers move from pilot projects to repeatable, production-ready metal AM workflows.

One NIDEC in Practice: Global Collaboration and Customer Focus

Internally, 2025 highlighted the strength of the NIDEC family.

Cross-Company Collaboration and Best Practices

Joint meetings and events brought together teams from:

These sessions prioritized practical topics: best practices in service and applications, opportunities for integrated solutions, and strategies for supporting customers as they transition to more automated, data-driven manufacturing environments.

Unified Presence at Customer Events

Events such as GM Innovation Day underscored the breadth of the NIDEC portfolio, from EV drive units and window regulator motors to precision gear-making machines and advanced charging systems. For customers, this means not just individual products, but a cohesive ecosystem of motion and manufacturing solutions.

Focusing on Support and Resources

Building on our technical and commercial advancements, we further enhanced how customers engage with us.

Website Enhancements and Digital Resources

In 2025, we relaunched our website, equipping it with powerful tools for comparing machines, a comprehensive library of videos, and in-depth product information. Concurrently, we refined our online service and support, making it easier to submit service requests, inquire about spare parts, and quickly connect with our technical experts.

Customer Success as the Primary Measure of Impact

We also shared more customer success stories, such as Circle Gear, highlighting quantifiable improvements in cycle time, setup time, machine utilization, and part quality.

While machines and tools are at the heart of what we do, our goal is to provide a complete experience, from first conversation to long-term support.

Looking Ahead to 2026

For more than 80 years, NIDEC has been guided by the same principles: precision, performance, and partnership. As we look beyond 2025, our direction remains clear. Our commitment to quality is unwavering and backed by comprehensive support services that keep our customers’ operations running at optimal efficiency. From initial concept through implementation and long-term service, our team of specialists works closely with manufacturers to deliver tailored solutions that match specific production requirements.

The Origin of Hobbing: From Craft to Scalable Precision

Posted on by Samantha Hambleton

Before hobbing, cutting precise gear teeth was closer to an art than a repeatable process. Output depended on time, cost, and the operator’s touch. That began to change as innovators pursued a different idea: generate the tooth form through controlled motion rather than copy it one space at a time.

Three milestones set the trajectory:

  • In 1835, Joseph Whitworth patented hobbing for spiral gears.
  • In 1856, Christian Schiele patented an early hobbing machine, helping establish the generating approach that would define modern practice.
  • In 1897, Robert Hermann Pfauter patented hobbing for spur and helical gears, cementing the method as the backbone of production gear cutting.

Why hobbing changed everything

At its core, hobbing synchronizes a helical cutter with the rotating blank so the correct tooth geometry emerges from their relative motion. That shift delivered durable advantages:

  • Accurate involute profiles at speed, improving mesh quality and efficiency.
  • Much higher throughput at lower cost per part, enabling true volume production.

How it reshaped manufacturing

Hobbing didn’t remove the need for expertise; it codified it. Predictable kinematics lowered the skill barrier and made high quality teachable and repeatable. That predictability supported the rise of transmissions, differentials, timing drives, and industrial gearboxes across sectors, from automotive and energy to automation and robotics. Over time, hobbing helped drive standardization and rigorous inspection practices, while integrating naturally with heat treatment and finishing.

A line that leads to the future

Expectations keep rising: tighter tolerances, faster iteration, and greater sustainability. The principle Whitworth and his successors helped establish still underpins modern manufacturing, but today’s tools must scale precision and agility together.

This is where NIDEC’s hobbing machines fit. NIDEC machines are built around what matters most now:

  • Repeatable quality across programs and volumes.
  • Agile production that adapts to new designs and shifting demand.
  • Cohesive workflows so teams can move from prototype to production with confidence.

Hobbing turned gear cutting into a scalable science. The next chapter belongs to manufacturers who keep elevating the process. NIDEC machines are built for that future, helping engineers deliver the next generation of drivetrains, robotics, and industrial systems.

Check out NIDEC hobbing machines here: https://www.nidec-machinetoolamerica.com/products/gear-machines/#hobbing-machines

Circle Gear + NIDEC a success story

Posted on by Samantha Hambleton

GE25CF Hobbing and Cut Chamfer

Posted on by Samantha Hambleton

NIDEC MACHINE TOOL AMERICA GE15HS Hobbing Machine

Posted on by Samantha Hambleton