There are many kinds of tooth shape, among which involute tooth shape is the most common. There are two kinds of commonly used machining methods for involute tooth shape, namely forming method and developing method.

1. Gear milling

Using disk mold milling cutter or finger milling cutter milling teeth belong to the forming method processing, milling cutter tooth section shape and gear tooth shape corresponding. This method has low processing efficiency and accuracy and is only suitable for single piece and small batch production.

2. Forming teeth grinding

Also belongs to the forming process, because the grinding wheel is not easy to dress, use less.

3. Roll teeth

It belongs to developing process and its working principle is equivalent to meshing of a pair of helical gears. The prototype of gear hob is a helical gear with a large helical Angle. Due to the small number of teeth (usually z=1), the teeth are very long and form a worm with a small helical Angle around the shaft. After slotting and shoveling, it becomes a hob with cutting edge and back Angle.

4. The gear shaving

Shaving is a common finishing method for non - hardened tooth surfaces in mass production. Its working principle is to use the gear shaver and the machined gear for free meshing motion, with the help of the relative slip between the two, shaving from the tooth surface very fine chips, in order to improve the accuracy of the tooth surface. Shaving can also form drum teeth to improve the contact area of tooth surface.

5. Gear shaper

In addition to hobbing, gear shaper is a common gear cutting process using development method. Gear shaper, gear shaper cutter and workpiece equivalent to a pair of cylindrical gear meshing. The reciprocating motion of the gear shaper is the main motion of the gear shaper, while the circular motion of the gear shaper is the feed motion of the gear shaper.

6. Develop and grind teeth

It is a kind of tooth shape finishing method, especially for hardened gears, which is often the only finishing method. Expansion grinding wheel can be used for worm grinding wheel, conical grinding wheel or disc grinding wheel.