Klingelnberg P 40 Precision Measuring Center

The Klingelnberg P 40 is a Precision Measuring Center — a gear metrology instrument, not a gear cutting machine. It measures parts rather than producing them, and its specification is written in measuring intervals and accuracy limits rather than spindle power and cutting rates. Cylindrical gears are held between centers at up to 400 mm clamping and testing diameter, across a module range of 0.30–20 mm (0.10 mm in the extended range), with 50–800 mm between centers (1,000 mm extended).

Measuring accuracy is classified Group A under VDI/VDE 2612 sheet 6, the guideline used to accept and re-verify gear measuring instruments. In a temperature-controlled 18–22 °C environment the length measurement error limit is MPE_E0 = 1.8 µm + L/450 mm to ISO 10360-2:2010, with rotary axis roundness of 0.3 µm (Ø 100/L) and total axial runout of 1.5 µm to VDI/VDE 2617 sheet 8. On a gear instrument those rotary figures carry as much weight as the linear ones: pitch and runout results are read off the rotary axis, so its error propagates into every result taken from it.

The P 40 carries a second, separately specified accuracy set for 15–35 °C: MPE_E0 = 1.8 µm + L/250 mm, roundness 0.5 µm, and total axial runout 1.8 µm. That wider band is what makes the machine deployable near production instead of only in a climate-controlled metrology lab — accuracy is held across a 20-degree spread, at a proportionally looser length term.

Working limits are set by mass and inertia as much as by size: 300 kg maximum workpiece weight and a 5 kgm² maximum moment of inertia, with ±115 mm of horizontal measuring interval in X and 550 mm vertically in Z (700 mm in the extended version). Site requirements are light next to a machine tool — 0.7 kVA rated power including the printer and 6 bar at 1 l/min of compressed air, with no coolant, chip handling, or filtration to install. The machine weighs approximately 2,200 kg net including standard equipment and occupies roughly 2,015 x 2,505 x 2,200 mm (2,400 mm in the taller configuration).

In a gear production quality loop the P 40 sits downstream of cutting, heat treatment, and grinding. It is where flank deviations are quantified, where first articles are approved or rejected, and where the correction data fed back to the producing machine originates. Its output is a measurement record and a set of corrections, not a finished part.