Reishauer NZB

The Reishauer NZB is a CNC continuous generating gear grinding machine in Reishauer's classic NZ series — a line of production-proven gear grinders that formed the foundation of the company's portfolio before the introduction of the modern RZ platform. The NZB represents Reishauer's established generating grinding technology applied in a robust, production-ready package, offering the core advantages of continuous generating grinding for manufacturers who require proven, field-tested performance in a gear grinding machine.

Reishauer AG of Zurich, Switzerland, is the originator of the continuous generating gear grinding (Wälzschleifen) process, which uses a threaded worm grinding wheel meshing continuously with the rotating gear blank in a synchronized, generating engagement. This process is fundamentally different from profile gear grinding: rather than forming individual tooth spaces with a shaped wheel, the generating process engages multiple teeth simultaneously in a kinematic relationship analogous to gear hobbing, producing consistent tooth-to-tooth accuracy and surface quality across the entire gear face. The process's continuous engagement eliminates the indexing pauses inherent in profile grinding, enabling faster cycle times for a given gear size and quality target.

The NZB is engineered for external spur and helical gears in a capacity range suitable for passenger car transmission gears and light commercial vehicle drivetrain components. The machine accepts dressable grinding wheels — both CBN vitrified bond and conventional abrasive formulations — with Reishauer's established diamond roll dressing system maintaining wheel profile throughout production runs. The NZ-series machines use Reishauer's gear parameter-based CNC programming, where the operator inputs gear specifications (module, number of teeth, pressure angle, helix angle, face width, quality target) and the control generates the machining program, reducing setup complexity and potential for programming errors.

As a production machine in the NZ series tradition, the NZB is designed for high-duty-cycle continuous operation in automotive-tier production environments. The machine's robust structural design absorbs grinding forces and thermal loads while maintaining the axis precision required for DIN 4-5 quality in production, with DIN 3 achievable in optimized applications. Integrated process monitoring tracks grinding power, cycle time, and wheel wear to support statistical process control requirements common in automotive supply chains.

The NZB occupies an important position in Reishauer's history and in the broader evolution of production gear grinding: the NZ series machines demonstrated that continuous generating grinding could be deployed reliably in demanding automotive production environments, establishing the technical and commercial case that led to the development of the current RZ platform. Manufacturers operating NZB machines benefit from Reishauer's depth of application knowledge and a global network of users whose collective process experience informs wheel selection, dressing strategy, and process optimization.