Filengrène was designed by an educator (Mr André Meyer) specialising in gear machining. There is a video description of the software, ref 1 at the end of the article.
The aim of the software is to design any type of gear (with all the possible refinements) and to machine them with plain milling cutters on a five axis CNC. You pay only if you want your machine to be able to use the software results with your machine.
The interest is that any type of gear can be machined with plain cutters, so low tooling cost, but of course the cutting time is longer than the one of dedicated gear cutting machines. This is convenient for one-off jobs or small batches for gears having a big module.
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The interest for model engineers is in two ways:
For those using the hobbing process, it’s easy to get all the figures needed with no calculation for machining cylindrical gear spur or helical ones.
For those having a 3D printer, it’s possible to use the software results (“stl” files) to print complex gears such as spiral conical ones. I’ve seen a differential made this way ref 2.
Please note that as M. Maurel is French, so are many of these links, but Google Translate or YouTube subtitles should be sufficient to allow those with knowledge of gear production to understand them.
The software can be found here: https://moodle.insa-rouen.fr/course/view.php?id=700
Ref 1: Printed differential: https://www.usinages.com/threads/filengrene-cfao-pour-les-engrenages.129655/page-5
Ref 2: Video filengrene description: https://youtu.be/sIbzPBEFFzg
Ref 3: Filengrene tutorials:
Video gear concept 1: https://youtu.be/d-VDn_Azlvk
video gear concept 2 : https://youtu.be/LapzpOw9uXY
video 2D display : https://youtu.be/sc7s_yv4rE4
Video 3D display : https://youtu.be/kAk-kbN-qFc
video throated worm wheels concept : https://youtu.be/EWnm16BUyq4
video about tooth profile modif and crowning : https://youtu.be/Og4PUE2scUE
video about protuberance : https://youtu.be/PyLdse5ypug
video about gears machining 1 : https://youtu.be/u8Og6jBajdc
video about gears machining 2 : https://youtu.be/HTlv7VQlW0g
Ref 4 : Ferguson’s paradox video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPXMDo1oLlw
