Industrial Gearboxes: Discover How to Make the Right Choice
With so many machines and applications requiring a gearbox to regulate their levels of efficiency, torque and power output, choosing the right gearbox can be quite a complex task at first. In recent years, manufacturers of linear motion devices have made significant marketing budgets and technical efforts in acclaiming the virtues of edge products with levels of precision and performance greater than ever.
Gears are one of the oldest power transmission technologies, dating back as early as 330BC. The fundamental purpose of gears hasn’t changed much since those days, their basic function is still transmitting uniform motion between 2 shafts at a constant ratio. Nowadays industrial gearboxes are ubiquitous and are applied pretty much everywhere.
Many factors will have an effect on the gearbox selection in a given application. Some things to be considered are speed, power, ratio and torque – and not only the continuous torque, but the acceleration, repetitive peak and braking torque as well. Furthermore, things like duty cycle, backlash, shaft alignment, efficiency, size, weight, noise, mounting arrangements,maintenance requirements and operating lifespan also matter when selecting.
The most simple of all industrial gearboxes are the ones with spur or straight cut gear, comprising of a disk or cylinder with teeth projecting radially placed parallel to the axis of rotation. These gears can be interlocked together correctly only if they are fitted to parallel axis. They can handle high gear ratios and offer efficiency in the 95th percentile.
However, even though they are really efficient, they have some disadvantages as well. The teeth meet at a line contact across their entire width, which causes noise and stress. The noise can prove to be quite problematic at higher speeds. For this reason spur gears are most often used in low speed applications where noise control is not a problem.
The helical reduction gears are a refinement of the spur gear. In this model, the leading edges of the teeth are not parallel to the rotation axis, but are at a set angle. The gear is curved and the teeth are shaped like a segment of a helix. Helical gears can be interlocked in parallel and crossed orientations, but the load capacity of crossed helical gears is greatly reduced.
To sum it up, in every industrial setting, where the input speed needs to be lowered for a requirement of slower output speed, while the output torque needs to be maintained, the right gearbox will make the motor switch its output levels just right for the required application. Even the smallest of motors can be very strong and output over 3 000 RPM, and the gearbox can lower it just enough for it to function at an adequate level.