With the many commercial gearboxes available today, it’s important to match the proper type of gearbox with the drive, motor, and load. Whenever a machine requires a servosystem (drive and engine), the gearbox type is crucial for accurate and repeatable movement. Planetary gearboxes fit the bill for servo applications.
High-precision helical planetary gearboxes are a great choice for applications that require accuracy and reliability. Planetary gearboxes have got very low backlash ratings (typically ranging from someone to nine arc-min), so when sized correctly offer a service lifestyle of over 20,000 hours with virtually no maintenance. Helical planetary gears provide very silent and more efficient operation in comparison with competitive products.
Precision gearboxes are carefully machined to high tolerances – believe clockmaker, not blacksmith. They provide power densities that translates to small bundle size and efficiencies of 90% and greater.
Servomotors often drive loads directly with no need for a gearbox, but in many applications it’s beneficial to make use of a gearbox servo motor gear reducers between your motor and load.
One main cause to employ a gearbox is torque multiplication. It lets designers use smaller servosystems that consumes less energy. Rather than buying relatively large servodrives and motors, designer can use smaller parts, saving space and cash.
Output torque increases in direct proportion to the gear ratio, and top velocity of the output shaft decreases. If a credit card applicatoin can withstand the decreased speed, a relatively little servosystem can supply high torque.
Gearboxes may also address inertia mismatches. For high performance servosystems — those with high dynamic responses or low overshoot, for example – the ratio between the reflected load inertia and engine inertia should be only practical, preferably under ten-to-one. A precision gearbox reduces the reflected inertia by the square of the decrease ratio. For instance, utilizing a 25:1 gearbox decreases the load’s reflected inertia by a factor of 625, a significant improvement.