Worm gears are often used for their ability to provide very high reduction ratios (and high torque multiplication) in a compact, single-stage design. But traditional thinking says that these benefits come at the expense of efficiency. Here, we’ll look at the factors that determine worm gear efficiency and how to get the benefits they provide […]
Gears + Gearing
New robotic cycloidal gearbox from GAM
GAM’s newest GCL cycloidal gearboxes provide high precision and rigidity for horizontal and vertical robotic and motion control applications. The GCL is designed to withstand the frequent start-stop impact loads of industrial robots and other motion control applications with impact resistance five times nominal torque. The GCL series is available in a wide range of […]
Extensive line of spur gears from KHK USA
KHK USA Inc. has launched an extensive line of metric spur gears. A large selection of off-the-shelf KHK spur gears are available in many materials, configurations, modules and numbers of teeth, and KHK quick customized products can be ready within 5 business days. Spur gears are cylindrical disks that have involute shaped teeth cut into […]
What’s the current status of AGMA and ISO gear quality standards (and why are they so confusing)?
Gear quality standards developed and published by the American Gear Manufacturers Association (AGMA), have dominated gear manufacturing in the U.S. market since the 1960s. But in the 1990s, AGMA began working with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to update and harmonize gear quality standards, with several versions of both AGMA and ISO standards published […]
NORD adds new gear units with thermally optimized housings
NORD’s new MAXXDRIVE XT series features right-angle gear units with thermally optimized housings, output torques from 132,800 to 663,800 lb-in, ratios from 6.14 to 22.91:1, and 30 to 2,825 hp across seven sizes. The MAXXDRIVE portfolio offers parallel and right-angle industrial gear units with high output torques from 132,800 to 2,301,200 lb-in, ratios from 5.54 […]
Gearbox buyers’ guide from Ondrives
After many years of discussing gearboxes with engineers, we have developed a questionnaire we use to ensure that we have found all the necessary details of an application. We use this even if the engineer specifies our standard part number. The correct gearbox may have been chosen, but: 1.Are there any lower-cost alternatives to consider […]
What are different ways to express a gear ratio?
In motion control systems, gears are used to change the torque and speed delivered by a motor to a driven component. Depending on how the gears are arranged, they can either increase the delivered torque and decrease the output speed (the most common arrangement in motion control applications) or decrease the delivered torque and increase […]
What are multi-stage gearboxes and when are they used?
Gearboxes are commonly used in motion control applications to change the output speed and torque from a motor to a driven component. By using a smaller gear with fewer teeth (commonly referred to as a pinion) to drive a larger gear with a higher number of teeth, the torque delivered to the load is increased while […]
Gears and gearmotor trends — more customized designs
Gearing and mechanical power transmission, in its fundamentals, remains virtually unchanged. However, innovative variations are becoming increasingly common and include more custom gearing, compact designs, and better gearboxes and servo-gear sets. Manufacturers are offering designers more customized solutions via more in-house engineering resources, simplifying the design process. More custom solutions also means greater integration with […]
Miniature gearing and planetary gearing in haptic feedback
Planetary gearsets offer applications advantages over other gearsets, including multiple kinematic combinations, power density, big reductions from compact setups, and pure torsional reactions. Planetary gearboxes also boost overall design efficiency. Losses never exceed 3% per stage, so the sets transmit most energy for productive motion output. In applications driven by servo systems, gearboxes also reduce […]
