Updates to helical worm gear units offer wider power range

NORD DRIVESYSTEMS has announced an enhancement of their UNICASE Helical Worm Gear unit series that will provide additional torque without modifying the outer dimensions or mounting patterns of the units, resulting in a wider performance range without affecting existing customer configurations. NORD’s engineering team accomplished this to give customers added value while remaining a reliable, economical drive solution.

“It was necessary to maintain the housing sizes for these worm units to avoid disrupting existing systems and provide drop-in replacements for future maintenance and repairs”, stated Axel Darandik, NORD’s Head of Global Technical Sales Support. “This required an incredible amount of engineering knowledge from NORD’s global research and development team.” NORD uses several engineering tools to analyze new and existing products, including FEM analysis and updated calculation methods. They also pull from decades of experience to determine the best way to adapt the units without sacrificing any of the reliability and versatility that NORD worm gear units are known for.

While the outer dimensions, available ratios, and mounting connections of these updated gear units will not change, new worm shafts with larger bearing seats have been introduced to accommodate larger bearings and thus, higher power ranges. Housing bores, connection dimensions, options, and overall appearance will also remain unchanged. These adjustments give customers the benefit of added power without needing to adjust their system configuration. NORD’s Helical Worm Gear Units also provide more torque per case size and increased functional safety.

The inside of these units is where NORD’s experience is fully exhibited. Advancements include reinforcement of the worm shaft bearing to incorporate larger, more robust bearings, as well as additional reinforcement of the worm wheel itself and a wider bronze gear rim. Prefabricated parts and hubs have been adjusted to widen sprockets, and consolidation of wheel sizes reduced the overall number of gear parts needed for the series, which also reduced the number of bushings needed. These changes result in an optimized gear unit and the process has reinforced NORD’s commitment to making engineering “invisible” to be as easy as possible for customers to work with their drive solutions.

NORD’s Helical Worm Gear Units are available in six high-strength die-cast iron case sizes to guarantee maximum strength and rigidity with closely stepped ratios ranging from 4.40:1 to 7,095.12:1. The updated line now offers a power range of 0.16 – 20 hp and a torque range of up to 17,700 lb-in. These versatile units can be foot, flange, or shaft mounted with an option of hollow or solid shaft. NORD electric motors can be added as an integral solution. Motors can also be mounted via IEC/NEMA adapters.

For more information, visit www.nord.com.