Gear Motors- Useful Tips

Here are some tips for you when working with gear motors:

• When specifying, you should start by first identifying the needed amount of torque at the gearbox output shaft. The purpose of the gear motor is for it to serve as a power transmission component which means that the two most essential factors to consider at the shaft are speed and also how much work it could do. This is determined by the amount of torque it produces. Usually, the gearboxes serve in order to take on motor power, magnify its torque and eventually reduce its speed. However, when you are trying to size the gear motor for a very particular application, concentrate on speed and available torque right at the output shaft of the gearbox. This should be the precise point where people like to focus on motor input horsepower. On the other hand, designers should start by exactly determining the torque which is needed at the gearbox output shaft then subsequently work backwards in order to identify the motor input horsepower needed.

• In order to increase the energy efficiency, you have to carefully think about the gearing efficiency and motor type. There are some cases that it is likely to considerably raise the efficiency of the gear motor by substituting a permanent split capacitor (PSC) ac motor to a PMDC or permanent magnet dc motor. PSCs can have maximum greater efficiency potential. However, its true efficiency could be much lesser when they are actually applied on operating load point. You also need to remember that the three-phase driven kind of gear motors are very efficient in comparison to the single-phase equivalent. They also tend to be more reliable since they have a more simplified design.

• Beware of oversizing the gear motor. The most common mistake you can make is improper sizing. You need to keep in mind that there is actually more to consider than just the speed and torque requirements in your application. Service factor is very important. The American Gear Manufacturers Association (AGMA) has a lot of useful information in order to help you in determining the service factor needs for most applications. Disregarding service factors will often lead to selection of units that may not last as long as the engineering works. You need to think about the gear motor which operate a fan two hours in a day and that it undergoes a lot of stress compared to a rock crusher that operates 24 hours a day. Even if the torque and speed requirements move the respective loads are still the same. The service factors applied on the torque are very different.

• Gearbox efficiency typically depends on a lot of factors notably with gearbox loading. Manufacturers often specify efficiency of motors. However, the total system efficiency is not really clearly understood nor easily being calculated. This actually makes catalog gearbox efficiency unreliable since they only provide single efficiency training.