Gears make people think of “settings”, “mechanical”, or “system” because gears mean a lot to the industrial economy. Machines need to convert the investments to income efficiently but are reliant on gears for power and speed transmission. It is why there are revolutionary creations called gear motors, where cost and power are both optimized at its fullest.
What are gear motors?
Gear motors are integrated drives with the gearbox attached to an electric motor. Usually, to slow down the speed to leverage the torque, gear motors are widely used in industrial robots and smart machines. Usually, AC motors are used for gear motors because they are efficient at high speeds, slowed down by drive systems to maximize utility. These are specific kinds of gears compatible with gear motors, each deserving its own spotlight.
Spur Gears on Gear Motors
Ask someone to describe a basic gear assembly, and spur gears will be defined: discs with meshing teeth. Using spur gears in gear motors is optimum for low speeds, as they tend to be noisy at high speeds. The range of speed reduction ratio is around 1 to 10, which is optimum for simple speed reduction.
Spur gears are generally used in low accuracy, low speed, and low ratio applications, which are mostly general applications. Alterations of spur gears are helical gears and bevel gears, which are used in angled shafts. Helical gears have slanted teeth, and bevel gears are cones with meshed teeth.
Worm Gears on Gear Motors
Having ratios around 5 to 60, worm gears work by spinning the “worm” screw connected to a gear with slanted teeth. It has a one-way power transmission, connecting perpendicular shafts. Worm gears used on gear motors are effective and reliable power transmitters because of the locking capability. However, the grooves and teeth have gaps between them, creating a backlash, and these rubbing parts cause low efficiency.
Planetary Gears on Gear Motors
A complex array of gears, planetary gears are used in gear motors because of having a high-power density. With several contact points and low backlash, the accuracy and torque density of planetary gears are higher than spur gears. However, they have around the same speed ratio,
and the complexity causes harder maintenance. As an upgrade to the spur gears, planetary gears are optimum to use in low speed, high power, high precision applications.
Strain Wave Gears on Gear Motors
Usually called “harmonic gear”, a strain wave gear is usually seen in gear motors. Its high transmission ratio ranging from 30 to 320 cannot be attained by using a single assembly of previous gears. Also, it has advantages of having zero backlash, compact size, low weight, high torque capability, and few components. Strain wave gears are made of a fixed circular spline, with teeth meshed to a flex spline, which is driven by the wave generator. The wave generator is connected to the electric motor, and the flex spline is connected to the output shaft.
Gear Motors on Your Projects
Using your gear motors advantages will make your project better and more capable of doing the job. The quality of power transmission is maximized when gear motors are used appropriately. Hopefully, this helps you make the most of using gear motors on your present and future projects.
