With the many industrial gearboxes available today, it’s important to match the proper kind 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 need precision and reliability. Planetary gearboxes have very low backlash ratings (typically ranging from one to nine arc-min), and when sized correctly provide a service life of over 20,000 hours with virtually no maintenance. Helical planetary gears also provide very peaceful and better operation in comparison with competitive products.

Precision gearboxes are carefully machined to high tolerances – think clockmaker, not blacksmith. They offer power densities that translates to small package size and efficiencies of 90% and greater.
Servomotors often drive loads directly with no need for a gearbox, however in many applications it’s advantageous to use a gearbox between your motor and load.

One main reason to employ a gearbox is torque multiplication. It lets designers make use of smaller sized servosystems that consumes much less energy. Instead of buying relatively large servodrives and motors, designer can use smaller components, saving space and money.

Output torque raises in direct proportion to the apparatus ratio, and top acceleration of the output shaft decreases. If a credit card applicatoin can withstand the decreased speed, a relatively small servosystem can supply high torque.

Gearboxes can also address inertia mismatches. For powerful servosystems — people that have high dynamic responses or low overshoot, for instance – the ratio between your reflected load inertia and engine inertia should be only practical, ideally under ten-to-one. A precision gearbox reduces the reflected inertia by the square of the decrease ratio. For instance, using a 25:1 gearbox decreases the load’s reflected inertia by one factor of 625, a significant improvement.