With the many industrial gearboxes available today, it’s vital that you match the proper type of gearbox with the drive, motor, and load. When a machine needs a servosystem (drive and motor), the gearbox type is critical for accurate and repeatable servo motor gear reducers motion. Planetary gearboxes fit the bill for servo applications.

High-precision helical planetary gearboxes are an excellent choice for applications that need precision and reliability. Planetary gearboxes have got very low backlash ratings (typically ranging from one to nine arc-min), and when sized correctly offer a service existence of over 20,000 hours with practically no maintenance. Helical planetary gears also provide very quiet and more efficient operation as compared to competitive products.

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

One main cause to use a gearbox is torque multiplication. It lets designers use smaller servosystems that consumes less energy. Instead of buying relatively large servodrives and motors, developer can use smaller elements, saving space and cash.

Output torque raises in direct proportion to the apparatus ratio, and top velocity of the result shaft decreases. If an application can withstand the decreased speed, a relatively small servosystem can supply high torque.

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