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The Regal electromechanical powertrain offering encompasses a broad range of Regal-produced components (e.g., motors, speed reducers, gearing, couplings, bearings, belt drives and more) that can be integrated to create complete end-to-end solutions, customized to meet specific application requirements, and optimized to maximize energy efficiency and productivity. Power Transmission Engineeringrecently caught up with Chris Carrigan, vice president of engineering at Regal Rexnord and Joe Bierschbach, engineering manager - gearing at Regal Rexnord, to discuss the organization's latest powertrain capabilities.
PTE: Describe the response from customers that are now utilizing Regal Rexnord’s new powertrain capabilities. How do these technologies help them with new builds and existing installations?
Regal: Our customers refuse to accept the limitations of the conventional, piecemeal approach to powertrain design. They choose to partner with Regal Rexnord because they want complete, end-to-end and optimized electromechanical powertrain systems.
They also appreciate how deeply our engineers and specialists engage with them to understand their challenges, and then collaborate to develop tailored solutions to overcome them.
We utilize compatible, off-the-shelf Regal Rexnord components that can be custom modified to match any customer’s unique application requirements for endless potential. Our products and processes work seamlessly together — for a better fit, better performance, better optimization and a better end-user experience. Customers tell us they’re well positioned to meet their business objectives because the industrial powertrains we design and build together operate more consistently and reliably and consume less energy.
PTE: What role does Perceptiv play in making your customer’s products better and more energy efficient?
Regal: Every asset may have a different critical component. In some applications, the gear drive might be the most critical. In other applications, it may be the motor, a bearing, or multiple gear drives or motors. An intelligent and scalable system like Perceptiv Connected Services from Regal Rexnord provides the flexibility to monitor all the components within an asset.
As a result, our customers can reduce overall costs for industrial powertrain maintenance, repairs and spare parts.
Although product reliability and uptime are the leading justifications for investments in IoT solutions, we see customers expanding the scope of this equipment to optimize the performance of their assets or better understand processes and maintenance.
With Perceptiv, companies can monitor equipment vibration, temperature, belt speed, lubricant and motor current levels. The resulting real-time or near real-time data and insights they generate can be utilized to streamline processes and provide unprecedented access to engineering and design information. They also can inform educational, training, installation, repair and support services. All of which adds up to new capabilities to minimize costs and disruption to our customers’ operations.
PTE: Describe the advantages of offering a broad range of components as well as adding Rexnord’s process and motion control business to Regal’s portfolio. Why is this so important in 2021?
Regal: Previously, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and end users were required to assemble powertrains from motors, gear drives, bearings, couplings and other assorted components sourced from a variety of brands from multiple manufacturers and distributors. The responsibility for trying to predict the powertrain’s performance, reliability and longevity — and incurring the risk of unplanned downtime — falls to the end user.
The limitations of this “engineer-it-yourself” approach too frequently leads to sub-optimal results. Specifying and sourcing individual components from multiple suppliers are time consuming and costly. Maintenance, repairs and finding replacement components require tracking down individual suppliers.
But today, there is an alternative. Simply work with the experts at Regal Rexnord to define an application, what must be conveyed, where it has to work, and the power and torque needed to take on the load. We’ll do the rest.
Regal Rexnord offers complete and fully integrated electromechanical industrial powertrains. No one provides as wide a range of industrial powertrain components and systems for moving light-duty loads of less than 10 inch-pounds of torque to conveying the heaviest-duty loads of millions of inch-pounds of torque. They are custom designed, engineered, configured, assembled, commissioned and supported from start to finish by our experts for virtually any application.
The Regal Rexnord merger provides customers with access to a complete portfolio of complementary products across the entire powertrain, including highly regarded brands such as Browning, Grove Gear, Hub City, Jaure, KopFlex, McGill, ModSort, Sealmaster and System Plast brands plus Berg, Cambridge, Centa, Falk, Rexnord and Stearns.
Our customers also benefit from Regal Rexnord’s increased geographic reaches in North America, Europe and Asia as well as the increased reliability, quality, response time and product availability of our global supply chain.
PTE: What role will mechatronics and IIoT solutions play for Regal Rexnord in the coming years?
Regal: Regal Rexnord is always looking ahead. Technology now helps us and our customers to look even further. IoT solutions have an interconnected matrix of smart, digital hardware and software that has the potential to empower and elevate everything in the Regal Rexnord universe.
Connectivity brings together products, services and solutions to create a continuum for optimization and greater efficiency. It streamlines billing, e-commerce and ordering. It gives customers unprecedented access to engineering and design information. And it provides on-site and off-site educational, training, installation, repair and support services.
We see a future for industrial powertrains with hardware, software and “human-ware” — all connected and working together in perfect harmony.
PTE: What industrial segments do you believe will benefit from the most from these enhanced powertrain capabilities?
Regal: As a global motor and power transmission solutions provider, Regal Rexnord makes modern life possible. Our solutions enable the fans and HVAC systems that keep us comfortable, the agricultural and foodservice equipment that keeps us fed, the mining and manufacturing operations that keep the world moving, the conveyor systems that keep e-commerce flowing, and so much more. Industries and applications that can benefit from fully integrated industrial powertrains designed as complete systems include:
Agricultural and off-road machinery and vehicles
Alternative energy turbines (wind and solar)
Bulk material handling
General industry
Metals and heavy industry
Mining and construction
Oil and gas turbines
Unit material handling
Warehouse and distribution
Water and wastewater treatment
PTE: Explain why focusing on performance improvements is key to Regal Rexnord’s powertrain capabilities now and in the future.
Regal: Every individual Regal Rexnord component and our fully integrated electromechanical industrial powertrain systems are engineered to solve a specific customer challenge. By providing a complete solution, Regal Rexnord adds an unprecedented level of value to customers: optimizing engineering for a better fit and performance, reducing the complexity in certification, and integrating support and services.
We make every decision with superior customer value generation in mind. And every choice helps us to create a more energy-efficient future. By integrating sustainable technology, digital connectivity and full-service solutions, we’re creating a better tomorrow.