Performance and Safety Top Priorities in Gear and Gear Drive Applications

The gear and gear drive segment of mechanical power transmission continues to focus on performance, reliability and safety. There are several new products offering increased load capacity, reduced friction and longer service life. For those components unable to keep up with industrial demands, there’s a gearbox MRO team waiting to handle emergency repair services. Here’s some of the latest updates from the Power Transmission Engineering website:

NORD Gear Units Offer Flexibility for Heavy Duty Applications

NORD DRIVESYSTEMS MAXXDRIVE and MAXXDRIVE XT industrial gear units offer highly configurable, complete solutions that are specifically tailored to application needs with 11 case size options, a wide range of components and add-ons, and the ability to be configured with 2,3, or 4 gear stages. These gear units provide the necessary power in heavy duty applications such as conveyor belt systems, mixers, agitators, crushers, and bucket elevators.

All MAXXDRIVE housings are optimized for strength, rigidity, and high axial and radial load capacities to withstand the tough environments and loads they are often put under during operation. All bearings and sealing surfaces are machined in a single process for quiet operation and reduced wear over time. The MAXXDRIVE XT design is further enhanced with a larger surface area by way of innovative cooling fin geometry. This allows for increased heat dissipation efficiency, maximizing thermal ratings and effectively eliminating the need for auxiliary cooling systems.

The internal gear components of MAXXDRIVES are hard-finished and rated to international standards. All components are produced in-house at NORD manufacturing facilities to ensure the highest level of quality is achieved. MAXXDRIVE units also feature large roller bearings that increase load capacity, reduce friction, and provide a long service life for components.

The MAXXDRIVE XT also offers a symmetrical, mirror-image design that reduces the number of replacement gear units that need to be stocked. Various cooling and heating options provide the drives with flexible temperature management that works to extend lubricant life and efficiency.

MAXXDRIVE units also offer a wide range of options including a fixing element kit, protective cover, torque support, monitoring sensors for temperature, vibration, speed, and oil level, oil heater or cooler, and many others. Additionally, these units can also be outfitted with NORD’s Endurance Package, which adds additional performance and safety features to further protect operators, transported materials, and gear unit components.

Nord.com

David Brown Santasalo Completes Emergency Gearbox Repair

The David Brown Santasalo team based at the Cambridge Service Center in Ontario, Canada recently came to the aid of a steel customer when they experienced a gearbox breakdown on their Roll Bar Mill Line. The ten-ton Roll Mill Line Drive had been in production for 23 years and is a vital component of the line process. The sudden failure resulted in the line having to be shut down and consequently, the emergency breakdown required an extremely fast and challenging turnaround to get it back into operation as soon as possible.

The failure occurred on the output shaft where the splines had been damaged from a shock load during operation. The team instantly got to work to implement a temporary fix by repairing all the bearings and seals, manufacturing sixteen heat treated pins and modifying the coupling. They then installed the sixteen pins to guarantee the torque transmission was correct when the Roll Bar Mill was driving.

The temporary fix was only estimated to last an extended two weeks to enable the line to operate whilst we were manufacturing new output shafts as a permanent solution. However, as the gearbox is currently still running so well, this has been rescheduled to September 2022 and will now include the replacement of all the internals and re-boring of the housing.

Philippe Eck, service center manager said, “It is great to see our team come together and deliver such exceptional customer service. It was great to see this emergency breakdown turned around so quickly, to enable our customer to get up and running again.”

Dbsantasalo.com

Bonfiglioli Extends Training Offerings for Academic and Business World

The Bonfiglioli Group recently extended its 4.0 training offer beyond the company walls, with its “adotta una classe” project. This is an “adopt a class” 100-hour project - with professional teachers and tutors, specialized in the academic and business world. It will also provide an internationally recognized certificate with a course addressing artificial intelligence, big data, Internet of Things and robotics.

Belluzzi Fioravanti Institute is also involved in the project. Sonia Bonfiglioli, Bonfiglioli Group’s president, and Fausto Carboni, Bonfiglioli Group’s CEO, presented the AI and Robotics license and the relative certification (released in collaboration with RINA) to the youngsters who attended the training course, including the Project Work offered by Bonfiglioli Group, and those that passed the final exam.

Throughout the Project Work, the students were guests of the Bonfiglioli Group at the Evo headquarters, supported by internal tutors with the aim of practicing the implementation of the theoretical knowledge learned during the classroom lessons, communicating with company managers and with the opportunity of exploiting Bonfiglioli’s technologies.

“The role of a ‘Responsible Enterprise’” said Sonia Bonfiglioli, “also involves taking charge of the future generations’ training experience, so vital for our future. The ability to intercept labor market needs, and the demand for new professional skills, must be channeled into the service of training, in order to contribute to the acquisition of the specific skills that digital transformation’s changes impose. We have always been convinced that training is the only tool which will allow people to remain at the center of future changes: not to resist them, but to optimize their performance and exploit their full potential.”

Bonfiglioli.com

Flender Finalizes Acquisition of Moventas

German drive specialist Flender is now solely the owner of Finnish wind turbine gearbox manufacturer Moventas. The acquisition marks the next step in Flender’s growth strategy after progressing into independence last year. Integrating Moventas’ engineering and service capabilities will foster Flender’s wind drives business under the successful Winergy product brand. The 22 GW of Moventas installed base, service know-how and multi-brand capabilities will be the lever for further growth in Winergy service business resulting in a comprehensive one stop service solution for wind customers. The Moventas global production and service network adds an additional three gigawatts wind gearbox assembly capacities, next to extensive capabilities in field services as well as gear manufacturing. 

“Moventas is a well-known brand in the wind industry. We are very fond to have their expertise and capacities under our roof now. It lets us further expand our wide product portfolio for the growing wind market to support the important energy transition. With gearboxes, generators, couplings, integrated drivetrains and a comprehensive multi-brand service portfolio we are the unique partner for the wind market,” says Flender Group CEO Andreas Evertz.

flender.com

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