The reliability of your production equipment depends largely on the reliability of the motors, gear and coupling driving the different loads.
Mechanical breakdowns are often caused by inadequate sizing or selection or overload of equipment.
To make a good selection it is necessary to evaluate all the forces applied to the equipment, often forces are forgotten. Under sizing or misunderstanding of the manufacturer’s selection guidelines or the lack of protection against mechanical overload is often the basis for premature breakage.
For example, the servo and gear manufacturer Stober offers a very efficient engineering service that offers free sizing assistance. Several options are available to increase the capacity of the gears without increasing their size, For example in the case of axial load roller type bearings are available or (Peak Torque Booster) which allow to increase the shock resistance of the reducer.
Stober also offers Video tutorials that help democratize the application of Gearbox and servos motor to help you better apply the equipment
Below are some episodes of Stober’s Power Tip focusing on the important points when designing a machine and their links with reliability
For more video of the Power Tip series visit stober’s website
There is also the manufacturer R+W who manufacture couplings with overload protection that will protect your gears against momentary overload or blockages. The load will then be decoupled and breakage avoided.So our 1st recommendation would be to use the services of your manufacturer, distributor or manufacturing agent to validate your product selection. The minimum information required is: Torque Maximum, Torque Nominal, axial load, speed, application type and motor model and engine manufacturer. The 2nd would be to use a mechanical overload protection when there is a risk of blockage or overload.
Here is a video about R+W’s technology
The other source of breakage is electric, when motor is not controlled by a dimmer the motors are subjected to voltage variation without any protection. Modern three-phase motors have a lower heat capacity and are more susceptible to breakage during phase loss or under-voltage situations. The manufacturer Macromatic offers voltage detectors that protect against single-phase. A nice option to avoid this kind of breakage.
Watch the following Macromatic Video
When the motors are controlled by a variable speed drive, these are the ones that are at risk during voltage variation. The manufacturer Bonitron manufactures filtration and voltage conditioning equipment to eliminate breakage and untimely triggering of your drives. So our two tips to avoid breakage related to the power supply will be to see to install phase loss detectors on your motors on your full voltage starters and to see to evaluate the conditioning needs of the AC power supply and the DC Bus of your drives.
Attached is an overview of Bonitron’s offer at an event organized by a Rockwell distributor in the USA
Hoping who you found the above information interesting
We are available if you need help selecting equipment for a new project or improving the reliability of your equipment