As servo technology has evolved-with manufacturers making smaller, yet better motors -gearheads are becoming increasingly essential partners in motion control. Finding the optimal pairing must consider many engineering considerations.
• A servo electric motor working at low rpm operates inefficiently. Eddy currents are loops of electrical current that are induced within the motor during operation. The eddy currents actually produce a drag force within the motor and will have a greater negative impact on motor functionality at lower rpms.
• An off-the-shelf motor’s parameters may not be ideally suitable for run at a minimal rpm. When an application runs the aforementioned engine at 50 rpm, essentially it isn’t using all of its obtainable rpm. Because the voltage continuous (V/Krpm) of the motor is set for a higher rpm, the torque constant (Nm/amp)-which is usually directly related to it-is definitely lower than it needs to be. Consequently, the application needs more current to drive it than if the application form had a motor particularly made for 50 rpm. A gearhead’s ratio reduces the motor rpm, which is why gearheads are sometimes called gear reducers. Utilizing a gearhead with a 40:1 ratio,
the electric motor rpm at the input of the gearhead will be 2,000 rpm and the rpm at the output of the gearhead will be 50 rpm. Operating the motor at the higher rpm will enable you to avoid the concerns
Servo Gearboxes provide freedom for how much rotation is achieved from a servo. Most hobby servos are limited to just beyond 180 degrees of rotation. Many of the Servo Gearboxes utilize a patented exterior potentiometer so that the rotation amount is independent of the gear ratio installed on the Servo Gearbox. In such case, the small equipment on the servo will rotate as many times as essential to drive the potentiometer (and therefore the gearbox output shaft) into the position that the transmission from the servo controller calls for.
Machine designers are increasingly turning to gearheads to take advantage of the most recent advances in servo motor technology. Essentially, a gearhead converts high-velocity, low-torque energy into low-speed, high-torque output. A servo motor provides extremely accurate positioning of its result shaft. When these two products are paired with each other, they promote each other’s strengths, offering controlled motion that is precise, robust, and dependable.
Servo Gearboxes are robust! While there are high torque servos on the market that doesn’t indicate they can compare to the strain capacity of a Servo Gearbox. The tiny splined output shaft of a regular servo isn’t long enough, large enough or supported sufficiently to handle some loads despite the fact that the torque numbers look like appropriate for the application. A servo gearbox isolates the strain to the gearbox output shaft which is supported by a set of ABEC-5 precision ball bearings. The exterior shaft can withstand intense loads in the axial and radial directions without transferring those forces on to the servo. In turn, the servo operates more freely and is able to transfer more torque to the result shaft of the gearbox.