Spiral bevel gear drives are an amazing technology. They allow you to transmit power around corners and, with our exceptional machining quality, make it easier to avoid the bounces and backlash that you may have experienced in other right-angle gearboxes. But when should you specifically spec a spiral bevel gear drive for your project?
What Are Spiral Bevel Gear Drives?
As a form of right-angle gearbox, a spiral bevel gear drive is a refined type of right-angle gearbox. Its mechanism allows for exacting control, reduced oscillation, and improved power transmission from one direction to another.
While any right angle gear can transmit force at a 90-degree angle, the design often exchanges precision for cost— resulting in imprecise indexing, increased noise, backlash, and other performance issues that are sure to impact efficiency and productivity. Since the gear teeth of a spiral bevel gear drive mesh diagonally, they can offer the raw power that comes with greater surface contact while producing smooth, accurate, repeatable motion.
Spiral Bevel Gear Drives: The Enemy of Backlash
When your application needs robust power with reduced risk and minimal backlash, spiral bevel gear drives provide you with superior results. If backlash were a comic book villain, spiral bevel gear drives would be the superhero ready to foil their evil plan and save the day. The shielded design of a MITRPAK spiral bevel gear drive also makes it an ideal solution for challenging environments, such as washdown processing or scenarios where contamination must be avoided from open drive systems such as food processing or pharmaceutical production.
The precision machining that is used in MITRPAK spiral bevel gear drives helps prevent backlash, which can affect your entire production line and increase the risk of damage or unanticipated failure in your other equipment. With backlash, you can expect to replace your right-angle gearboxes much more frequently, as well as having to undertake extensive maintenance to keep them operating. Backlash also causes a great deal of noise, making it difficult to work around and potentially hazardous on a busy production floor.
Spiral Bevel Gear Drives For Manufacturing Environments
Spiral bevel gear drives are incorporated in a wide range of challenging environments, and the unique adjustable locknut found in MITRPAK spiral bevel gear drives make it simple to undertake precise adjustment of your gearsets for the best possible operation. Instead of having to change out your right-angle gearboxes when you update equipment, you can simply make a few adjustments and go on with your process.
Other factors that you may want to take into account include whether the gearboxes are maintenance-friendly, with common fastener sizes that are easy to find. This makes even the more limited amounts of maintenance that are needed with these right-angle gearboxes fast and easy. Consider whether the spiral bevel gear drives can be customized to your specific operational requirements, including the housing, gear material, roll/dowel pins, locknuts, seals, shafts, bearings, and lubricants.
Is A Spiral Bevel Gear Drive Right For Me?
So, when are spiral bevel gear drives the best bet for your application? Ask yourself these questions:
- Does the application have high power or torque requirements?
- Is smooth motion or precision indexing critical to production activities?
- Will the gearbox be exposed to caustic chemicals, frequent washdowns, or other challenging environmental factors?
- Will the gearbox need to be accessed for maintenance or system repairs?
- Is product contamination a concern?
By understanding where spiral bevel gear drives work well in your facility construction or upgrade plans, you can best incorporate these exceptional devices where they’ll matter most. If you’re ready to learn more about spiral bevel gear drives, the experienced professionals at MITRPAK are ready to help.
Is your application a perfect match for MITRPAK? Check out our free guide 5 Questions to Ask Before Buying Right Angle Gear Drives to learn more about the features and benefits of spiral bevel gear drives today.
