Efficient gear units

Comprehensive know-how from SMS group in the field of drive technology and manufacturing capacities in its own workshops provide customized and efficient drive solutions. Particularly the competences in the manufacture of large-diameter spur gears allow the implementation of large gear ratios with few gear steps. It is thus often possible to save a ratio stage when multistage gears are employed. For example, if a three-stage gear unit is constructively converted into a two-stage unit, this leads to a power loss reduction by approx. 34 percent. Due to lower power dissipation of the gear unit, the cooling capacity of the lubricating oil unit may also be correspondingly lower. The result is energy savings on gear and lubricating oil unit. Apart from this, less lube oil is required, allowing a correspondingly smaller design of the oil unit. A reduction of the gear stages also offers the advantage that fewer toothing components and thus also fewer antifriction bearings are needed. The number of possible spare parts is thus minimized. The advanced gear design with an even load distribution across the tooth flank causes the contact temperature in the tooth mesh to be approx. 20 percent lower than that of a standard toothing. As a result, the seizure resistance of the toothing is increased and the load on the lubricating oil is reduced boosting the service life of the lube oil.

Gear units operating at high speeds tend towards vibrations. The new low-vibration gear units from SMS group have already been tried and tested in cold rolling mills ensuring that the surface quality of the rolled strips is significantly higher. In addition, the low-vibration gear units offer the advantage that noise emissions from the plant are considerably lower. To accomplish this, the toothing is designed such that the overlap and contact ratios are within a defined range. Here, various load conditions of the gear unit are considered which may occur during operation later on. Individually tailored to the respective needs, the gear units from SMS group can be equipped with different measuring sensors. For example, acceleration sensors for monitoring toothing and antifriction bearings, temperature sensors for bearing temperature monitoring as well as flow and pressure sensors for lubrication monitoring can be provided.

In addition to the pure hardware, SMS group also supplies comprehensive software for evaluation and documentation of the measured values. Besides pure condition monitoring of the gear unit, also extensive digitalization possibilities are therefore feasible within the respective plant.