While there are plenty of motor-driven systems, only about 30 percent use gearing. With new standards and demands continually developing across industries, the technologies behind AC gear motors are keeping up to help them increase productivity and save money.

Emerging AC Gear Motor Capabilities and Benefits

• Variety of configuration options: Engineers have access to a variety of gearhead configurations for their applications, space constraints and motor designs. Integrated gear motors, for example, contain the motor and gearhead in the same housing, which simplifies the assembly process and provides a single speed-torque curve.
• Reduced speeds: Gearheads increase torque while reducing speed. This characteristic can improve a motor’s performance and consistency when it doesn’t operate efficiently at low RPMs. An example of this is the use of AC gear motors in stone grinders, which have unpredictable wheel rotations, friction, and variable levels of resistance and load variations.
• Higher levels of torque: When mounted on an AC motor output shaft, a gearhead can increase its output torque.
• Improved inertia matching: The introduction of high-energy magnets, thick copper windings and lightweight materials has caused some servomotors and their loads to have inertial mismatches. Such incidents may lead to increased settling times, production line throughput decreases or increased inefficiencies. Gearheads help eliminate this risk by matching the motor and load inertia, making a system more responsive. This is particularly beneficial in applications that require rapid starts and stops.
• Financial savings: Gearheads allow applications to use smaller drives and motors while still matching inertia, reducing speeds and increasing torque. A gearhead, for example, may eliminate the need to use a servomotor and can reduce a motor and gearhead’s frame size, providing a smaller driver and mechanical benefits at the same time.
• Robust housings: When applications use water or high temperatures, like in the food industry, integrated gear motors may be ideal because they don’t have seams that can trap moisture and bacteria. They may also use materials that resist high temperatures and pressure.

Sinotech is an AC gear motor manufacturer that can help you match the right gear motor to your application. It can also design and manufacture custom motors that meet your specifications at competitive costs. Contact Sinotech to learn how we can help you with your application.