Gearboxes Essay

729 Words2 Pages

Gearboxes
Anthony Bartley
IMT 150
April 24, 2014

Gearboxes
Gearboxes are used for many applications such as taking the torque your vehicle motor makes and applying it to the drive shaft which leads to another gearbox called a differential that turns the tires to move the vehicle. This is just one simple application. The majority of gearboxes are found in industrial applications.
Gearbox Purposes
Gearboxes are used to transfer the power from a motor to some type of machine while reducing or increasing speed or just changing the motors output direction. Gearboxes can reduce the speed thus apply more torque than the motor puts out or it can increase the speed which lowers the torque. This is helpful because the use of a high speed low torque motor, such as an electric 2-pole motor, can be coupled with a speed reducing gearbox to increase the torque output. This allows the use of a smaller motor on a heavier piece of machinery.
Speed Adjustment
Gearboxes are commonly used as speed reducers rather than speed increasers (Chastain, 2009, pp. 205). In a gear box there is an input gear and an output gear. The smaller of the two gears is called the pinion and the larger is called the gear or wheel. If the wheel drives the pinion the unit is a speed increaser, if the pinion drives the wheel the unit is a speed reducer (Chastain, 2009, pp. 190). There may be gears between the pinion and the wheel which are used for changing the direction of the output shaft (Chastain, 2009, pp. 190).
Direction Change
Sometimes where a motor is mounted causes its output shaft to be at 90° to the machines input shaft. This requires the use of a gearbox that has an output that is 90° to its input. Gearboxes can have input shafts with output shaft...

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...ntact times. These conditions require higher-viscosity oils. EP (extreme pressure) additives may be required if the loads are very high”.
Conclusion
Gearboxes are a universal piece of equipment for applying power from a driving unit to a driven unit. They require very little maintenance besides oil changes, and bearing grease. This allows them to last longer than V-belts, chain drives, or open gears before they need to be replaced. With the many different configurations of gearboxes, they can be used for many different applications for everyday life and industrial use.
References

Fig. 1, 2, 3.
Engineers Edge, LLC 2000-2014,
Chastain, Larry (2009). Industrial Mechanics and Maintenance: Third Edition, 190, 205, 206, 210, 212, 214, 215.

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