Parallel Shaft Speed Reducers
Parallel Shaft Speed Reducers are ....???
For one thing, they are versatile. And for another thing they're very customizable. And another thing... THEY CAN BE MONSTROUS!!! Take a look at some of these photos as examples of just how customizable and large they can be.
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Parallel shaft reducers, as you can see, are pretty special. And while there are "standard" units available in the market, some of these units are modified and used heavily in industries such as the Steel Making Industry. Where the speed reducers are used to operate the rolling mills to form steel ingots into plate steel or rolled steel sheets. And as you can see from at least one of the photos, they are used heavily in the oil and gas fields as the mechanism that operates the "nodding donkey" or "pumpjack" of an oil well.
Reducers of this type are very efficient based on the fact that they are almost 100% helical, helical bevel and spur gear in nature. Thus the power loss between stages is very low. Because of the physical size of the casings, these units can enclose significant numbers of stages and therefore have very high reduction ratios. It is not unheard of for a parallel shaft reducer to be capable of "thousands" of horsepower and "millions" of foot-pounds of torque. One manufacturer's data talks about an upper limit of 625:1 ratio on a "quadruple" (4-stage) gearbox. So that means that if the unit was driven by a 1200 RPM (1140 loaded) electric motor, the output speed would be approximately 1.824 RPM.
So while you may not run into an application everyday for a "Parallel Shaft" speed reducer, become familiar with the fact that first... they exist. Second, they are VERY customizable, and third, their efficiency is extremely high.
Let the folks at A.R.&E. give you a hand if you're contemplating applying one of these units to a project at your plant. Give is a call or send us a note. We'll do our best to guide you in the right direction.
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