Industries | Textile industry | SPN worm gear for weaving mashine

Application example SPN worn gear for weaving mashine

Gear optimization is our daily business, and yet for every project we make it our business to meet the requirements of the product in a customer-specific, reliable and precise manner.

During development, special attention must be paid to the given gear connections as well as to the function and required performance data from the specifications and performance specifications. In the textile machinery industry, for example, it is very important that proven and sometimes very sensitive processes must not be changed.

A well-known worldwide leading textile machine manufacturer, with over 130 years of experience, develops and builds, among other things, high-end weaving machines. These machines are used to manufacture products such as safety belts for vehicles, safety-relevant load belts, high-quality textile labels, shock absorber belts or compression bandages for the medical sector.

Due to competition from Europe and Asia, textile machinery manufacturers are also under increasing price pressure. An external price study was therefore carried out with the result that all components of the transmission were re-ordered. Initially, only the gear components were requested with the aim of minimizing the sales price of his complete system. These bought-in production parts as well as the standard parts were to be completed to a worm gear unit in the customer's own assembly department.

Requirements and development process:

After checking the requested production drawings in our engineering and project management departments, it was clear to us that we could minimize the components without changing the design and center distance by making a design change. After the adjustments of the existing components were not sufficient to achieve the desired target price, our development and project management team realized that this was only feasible if the center distance and thus the installation space was reduced. This measure enabled us to save material and processing costs for the individual components and to achieve the target price. Here the challenge for the new development was to define an optimum bearing arrangement taking into account the new design for the smaller installation space. According to the specifications, the existing central lubrication system of the machine had to be used for the lubrication, since the lubricant is to be procured worldwide within a short time and changed on site. The implementation was only possible through a very open and close cooperation. A strength of SPN.

Project implementation:

SPN has developed, produced and assembled a worm gear unit especially for the drive of a weaving machine. The gear is driven by a toothed belt or by a toothed belt wheel on the worm shaft. The drive set consists of a case-hardened worm shaft and a bronze worm wheel and has a center distance of 80 mm, with a transmission ratio of i=8:1. In order to achieve the target price, among other things the center distance was reduced and a higher power density was achieved. Various auxiliary units are driven by the worm shaft via additional belt wheels. In addition to the helical spur gear, the output shaft also has a sprocket wheel which drives the oil pump of the machine-side continuous lubrication of the gearbox. The axle of the counter gear is clamped by a steel component integrated into the gear housing. The gearbox housing consists of 2 aluminium chill castings.

The decision to design the gearbox with the reduced center distance was made at the end of 2018. After some detailed discussions the proposed design could be released in March 2019. This new development was completed at the end of May 2019. Already in mid-September 2019 the first gearboxes could be assembled and delivered. The machines of our end customer are now in operation worldwide with our gear unit.

Comparison of both solutions:

new solution with 20 mm reduced center distance, known drive on right side

new solution with 20 mm reduced center distance, known drive on left side

Reduction of the axis distance
Weight reduction
Volume reduction
Compact installation space
Reduction of production and standard parts

Flyer worm gear

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Project result:

A compact, powerful and maintenance-free worn gear designed for central lubrication.

The target product of our end customer, a technically and economically optimized worm gear unit, was thus perfectly, precisely and customized in all required points.

SPN Schwaben Präzision supports its customers in after-sales after the project has been completed by supplying spare parts and offers a comprehensive service such as maintenance and repair.

In addition to the very short-term deliveries, we were able to convince our customers above all by not doing the assembly themselves, but by leaving it to us - the gear specialist SPN Schwaben Präzision.