When purchasing surplus gear drives, it’s necessary to consider gear quality ratings in order to ensure your gear drive meets the requirements of your application. While the true test of a gear drive is its performance under operating conditions, failure to consider a gear’s rating can lead to major problems. Following is a look at what gear quality ratings mean in a Falk gear drive and why they’re important.
What Are Gear Quality Ratings
The gears in gear reduction drives are rated based on standards set by the American Gear Manufacturers Association (AGMA). Gear quality ratings range in number from 3 to 15 and indicate the tooth accuracy of the gears. While a low rating may be sufficient for some basic applications, many of today’s high-capacity gear reduction drives are rated at least 11, whereas precision equipment such as an aircraft transmission might require a 14 or 15 accuracy rating.
Why the Ratings Matter
As gear quality ratings increase, the difference in accuracy is significant. Using a gear that is rated too low for an application can result in a drastically reduced gear life and cause problems within your Falk gear drive. So when replacing a gear within a Falk gear drive, for example, it’s critical to know the quality level of the original gear.
What Gear Quality Ratings Don’t Tell You
The AGMA’s rating system applies only to unassembled gears, not to the gear drive as a whole, which means gear quality ratings don’t necessarily indicate how well surplus gear drives will perform. A better performance indicator is gear mesh accuracy, which can be influenced by a number of other factors, including assembly quality, housing bore accuracy and gear drive design.
Posted under Products/Services on Thursday, June 23rd, 2011