What are the advantages of hypoid gearing?

Conventional spiral bevel gearing, meshing in the position shown at the bottom of the drawing, has a purely rolling meshing action that is mechanically very efficient. Its drawback is that it offers the smallest total tooth contact area, so its torque throughput capacity is lower. Single-stage spiral bevel gearing is limited to about a 6:1 reduction ratio.  It’s easy to get higher ratios with multiple-stage configurations, but the additional gear stage lowers mechanical efficiency, increases backlash, consumes space and weight and reduces reliability.

Conventional worm gearing, meshing in the position shown at the top of the drawing, has a very high total tooth contact area. While it offers high torque throughput and high ratio reduction, worm gearing has the lowest mechanical efficiency, due to the friction generated by its high component of sliding action. Worm gearing is also subject to the kind of wear that demands adjustment in order to maintain accuracy.

Hypoid gearing, meshing at the intermediate position, offers mostly rolling action with a small component of sliding action. It has a greater tooth contact area than bevel gearing, so its load-carrying capability is greater.

For more information on hypoid or other gear technology, visit www.gamweb.com

What is an Elastomer Coupling?

Elastomer couplings can be plugged in, are backlash free, flexible shaft couplings for small to medium torques.  An elastomer coupling is typically a three piece design comprised of two hubs and an elastomeric spider.
The elastomer spider (insert) serves as the connection and compensation element with involute shaped teeth and high Shore hardness.  The spider is inserted with slight preload between two high precision machined hubs with matching involute shaped jaws.  The elastomer spider can compensate for shaft misalignments, is electrically insulating and demonstrates good oscillation dampening.

Areas of use for elastomer couplings range from general motion control applications to demanding drive systems in machine design including the spindle and axis drives of machine tools.  To learn more about elastomer couplings visit http://www.gamweb.com/elastomer-couplings.html

What is the GAM EASY-Clamp system?

Because the bore tolerances on couplings are so precise, installing or un-installing a servo coupling can be very difficult.  In fact, machine builders have been known to wedge screw drivers in the coupling hubs to help open the bores up.  Not only is this unsafe but the coupling and/or shafts can be damaged.

A better engineered solution is the EASY-Clamp system which is found on many GAM couplings.  This system allows easy installation without the need for additional tools (screw drivers included).  The EASY-Clamp pin is located just above the clamping bolt.

To engage the system, simply loosen the clamping bolt until it backs out and hits the pin.  This expands the clamping head making installation or un-installation quick and easy.

Visit our site www.gamweb.com for more information on GAM couplings.

GAM Customer Service Story - Rush Gearbox on a Friday Night

One of GAM's application engineers received a phone call on Friday, March 8th at 4:45pm from a GAM sales representative in Michigan who had a customer with a machine down after a gearbox from a well-known manufacturer had failed.  The other manufacturer could not help the customer as they quoted 6 weeks for a replacement or anything similar.

The GAM sales representative who was working directly with the customer confirmed what mechanical and performance specifications would be required to get the machine up and running again and a GAM EPL-W-118-025G could do the job.  

Because the customer was down, they needed the gear reducer as soon as possible.  After verifying components were available, GAM committed to shipping that night.  The motor that this gear reducer would mount to was not in the database, so one of GAM's engineers had to design a new adapter plate from scratch.  And because the adapter was new, it also had to be programmed into the CNC machine prior to machining.  To make the situation more interesting, GAM's accounting software was down for scheduled maintenance that would take place over the weekend, so the order had to be processed entirely by hand. 

Approximately two hours after the initial phone call, the gear reducer was packaged up and ready for courier pickup for delivery to the customer that same night. 

Four GAM employees staying late on a Friday night to make sure a customer could get their machine running again. 

 

GAM Can Service. 


Even though a standard GAM gearbox worked for the customer, GAM has the ability to match the dimensions of most of the other gearbox manufacturers out there.  Need help crossing a gearbox over?  Email a GAM application engineer.

Infographic: What makes GAM couplings special?

Infographic: What makes GAM couplings special?

1.  A long history of coupling performance and quality.  Fact.  GAM introduced the bellows coupling to the North American Market.
2.  Easy Clamp System.  For easy coupling installation.
3.  Balanced hubs.  Balancing element allow for speeds up to 20,000 RPM.
4.  Brass Wire Press Fit Connection.  This bellows hub connection method was patented in 1974. 
5.  Specs you can believe in.  
6.  Huge coupling product range
7.  Customized for your application.  All of GAM couplings are custom machined per order.
8.  Deliveries you can count on.  98.1% of all couplings shipped on time or early since 2005.  Same day shipments are possible.
9.  Every coupling inspected.
10.  Excellent customer service and support.


For more information visit www.gamweb.com

3D Printing
There have been many articles out there lately discussing the ways 3D printing will revolutionize industries and the way we do things like in the article, "How 3D Printing Will Turn Homes Into Mini Factories" by Popular Science.  While the future is very bright and there is definitely enormous potential, the technology is still relatively new to many companies.

Our project engineer sees the potential and recently purchased a 3D printer for his own personal hobbies.  He recently used the printer to make a cool replica of one of our V-Series spiral bevel gearboxes to help show the possible shaft configurations and the direction of their rotation.

 

While these models are fun to play with, they can't transmit any torque or handle any radial loading.  Here are spiral bevel gearboxes that can.

Throwback Thursday
Back in 1991, GAM introduced the high precision bellows servo coupling to the North American machine builder market.  Here is the first coupling brochure that GAM ever printed:

(Front Cover)

(Inside Pages)

While a lot of things have changed since then...the core values of GAM have stayed the same:

• Dedication to customers
• Customizing product to fit the needs of our customers
• Technical Engineering Support
• Responsiveness
• Introducing high quality and new generation products
• State of the art manufacturing
• Long term relationships with customers

(Back Page)

One of the best parts of the brochure are the customer testimonials.  What's even better, is that they are still our customers today....over 21 years later.

Here are those testimonials:

"One of the attributes we look for in a supplier is 'responsiveness'.  I think the following story best shows GAM's concern for their customer's needs.  

'It was a Friday afternoon and our service engineer was at a customer's plant in Ashdown, Arkansas, servicing one of the packaging machines we manufacture.  He found he needed a coupling in order to get the equipment up and running by Monday morning.  He called GAM from his hotel room that afternoon.  On Saturday, he received the coupling at his hotel room, precision bored on both ends to his specifications, with keyways'

Our service engineer had the packaging machine ready to go by Monday and we had another satisfied customer."

Jeno Thuecks
Engineering Manager
Pemco, Inc.
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"As the largest manufacturer of double enveloping worm gears in the world, we must provide our customers with quality and high performance in order to maintain our leading position.  Whenever an application arises that requires zero backlash, high stiffness, and low inertia, we recommend GAM couplings.  These couplings exemplify the quality and high performance we demand.  Plus, their compact size easily fits inside our standard motor adapters."

Tom Scott
Senior Applications Engineer
Cone Drive Operations Inc.
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"As a retrofitter of CNC Screw Machines for the metal working industry, we understand that reducing downtime and minimizing machine damages caused by collisions are very important to our customers.  That is the reason why we turned to GAM for the excellent engineering assistance.  Because motor current relays react too slowly to protect our machines against damaging inertial forces, GAM helped us design a compact safety coupling which will disconnect the motor from the drive within 3-5 milliseconds.  Engineering safety is our highest priority in designing our machines and with GAM, we are meeting the concerns of our customers."

Martin Humphreys
President
Screw Machine Technology
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What a great brochure that really captures the essence of GAM...Take a look at our current literature