Worm gears are common in industrial applications, consumer applications, and heavy equipment. The worm Gear can offer an appreciable reduction ratio which, in many cases, will be self-locking.
The worm gears are mainly used for gear reduction. The assembly can achieve a reduction ratio ranging between 20: 1 and 300: 1. So, the high amount of stress that is working on the worm gear assemblies demands the use of metals that are capable to withstand increased torque or reduced speed. That is why the gear comprises mostly iron, steel, bronze or harder metals that have high durability of the shaft and the worm.
Top Wormwheel Manufacturer like Shacha Technoforge has clearly shown expertise in the making of these gears using advanced technology to increase the strength of the gears. These are capable to withstand a maximum increase in torque or speed reduction owing to the maximum innate strength of the gear.
It is time to know more elaborately about the worm gears.
What is a Worm Gear?
A worm gear consists of a shaft that has a spiral head. It will engage with and drive the toothed wheel. It is one of the old-styled gears, which is one of the six versions of the simple machine.
- The spiral head is the gear or worm wheel which has non-intersecting and non-parallel shafts.
- The shafts maintain a right angle with the gear.
- A screw with a V-type thread is analogous to the worm and the gear is usually analogous to the spur gear.
- The chief driving component in the system is the worm and its thread advances the teeth of the gear.
The worm gear set can have either single or multiple starts, implying that there can be multiple helices or threads on the worm.
The turning of the lubricated gears creates friction that operates the Worm gear. The frictional energy converts into heat. With the production of low-speed and high-speed torque levels, you can use the set as the worm gear reducer of speed. Therefore, it is ideal for several applications.
For the single start worm and wheel, each full rotation of 360 degrees of the worm will advance the gear by a single tooth. For example, if your gear has 24 teeth, the gear reduction will be 24: 1.
But for the multi-start worms, the gear reduction will be exactly equal to the number of teeth present on the gear which you have to divide by the number of starts on the worm. This number will be different in most of the gears where the gear reduction will be the function of the diameter of a couple of components.
2. Types of Worm Gears
There can be different types of worm gears depending on the mode of operation and design. Let’s show you the ones that are commonly available with the leading worm and worm wheel manufacturer in India.
2.1 Non-Throat:
The non-throated version of the assembly consists of a straight worm devoid of the groove machined along the circumference. There is just a single moving point that serves as the tooth contact. Therefore, this particular form of worm and worm gear will be subject to wear and tear from the higher unit load.
2.2 Single Throated
in this type, there will be a concave helical tooth wrapping around the worm for necessary line contact. So it is subjective to higher unit loads excessive wear.
2.3 Double Throat:
This form is usually called the cone of the hourglass. It has concave teeth on the gear and the worm. So, it increases the line of contact n such a way that it can support higher loads with lesser wear and tear.
2.4 Mounting
The precise mounting of any worm gear assembly will be a critical part of the use. You will need several points of contact to avoid the workloads that work on the leading angles.
2.5 Keyway
A keyway is a slot present on the bore of the gear corresponding to the slot. The milling corresponds to the diameter of the shaft. It will usually fit tightly together with the rectangular or square key aligned with a couple of slots. It will eliminate the chance of slippage between the two members.
2.6 Set Screw
The manufacturer will drill the hole for the set screw into the hub. The gear attachment will take place by insertion and tightening of the set screw.
2.7 Split
The split mounting resembles the set screw mounting. But the manufacturer will need to use the screws and the clamp. The type of clamp will vary, but there will be a hole that will fit over the worm gear’s hub.
As a result, there will be notches on the hub to make sure that after placement of the clamp on it and tightening, the spread pieces will squeeze together to secure the hub after separation.
2.8 Worm Gearboxes
The gearbox is necessary to change the torque or the output speed of the motor. The basic design of the worm gearbox is the same as that of the worm with the addition of a threaded worm gear shaft apart from the additional wheel gear.
When the worm gear starts to rotate against the worm wheel, the worm wheel will rotate the load.
2.9 Threads
The number of starts or threads in the worm signifies the number of teeth. You can find out the speed of transmission by division of the number of teeth by using the number of threads as the divisor.
The number of threads can vary from one to many. With a single design of the thread, the worm gear will advance by one tooth. With 2 threads in the design, the gear will move by two teeth and the trend continues. If you look forward to proper maintenance, the number of threads must match the mating gear.
If there is some very high helical angle, there should be one thread. But for the smaller angles, two, three, or more threads will do.
3: Application for Worm Gears
The leading Wormwheel manufacturer like Shacha Technoforge will be happy to share how the gear has slowly become a part of many mechanisms. With high operational needs, the gear assembly is ready for use in a plethora of applications.
It's time to explore the applications.
- Elevators and lifts
The use of worm gears is quite common in the machinery of common elevators or lifts. The gear is compact in size and non-reversible. Also, the gear is unable to transmit the motion back to the hoist or worm. Thus, the gear serves as the secondary braking system too. It implies that the load cannot fall freely and there can be easy regulations on the load speed.
- Fast stopping
The unique physical structure of the gear assembly makes it convenient to stop the mechanism from working instantly. So, the gear will be an ideal option as you choose them for the operations of the elevators. Also, they can integrate well with other braking systems, which will help in speedy stops to the moving devices.
- Conveyor belts and gates
It is possible to turn the typical worm drive in one direction only. It means that the conveyor belts as well as the security gates will lock up when no one is using them and it does not run backwards.
Automatic security gates are frequently adopting two worm drives instead of one. One will trigger the opening of the gate while the other will trigger the closing. So, you can be able to close the gates in each direction and it will be impossible to force through or breach the barrier.
- Tuning instruments
Have you seen the guitars, banjos, basses or other stringed instruments? The application of a worm gear is universal in these stringed instruments. The tuning mechanism works on this gear function.
The force reduction ability of the gear is chiefly responsible for the application. And also the locking potential will help to keep the desired tightness of the string at the right spot. This type of worm gear is a little different as you can use the same gear for tuning up and down. But some gears will allow control in one direction only.
- Torsen differentials
If you drive large trucks or some off-road vehicles including the 4WDs, it is often necessary to deliver different amounts of torques to the individual wheels. It depends on the nature of the action the vehicle is performing at that moment.
For example, when you need to spin the wheels at different speeds during taking a sharp corner as the inner wheels have to travel a shorter distance. The Torsen differential of the vehicle will handle such movements through the combination of worm gears and worms that separate the performance of individual wheels.
4: Worm and Worm Gear specifications are available from us
When you are searching for worm gears, you must have certain applications in the mind. But all the gears won't serve the purpose of all types of applications, and you must have perceived the same from the above list of applications.
So you need to be very specific about the technical details of the gears that we sell.
- Shacha Technoforge will inquire about the necessary details from the potential customers.
- We will show the apt products that we make to suit your needs.
- In case the dimensional specifications are not matching to the available options, we can offer to customize too.
We will clearly explain the specifications available to us so that you do not doubt the selection of the worm gear set.
- We have worm gears in single and double enveloping based on the shape of the meshed teeth.
- You can get the products in both gear set configurations and the enclosed format.
If the application demands for high- accuracy reductions, we will offer to create specially designed worms with negligible variants.
5: How to calculate the RPM of a worm gear?
The process of calculating the RPM of a worm gear is really easy.
The calculation formula for the velocity ratio of the gear is:
Number of teeth on driver gear / number of teeth on driver gear.
And this affects the RPM of the worm. It depends directly on the number of teeth. The number of rotations of the gear per minute will yield the figure.
6. Advantages
There are many reasons why every industrial sector needs worm gear regularly.
- The noiseless movement and functions of the gear are significant as noise production is already a menace in industrial setups.
- Smooth working is guaranteed if you are following the right lubrication process.
- The system is self-locking. It aids in various applications where holding the right position is necessary.
- Very high meshing effectiveness.
- If reduction of speed within minimum time is a necessity for some applications, the worm gear is ideal.
- Increasing the torque is an advantage to enjoy from the use of this gear.
- You can attain as high a velocity ratio as in the order of 100 within a single step.
Therefore, the gear is ideal for multiple applications that we already discussed above.
But the gear can turn out to be a little expensive owing to the premium quality of materials. And the power loss can be considerable. The heat production rate is also high. If you have arrangements to deal with these minor issues, the gear set can turn out to be extremely satisfying in various system integration.
7: Conclusion
A worm gear is more like a staggering shaft geat to read the motion between shafts by using the threads. These threads are cut into cylindrical bars that provide the speed reduction feature.
Noise and vibration reduction are two of the most significant advantages of using this gear. It is a compact type of gearing system that aids in easy placement in various applications.
It is time to buy the best quality gears from Shacha Technoforge to make sure that you add highly functional assembly to your inventory.
For any query, contact us at info@shachatechnoforge.com / +91 9909597710