Page 6 - Industrial Technology Extra - 26th May 2020

GEARS...

Low cost automation for gears

In its latest ‘Video of the Week’ Igus looks at how strain wave gears complement its
low-cost automation range. Find out how the new strain wave gear is built and works
ribopolymers are used wherever is transferred to the surrounding flexible ring. The
technology needs to be improved and teeth of the flex ring engage in the internal teeth of
costs reduced in moving applications. For the outer ring and output element at two points.
Tgearboxes, these advantages are Since the outer ring has two teeth more than the
particularly important. In this week’s video you will other components, the flex ring is only moved
see the new strain wave gear, which is light weight forward by two teeth per revolution when the wave
and compact in size. generator rotates.
Using iglidur high-performance plastics means A typical application for the shaft gear is as the
that strain wave gearboxes from igus do not have to final axis of a robotic arm, linear robot and delta
be lubricated like its metallic counterparts. Friction robots before the various gripper systems are added.
and wear are also reduced by the dry running At this point it takes over the task of gripping and
tribopolymers. Through active research and further precisely positioning objects that are not rotationally
development of the wave gear units, especially in symmetrical. The current development is based on
the latest generation, igus has minimised backlash, the NEMA 17 size for direct connection to a stepper
ensuring precise adjustment with incredible motor and can be easily adapted to other motor
reliability types.
The main components of the gearboxes com- The load capacity of the shaft gears was
prise a shaft generator and flex ring with external determined in in-house tests. With a gear ratio of
teeth, as well as an outer ring fixed to the housing 28:1, the gear unit shows a service life of 1 million
and a rotating output element with internal gear. cycles at a load of 1.5Nm and a speed of 6rpm.
The wave generator has an elliptical shape, which www.igus.co.uk/info/n20-strain-wave-gear

May 2020 • INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY EXTRA! • p6