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In recent years globalisation has seen the number of players in the UK gear-motors market increase significantly, with many businesses now choosing to resell low-cost foreign-made products rather than manufacture their own. This has resulted in downward pressure on prices and, some would argue, increased choice for the customer.
It was against this background that Design Manager, Russell Tanner, was tasked with designing a new generation of products for Parvalux.
“There are well documented downfalls to reselling foreign goods, and not least those experienced by the customer, with poor lead-times, unreliable quality and overall product inflexibility becoming increasingly characteristic of such suppliers. Which is why many customers have kept their faith in UK/Europe based manufacturers like Parvalux.
So when we first began looking at extending our range of planetary gearboxes we knew that we needed to continue to offer the quality and flexibility that customers had come to expect, but also that if we could offer this at a competitive price we should also be able to successfully compete in the global marketplace. In other words, we knew if we just attempted to compete on price, we were never going to succeed.”
Technical Projects Manager, James Pearce, continues: “What we then discovered when we examined the European planetary gear market, which is undergoing significant growth as customers invest in higher-efficiency technologies, was that the arrival of these cheaper imports had created something of a polarised market for planetary products. In a cost verses quality comparison we saw that, while there were many suppliers across the continent, none were offering high quality at an affordable price. There were highly specified gearheads at a high price and low quality gearheads at a low price, but nothing in between.
Moreover, with our long experience in the geared motor marketplace we were very familiar with many positioning applications, such as PCB screen printing, and in these types of applications we had time and again seen over-specified planetary gearboxes used simply because the customer had assumed their application required servo-quality accuracy.
This is actually rarely the case as accuracy varies not only from gearbox to gearbox but also from application to application, for reasons such as: inertia, friction, consistency of operation and losses due to flexing of the system. Many of these decrease, and a few can actually increase, the effective accuracy of a system.
However, low-end planetary gearboxes often still do not fulfil positioning requirements, even if the application is well understood, as their build quality is often unreliable. So we could see that many customers were being left with little choice but to select an expensive servo-specified gearhead over a low-quality import, certainly if they had a critical application in mind.
So, we resolved to design a new planetary range that would operate marginally below servo specifications and that, as a result, would allow us to offer a high quality product for a fraction of the cost of a specialised servo-application gearhead; and in doing so plug the gap in the market for lower cost, high quality planetary products.”
The team used advanced product design software to model hundreds of permutations to reveal the optimum design for noise level, rolling friction and strength. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) helped them to determine the key points of stress and strain, to ensure that the gearbox would be as strong and rigid as possible. Each supplier and material was then carefully selected and rigorously tested to meet the strict construction and cost criteria.
The result is a range of gearboxes, built in the UK, that offer better backlash and efficiency characteristics, are far more flexible and are up to 50% less expensive than any other similar product on the market.
Key features include:
- Designed and built in the UK
- Available in 3 frames sizes: 42mm (*Q4 2009), 60mm and 86mm (*Q4 2009)
- 68 gear ratios in 1-4 stages enabling an output speed range of 0.1 to 1000rpm
- Available as stand-alone gearbox with a direct-fit or servo-coupling interface; or as a stand-alone 1-4 stage speed reducer
- Customisable output shaft
- NEMA square, metric, custom and IEC-B14 (56, 63 & 71) output flange options
- Polished finish as standard
Tanner concludes “When we designed the HP gearbox we had a number of goals. Firstly, we felt it had to offer excellent performance and quality for an unbeatable price, which we believe it does by a significant margin; secondly, it had to complement our existing offer, which is why it shares the same three frame sizes as our DC brushless range; and thirdly it had to offer customers complete flexibility, which we believe is one of Parvalux’s key strengths. I believe we have exceeded expectations on all levels, and needless to say we are very pleased with the result, initial take-up has been excellent, and the polished finish has proved very, very popular.”
Click here to discover the HP Range.
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