(The statements and opinions contained herein are those of the author and should not be construed as an official action or opinion of the American Gear Manufacturers Association.) Abstract A recent trend has been a movement to more user friendly products in the mechanical power transmission industry.Oneofthesemoreuserfriendlystylesisahighhorsepower,rightangleshaftmounteddrivedesigned to minimize installation efforts. Commonly referred to as an alignment free type, it allows the drive package mounting to be quicker, more cost effective, and require less expertise during installation. This facilitates the use of the drive in applications, such as in underground mining, where there is little room to maneuver parts. The most common application for the alignment free style drive is for powering bulk material handling belt conveyors. Analignmentfreedriveisdirectcoupledtothedrivenshaftonly;itisnotfirmlyattachedtoafoundationorrigid structure. A connecting link or torque arm connects the drive to a fixed structure, which limits the drive's rotationalmovementaboutthedrivenshaft. Theelectricmotorissupportedbythereducerhousingthrougha fabricated steel motor adapter; the coupling connecting the motor shaft and reducer shaft is enclosed by this motor adapter. Sumitomo Drive Technologies is working on a design of the alignment free system by using Finite Element Analysis(FEA)tohelpguidethedesignprocess. FEAwasusedtotestthecastironhousingtodetermineany potential problem areas before production begins. Once analyses were completed, the motor adaptor was redesigned to lower stresses using the information from the FEA and comparing it to field test data.

methods

https://www.powertransmission.com/issues/0210/davis.pdf

Turbo-compressor Vibration Reduction Using Vibration, Modal, and Finite Element Analysis

Citations

Designing for Static and Dynamic Loading of a Gear Reducer Housing with FEA