Universal Gear Housing Flange for Multi-Type Gearbox Assembly
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing gearboxes lack an improved interface for easily integrating engines, adapter plates, or other gears, which complicates warehousing, assembly, and maintenance.
Innovation Solution
The design of a series of gearboxes with various housing types that accommodate head gears, bowling wheel gears, and flat gears, featuring a drive flange with a tarpaulin surface and strategically placed storage points for wave bearings, allowing for easy assembly and maintenance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the housing opening is made smaller to reduce manufacturing complexity, then the bearing points become less accessible, but manufacturing precision and ease of manufacture improve
Solution Approach 1:
The drive flange is designed with a standardized interface that serves multiple functions: it provides the mounting surface for motors and adapters, defines the positional relationship between drive and output shafts, and establishes the accessibility of bearing points. This universal interface design allows the same flange structure to be used across different gearbox types (spur, bevel, worm gears) and sizes, making the bearing points consistently accessible without requiring different housing opening designs for each gearbox variant.
2Adaptability or versatility
If different gearbox types use different housing designs, then each type can be optimized for its specific gear unit, but adaptability and storage efficiency decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The housing is designed with a universal drive flange interface that can accommodate different gear units (spur gears, bevel gears, worm gears) while maintaining the same mounting interface for motors and adapters. The standardized flange design with specifically positioned bearing points allows one housing type to serve multiple gearbox configurations, improving adaptability and reducing the number of different housing types needed for storage and assembly.
Solution Approach 2:
The gearbox design separates the universal interface function (drive flange with bearing points) from the gear-specific internal components. This segmentation allows the housing and flange to remain standardized while the internal gear units can vary, enabling different gearbox types to use the same housing structure and interface design.
3Ease of operation
If the bearing points are positioned outside the minimum inner diameter of the drive flange, then accessibility is reduced, but the housing structure becomes simpler
Solution Approach 1:
The drive flange is designed with bearing points positioned at specific locations within its structure, ensuring that these critical access points lie within the minimum inner diameter. This local optimization of the flange geometry ensures that bearing points remain easily accessible for assembly and maintenance operations, while the rest of the flange structure can be designed for strength and mounting requirements without compromise.
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a series of gear train housings (Gij) that comprises different sizes. Each size comprises a series of different housing types, which are suitable for at least two different gear train types of the following types: spur-gear gear trains, bevel-gear gear trains, flat gear trains, and worm gear trains. Each gear train housing (Gij) has a housing opening (10) on the drive side, which housing opening is surrounded by a drive flange (11) for connecting a motor, an adapter plate, or an additional gear train. In at least two different sizes, the axes (20) of bearing points (21) designed to accommodate shaft bearings for toothed parts, said axes extending perpendicularly to the plane of the drive flange (11), lie inside a minimum inside diameter (b1) of the drive flange (11) as viewed in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the drive flange (11) for at least two different types of each of said sizes.