Within power transmission, the replacement of hydraulics and pneumatics by electrical and electromechanical drives is currently an important trend. Low energy consumption, high efficiency and long life are important advantages. Aandrijf Technisch Buro receives more and more requests to replace hydraulic drives, preferably one to one. But often this is not that easy or at least a challenge.

Hydraulic transmissions are often very powerful and if the same force has to be applied with an electromechanical transmission, this usually requires a large screw with a relative big electric motor. For one of our customers, we opted for a linear actuator combined with an electric motor. To reduce the speed of the motor compared to the screw speed, we mounted a small planetary gearbox between the motor and actuator. In this way, the transmission achieves the right speed and force and it is easy to apply by our customer.

If you would like to know more about this actuator or if you are looking for a linear transmission, please contact us.

​In this monthly recurring column we would like to put a transmission or related product into the spotlight, our GearTopper. In this way, we like to share our product knowledge with our readers. In this edition, we focus on Planetary Slewing drives.

Planetary slewing drives are normally recognized by a pinion on the output shaft and often a long output support. The pinion, which can be integrated with the output shaft or separately mounted on the output shaft, is running into the gears of a slewing bearing. The slewing bearing is a big bearing with internal or external gears which is placed between the bottom and top part of a crane or similar system to create the rotating movement.

As written before you can often also recognize a slewing gearbox by its long output support. The distance between the biggest planetary stage and the pinion is mostly longer then for a standard planetary gearbox. The output support has some strong bearings with a certain distance between them, to be able to resist the high radial load coming from the pinion. The output supports for planetary slewing gearboxes are seen with single or double spigot, depending on the radial load and structure of the crane.

Aandrijf Technisch Buro supplies a wide range of planetary slewing gearboxes produced by Dinamic Oil in Italy. We have many different output supports as a standard and we are also able to customize them to customer needs. We have many standard pinions but we also manufacture customer or application specific pinions. With a standard range of slewing drives up to 460.000Nm, available in inline or right-angle version, with or without brake, for hydraulic or electric motor, we are able to fulfill almost all requests on slewing gearboxes.
 
The gearboxes are optionally available with 3.1 material certificates and a product certificate from the well-known certifying bodies for the offshore and maritime sector, by means of type approval or design appraisal. Due to the modular construction of these gearboxes combined with our local stock, Aandrijf Technisch Buro is able to deliver a fair part of the range quickly. We are happy to provide you with professional advice, to make sure the gearbox fits seamlessly with your application.

​In the theatre business many hoisting applications are used. For example, to hang light elements, decors, curtains and other objects above the stage and allow them to change position during a performance. The installation often consists of many steel cables, pulleys, pull rods and counterweights with an electromechanical transmission. The movements must be very precise and extremely quiet in operation.

Our partner I.Mak Gearboxes & Drives offers the IRK series bevel helical geared motors, which provide great precision and noiseless motion. With electric motor and double brake, they guarantee advanced security and smooth operation in the theatre industry.