First there was the MF motor, designed by Lenze specifically for speed-controlled operation with frequency inverters. Then came the Lenze Smart Motor, which enabled fixed speeds to be set at will in applications. Now, the Motion Centric Automation specialist presents its new g500 gearbox range, which has been developed to transform motor speed into torque as intelligently and accurately as possible. “Intelligence is all about rethinking existing solutions to suit how they are used in actual applications, and bringing them to life them in a way that offers maximum benefit to mechanical engineers and plant operators,” explains Rune Friis-Knutzen, Head of Strategic Product/Market Development Electromechanical Drives at Lenze.
With the g500 gearbox range, Lenze is proving that there is still valuable potential for new developments in the field of electromechanics. The specialist in Motion Centric Automation has succeeded in developing a finely tiered series of gearboxes with an efficiency of over 94 percent across the entire transmission range. “We went right back to the drawing board and asked ourselves some serious questions about everything we’ve achieved so far,” notes Rune Friis-Knutzen, before adding: “As the losses are so minimal, the motor has less energy to generate, which improves the bottom-line efficiency of the entire system. What’s more, the lower level of generated heat increases the overall service life.” These successes have been made possible as a result of working with the latest calculation and simulation methods throughout the development process.
The g500 range essentially represents Lenze’s next step in pursuing the objectives it had already set out with its Lenze Smart Motor: to maintain the simplicity of an AC motor and use improvements in design to eliminate known imperfections – with the ultimate aim of producing a high-performance, efficient solution. One of the outcomes of taking this broader view of the mechatronic elements is that the speed of the Lenze Smart Motor can be adjusted directly on site simply by using a smartphone app and near field communication (NFC). As a result, just one variant of the equipment is enough to cover motor speeds of between 500 and 2600 revolutions per minute at a constant torque.
With this extensive speed range already well established, the new g500 gearboxes are now adding yet another dimension by enabling a huge range of possible speeds and torques to be covered with just one type of gearbox motor. Not only that, but the high levels of efficiency offered by the Lenze Smart Motors and gearboxes also offer clear benefits when it comes to energy efficiency, with the units already conforming to efficiency standards that will apply in the future. Besides the Lenze Smart Motors, the g500 gearboxes can also be combined with the IE2 MH three-phase AC motors, the inverter-optimised MF motors, and the MCA and MCS servo motors from Lenze to create packages that are intelligently tailored to specific applications.
The helical, helical-bevel and shaft-mounted helical gearboxes will be coming onto the market in two phases: Lenze is starting with the smaller sizes of 45 to 600 Nm in a newly constructed aluminium housing, before launching gearboxes with higher ratings of up to 13,000 Nm (produced in cast iron) roughly one year after that.
