Solutions in Motion™

Reliability is crucial for any industrial equipment, but most of all when machinery is operating under high-speed, high-torque conditions. For these applications, a high-speed right angle gearbox is often the best design choice to ensure cost-effective, long-lasting, safe performance. Right angle gearboxes are also compact, an important advantage when space limitations are a design factor.

High-speed automation is common in applications such as packaging, bottling lines and other food processing operations, pulp and paper manufacturing, heavy manufacturing such as cement or steel, and mining. And locations such as car washes, food and beverage operations, or medical facilities typically use high-speed roll-up doors.

From PayPal to Tesla, space exploration to solar power, Elon Musk's ideas and innovations transform just about every industry he touches. Now, W.C. Branham is excited to help participate in Musk's next big idea, helping a team competing in the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition.

In the fall, three Big Ten universities approached us with interest in our braking systems. Each team was participating in the Hyperloop Competition. Michigan Hyperloop, from the University of Michigan, was selected to race their pod this summer.

In order to pick the perfect spring applied brake for your application, you must first determine the amount of braking torque required, and then pair that with the right brake and disc solution.

There are two main applications that spring applied brakes are suitable for: Dynamic Stopping applications and Static Holding applications. But both applications have different requirements that spring applied brakes need to handle:

The nature of automation and the facts of physics dictate that all moving parts wear out over time, and your right angle gearbox is no exception. Industrial settings are demanding and unforgiving. High speeds, high temperatures, wash down requirements and other factors take their toll.

Right angle gearboxes require less maintenance than many other industrial components, but less maintenance still  doesn’t mean   no  maintenance. Developing problems can damage seals, bearings, bolts, and other internal components or even cause the entire gearbox to fail. You can prevent untimely problems and extend the service life of right angle gearboxes with a few simple precautions.

Looking for a caliper disc brake for your braking application? There are also a number of cost-effective and efficient brake and disc combinations that should be considered. From active pneumatic and active hydraulic to lever mechanical actuated and spring applied brakes, you can customize your application with the perfect product.

Each application type requires a different type of caliper disc brakes and features, so we’ll help you narrow down what product you’ll need based on the application you’re using it for.

Certain types of commercial facilities have doors that are very large and very heavy. Often, these doors are an integral part of the flow of operations, such as in a car wash, where automation is essential. But not all commercial door actuators are the same. A pneumatic door operator assures the power and reliability you need to keep things moving.

Here at W.C. Branham, we’ve been designing and manufacturing actuators for more than 30 years, and we’ve been providing specialized pneumatic products for commercial doors at least half that time. In our experience, a premium quality pneumatic operator is often the best tool for the job.

Elon Musk is known around the world for his innovative creations such as Tesla Inc., Neuralink,OpenAI, SpaceX, and The Boring Company among others. And his latest invention is just as cutting edge as the rest.

The SpaceX Hyperloop is Musk's answer to slow, expensive, problematic forms of ground transportation between busy cities. The Hyperloop will be a newer, faster, safer, less expensive and more convenient form of transportation between high traffic cities less than 900 miles apart.

When choosing cylinders for industrial applications, you have to know the amount of force required to perform the job at hand. Cylinders can move, slow, or hold a load, rapidly and repeatedly, if needed. The force required depends on the load itself – its weight and movement angle, among other factors. As they say, you have to do the math. But using a cylinder force calculator would make it much easier.

We have created four charts to help you. Simply choose the chart that corresponds to the type of cylinder you expect to use.

Note: W.C. Branham makes cylinders in both metric and imperial sizes, so there are separate charts for each.

All industrial caliper brakes are designed to slow, hold, and/or stop fast-moving or very heavy loads. And they can do it very quickly, if necessary. However, the type of caliper brake you use depends on the application. Some are best suited for heavy-duty off-road vehicles such as Utility Trucks, Road Construction, Turf Vehicles, Lift Trucks, Aircraft Ground Support Equipment, Military Ordnance Trailers, Agricultural Tractors, Mining, whereas others are more fit for different types of industrial applications like Manipulator arms, Hose Reels, Web and Wire Tensioning, Packaging, Printing Presses, CNC Machinery, Conveyor Belts, Wind Energy, Indexers, and more.

So, which industrial caliper brake should you use?

One size does not fit all. That’s true just about everywhere, but nowhere is the need for a good fit more important than in industrial design applications. Equipment that doesn’t perform flawlessly impedes productivity and wastes money. Pretty good is not good enough. Sometimes, only a custom cylinder will do.

But how do you know when custom is the way to go?