Solutions in Motion™

When designing a custom solution, mitigating risk and margin for error is critical. One mistake and the fallout in expense can be substantial. This is why prototyping is a common practice in manufacturing. It allows manufacturers the ability to assess, qualify, and minimize risk. But if you need to justify the expense of prototyping, it’s worthwhile to weigh the advantages of prototyping against the associated costs.

Every part in a complex machine presents a chance for failure, especially if they're not designed or maintained properly. Sometimes the simplest parts get overlooked. A right angle gearbox needs less attention than many more complex parts, but it still can bind, grind or fail without proper lubrication.

Most often, helical gears are associated with transmissions in the automotive industry. But they can also be used across many different industries, and are a good substitute for the commonly utilized spur gears — especially if noise is a factor.

Noise control is just one of the advantages of using a helical gearbox design in your application, but it's far from the only one. Here are some other benefits of helical gearboxes.

In this video W.C. Branham’s Chad Randleman answers some of the most common questions we receive regarding right angle gearboxes.

If you’re in the market for a right angle gearbox, you need to find a high quality gearbox supplier. But how can you determine whether someone is the “right” gearbox supplier? Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

Look at their Past Work

Do they have a website? If so, check to see who they’ve worked with in the past and what they’ve accomplished.  If the work they’ve done in the past lines up with the requirements of your application, they might be the “right” gearbox supplier for you. Be sure to also check their reviews online, if they have any!

W.C. Branham was industry-first with right angle hollow bore helical gearboxes that package an all ball bearing configuration in a leak-proof, sealed gearcase with a pre-lubricated design. The immediate benefits were achieving higher thrust and radial loads, lower operating temperature for greater efficiency, no leakage, and longer service life.

Right angle gearboxes are useful across a broad range of industrial applications. To choose the best gearbox(es) for your design, you’ll need to consider size, capability, mounting, and environmental requirements.

All of these factors affect sizing and selection of right-angle gearboxes:

• Input speed and horsepower
• Target output speed, or output torque (this helps determine gear ratio requirements)
• Service characteristics, such as how many hours per day the gearbox will operate and whether it will need to withstand vibration and/or shock
• Overhung loads, axial loads, and external moment loads should be supported by bearing block supports. Unsupported loads can transfer to the internal gears and push them out of alignment and accelerate wear and tear
• Shaft versus hollow-core input (and output)
• Gearing orientation (shafts can protrude vertically or horizontally, and with a right-angle worm gearbox, the worm can be positioned over or under the wheel. If the shaft will protrude downward, you may want to add redundant seals)
• Special-needs working conditions that require stainless-steel shafts and housing or corrosion-resistant paint
• Mounting requirements

Necessity is the mother of invention, and that certainly rings true in the case of the many different types of gearboxes available on the market. Each gearbox variation offers unique capabilities and serves different applications. Let’s unpack the various types of right angle gearboxes on the market, what they are, and how they're used.

Within the world of gearboxes, there are so many configurations that choosing the right product for your particular mechanical design can be challenging. Nowadays, custom gearboxes are more and more common, chiefly because manufacturing to specification is easier than ever, with newer machine tools as well as design and automation software. So, when determining the right angle gearbox that will work best for your mechanical design, it’s important to identify the key aspects of your design and application.

A Checklist for Selecting Your 

Right Angle Gearbox

Gearing that mounts properly and performs to specification is easier after reviewing the following and answering as many of these questions as possible:

What does a custom design project look like at W.C. Branham? Here’s an inside look.

Stainless Systems has been a Branham customer since May of 2016, primarily purchasing stainless steel cylinders. Stainless is a necessity in their line of work because many of their industrial equipment customers are in the food processing industry. Everything has to meet stringent cleanliness standards and withstand harsh wash-down environments.  

Out of the blue, the company approached us with a new opportunity – creating a custom right angle gearbox, something completely different. This was a ground-up project. One of their own customers, a Tyson chicken processing plant, needed to replace a gearbox that had been installed a long time ago. Since it was probably custom-designed at the time, no off-the-shelf replacements were available. Could our Branham team help them start over?