Minimize Conveyor Footprint with Right Angle Brushless Gear Motors

In many industrial applications, parallel shaft AC gear motors are the traditional choice. However, right-angle brushless gear motors are becoming increasingly popular due to their ability to reduce the overall footprint of machines like conveyors.

Another important consideration is the type of gears used in the gearhead. While worm gear technology is widely used, its efficiency can vary between 50% and 90%, depending on the gear ratio. In contrast, hypoid gear technology maintains a higher efficiency range of 80% to 95%, regardless of the gear ratio. This improved efficiency allows for more torque to be transferred from the motor to the load, and sometimes even enables the use of smaller, more compact motors.

An ideal example is shown below, where a parallel shaft gear motor is mounted on the side of a belt conveyor. As you can see, the motor and gearhead extend outward, increasing the machine's footprint and potentially creating safety concerns. Additionally, extra components such as couplings and mounting plates are often required during installation.

CHALLENGE : Improve efficiency & minimize equipment footprint

Conventional Equipment: An AC induction motor is installed on the conveyor with a parallel shaft gearhead and a coupling mechanism. An inverter (VFD) is typically used for speed control (not shown).

Problems with Conventional Equipment:

• The motor and transfer mechanism protruding on the side of the conveyor takes up unnecessary space, making it difficult to add more conveyors side by side.
• The number of parts and labor hours needed to install the motor on the equipment is excessive.
• Parallel shaft gear motors typically use helical or spur gears, which have lower torque transfer efficiency compared to hypoid gears.

SOLUTION : BMU Series brushless motor + JH gearhead + AC input driver

By using a compact and high-power right-angle hypoid gear motor, we can significantly reduce the motor's protrusion on the side of the conveyor. The efficient JH gearhead also requires fewer parts for installation, either through face mount or a torque arm. Since both brushless motors and JH gearheads are more efficient than traditional AC motors and parallel shaft gearheads, this solution not only reduces the motor size but also lowers power consumption. To make it easier to replace conventional AC motors and VFDs, we offer complete solutions for our brushless motors. The easy-to-install BMU Series also improves operational efficiency by reducing labor time.

Advantages offered by BMU Series:

• JH right-angle hypoid gearhead features high rigidity, torque, and efficiency
• Motor protrusion is reduced
• Motor size is also reduced
• Face mount (left) / torque arm (above)
• Fewer parts to install

RESULT : Reduced labor hours by using fewer parts

How a right-angle gearhead can improve machine design and installation.

Read the next post how much mass can be reduced by switching to brushless motors.

Also: hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(2284573, '49c29b47-743a-4355-9d7f-0ce028ce652c', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"na1"});