General informations
Installation
The reducers must be installed with particular care regarding the alignment between their axis and those of the motor and of the driven equipment; besides, the fastening of the reducer to the foundation must be rigid, so as to ensure the absence of vibrations and at the same time shall not impose distortions to the casing due to a not perfect levelling of the baseplate upon which the reducer is located (in fact, the imposed distortions induce shafts misalignment, compromising the good contact pattern between the mating teeth and impairing the reducer performance).
The couplings shall be installed respecting the prescriptions about their alignment, shall not induce detrimental stress components onto the shafts, and their type shall be selected so as to minimize, if possible, the transmission of shocks and vibrations.
When employing cardan transmissions, it is recommended to pay the utmost care to the cardan shaft inclination angle, and if necessary to contact the supplier of this equipment in order to ensure the absence of dangerous vibration phenomena.
The assembly of the external parts on the reducer shafts (couplings, pulleys, pinions, ...) shall be carried out using tools with controlled force application, without hammering the shafts or the parts to be assembled, so as to avoid damaging the bearings. If no other indication is made, the suggested tolerance for the holes of the parts to be mounted on the shafts ends is H7.
In case of rather large diameters, it is advisable to warm the parts to be mounted on the shafts up to a temperature of about 100°C to allow for an easy assembly.
It is within the end user responsibility to make sure that the reducer installation is performed in compliance with the applicable safety rules, and in particular that the rotating parts are adequately protected and that the necessary alarms and stops are installed and operating.
Before start-up, please check that the reducer shafts are free to rotate without hindrance.
In case the reducer will be assembled in machines to which the EEC Regulation 89/392 Supplement IIB applies, it is forbidden to put it in service before the machine has been declared conforming to the above mentioned Regulation.
Maintenance
As far as any maintenance intervention is concerned, please refer to the operation and maintenance manual, attached to every reducer.
Please pay particular attention to the lubrication prescriptions (quantity and quality of the oil, frequency of the oil changes).
In any case, make sure to carry out the inspection and maintenance operations in full compliance of the applicable safety rules: in particular, cut out the electric supply to the driving motor and remove the external loads before working on the reducer, so as to avoid the risk of accidental starts or unforeseen movements due to external forces acting on the reducer shafts.
Be equipped with the suitable tools for carrying out the planned interventions, with particular attention to the hoisting equipment, and employ personnel which is qualified to operate on precision machinery.
For the purchase of spare parts, please always indicate the reducer serial number (impressed on the plate placed on the casing), referring to the schematic drawings as far as the parts nomenclature is concerned.
Lubricant selection
The choice of the suitable lubricant is made according to table 6, referring to the actual operating conditions of the speed reducer, i.e. the ambient temperature and the rotation speed of the low speed shaft; table 7 lists the different brands of lubricants, with the correspondence between them.
For ambient temperatures different from those indicated and for input speed higher than 1750 rpm, please contact our technical-sales department.
As a general rule, the reducers shall be lubricated with mineral or synthetic oils containing EP (extreme pressure) additives.
Operation at low temperatures
In case of ambient temperatures lower than -20°C, it is necessary to adopt special materials (with high impact strength at low temperatures), and therefore this condition shall be highlighted and discussed when ordering.
For ambient temperatures lower than 0°C, the oil physical characteristics at start-up conditions shall be considered, foreseeing the use of suitable electric heaters submerged into the oil or adopting synthetic lubricants with a particularly low pour point, so as to assure the necessary fluidity during cold starts.
Protection for long storage
All the reducers are submitted to a functional no-load running test, filled with their nominal oil quantity, and this ensures the protection of the inner surfaces against corrosion only for a short period.
The outer surfaces machined and not painted are usually protected with a corrosion inhibitor which can be easily removed with an industrial thinner when installing the reducer.
When a storage period is foreseen, or whenever the reducer installation does not take place within a short time since its delivery, please require the internal protection, which consists in spraying a corrosion inhibitor inside the reducer, ensuring a thorough protection and not requiring any rinsing before operation, being the protective product soluble in the first oil filling.
When a long storage period is foreseen in adverse conditions (outdoor or in aggressive atmosphere or in particularly humid environment), it is advisable to completely fill the reducer with oil of the same type and grade which will be used for operation, so that the excess oil can be simply drained at the time of the reducer initial start-up.
In any case, the reducers are always supplied without oil, but with the first grease charge where necessary.
Installation of the hollow shaft reducers
These reducers can be installed on the driven equipment shaft by means of a simple disc with a hole, using a threaded bar inserted into the end hole of the driven shaft (see figure A).
The same disc is also used as a retaining plate to keep the reducer in place when the installation is completed, axially restraining the hollow shaft.
As an alternative solution, the installation of the hollow shaft reducers may be carried out by means of shrink discs, which operate by means of the elastic deformation of suitable tapered parts, so as to restrain the coupled parts and allow for the transmission of the mechanical torque (see drawing, figure B).