Renold offers cost-effective options for worm gearbox repairs

It is often worth considering a repair as an alternative to replacing an entire gearbox with a new off-the-shelf equivalent. Not only can a repair save up to around 40 per cent of the cost, it's more than likely that a new unit would require some re-engineering to fit the application as its footprint may be different to the old one.

A wide range of options are available, depending on requirements, including re-working the individual components. For example, as bronze is expensive, the bronze wheel could be re-cut and a new mating worm manufactured. For gears previously made by Renold the existing gear and tool design can be used, but when new gear and tool design is required there are further cost-saving options available depending on the application and customer requirements.

As a specialist worm gear manufacturer, Renold Gears maintains electronic archives of engineering drawings going back some 25 years, and even if the gears were not originally manufactured by either Renold, Holroyd or Carter, it is possible that drawings exist for a similar application that can save considerable time and cost.

All new gears, re-cut and repaired samples are inspected and examined in a test centre with specialist inspection equipment, including co-ordinate measuring machines, worm profile test machines, gear tooth measurement equipment, and roll tests at exact centres that enables the gear pair to be meshed and checked for backlash and optimum contact pattern before leaving the factory.

The inspection department can also provide customers with records of pitch, profile and transmission graphs where applicable. Every stage of the process, including cutting, grinding, and heat treatment is conducted within Renold Gears' factory by its own highly skilled engineers, or by ISO 9001 and Renold Quality-approved suppliers.

For further information about Renold's gearbox repair service please visit www.renold.com.