We recently selected a brick factory solution for a problem they had been experiencing with one of their gearmotors.

In the photograph you will see a new SEW Eurodrive brake motor but do you know what the arrangement on the front end is …….. ?

Not the obvious pinion gear which is protected for transport purposes but the lead protruding from the front-end housing. This is in fact a sensor lead to monitor a slipping clutch arrangement which is contained in the additional front motor housing. This was selected by our technical team to remedy a particular problem the customer was experiencing.

This motor & clutch unit will be fitted to an existing SEW Eurodrive gearhead which is used in a brick factory where it drives a rack pusher inside the kiln. The gearmotor is designed for a very low output speed and is classed as a torque rated unit. This means that essentially the motor can generate more torque than the gearbox is rated for, so if the application seizes or jams for some reason the motor has the capacity to keep running and will destroy the gearbox internals. This has on occasions happened with this particular application when fitted with a standard motor.

Our motor & clutch selection to remedy the problem includes this sensor, which monitors the difference in speed between the clutch and the input motor shaft. If there is a difference between the 2 speeds the clutch is therefore slipping, in this case at a setting of 5Nm. This can then indicate to the machine user that the unit has jammed and enables action to be taken before any serious damage occurs. Being inside a kiln, any major mechanical failure can cause a large amount of downtime as the engineering team has to wait for it to cool down before they can enter and carry out any repair work.

A very pragmatic and cost effective brick factory solution put together by our technical team here at Webb-Elec.