PHD Patented Self Aligning Pinion
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Gear technology has advanced to the stage where one can manufacture a girth gear with a diameter approaching 16 metres with face widths approaching 2 metres, driven by two or more pinions. The problems with manufacturing and operating gears of this size is ensuring that they are manufactured true and are in-fact circular rather than oval and then one must maintain this circularity during operation to maintain a desirable contact pattern between the girth gear and pinion.
Unfortunately this desirable contact pattern is difficult to obtain during installation and almost impossible to maintain during operation. The difficulties in aligning the gears during installation are related to the shear size of the gear and the components it will drive, it nearly all operations it will be impossible to see the other side of the gear and the other pinions. So how can one align a conventional pinion the both accurately and quickly (the alignment of the pinion in many cases will exceed one week), they simply can’t. Nor can they guarantee that the gear mesh will retain an optimal contact pattern.
This conversion process involved the removal of the gearbox from site at Appin Colliery and transfer to a workshop. During which stage te first two motion shafts were replaced with new gearing to accommodated the new 3 MW motor and the gearbox was completely stripped, cleaned, inspected and reassembled within 72 hours.
Also once the system is loading all the components deflect and move and again the alignment of the gear mesh has changed. The resulting change in the gear mesh can dramatically altered the loading pattern on the gear teeth and the life of the gears is drastically decreased in some cases the life can be as little as a year.
PHD have developed a patented self aligning pinion which will eliminate the problems associated with large girth gear and pinion installations. The design is such that it will accommodate the movement of the girth gear due to operation and correct the gear mesh pattern to ensure that the desired pattern is maintain for the life of the system. The self aligning pinion assembly can be designed to suit any existing girth gear and pinion assembly and be 'retro fitted'. The self aligning pinion designed has no size limitations and can be designed to suit any existing girth gear and fixed pinion arrangement, it is also possible to design helical self aligning using the patented PHD technology
Installation time for a self aligning pinion is also less than for a conventional pinion due to the self aligning properties of the design accounting for the misalignment of the gear drive system.
The following specialists comprised PHD's core engineering team for this project. Click the links for further information about each engineer's abilities and expertise.
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