Guide To Choose Gear Box and Motor Type For A Conveyor

Gear box function is to help manage a speed that it gets from a motor. Things that uses a gear box are conveyor, car, bicycle and other things that require a change in torque or speed.

Conveyors are machines that help move items from one point to another automatically and continuously. Usually, the parameters that are sought in a conveyor are maximum load capacity and the speed of the conveyor. Some industries requires a fast conveyor, some requires a slow conveyor or even the combination between fast and slow conveyors within the same production line. This difference in speed is managed by the use of appropriate gear box.

Load capacity that a conveyor can support and the speed of the conveyor are 2 related things. If the conveyor supports heavier load capacity then it would have slower speed, and vice versa. Load capacity and conveyor speed are affected by 2 components, the conveyor’s motor and gear box.

Motor is a crucial component that serves as the source of driving force of a conveyor while gear box function is to define how fast the conveyor go. Conveyor can move without using a motor and instead uses other source of drive such as gravitational force which is used in a decline / gravity roller conveyor. If a conveyor doesn't use a motor, but uses another source of driver instead, then the use of a gear box is no longer needed.

Gear box function is to control the speed of roller drive in a conveyor. Gear box function similarly to the gears in a bicycle, the rotation speed is managed using the ratio size of the gears which allows conveyor speed to be set as needed. So basically gear box works as converter of constant drive power from the motor.

Here are several questions that you would be getting from your conveyor supplier:
• What is the total weight of items that you wish to bet put on top of the conveyor?
• How fast would you want your conveyor be?

These two questions will be asked to help your conveyor supplier to determine type of motor, motor capacity and the gear box to be used. Motor specifications that affects load capacity and conveyor speed are motor type (1-phase or 3-phase) and motor power (using Watt as unit of measure on a 1-phase motor and Kilo Watt on a 3-phase motor), while the gear box specification that affects it is the ratio of the gear box.

As you can see in the image above, by using a motor with the same power, the larger the gear box ratio means the slower the conveyor speed is and the higher the load capacity that the conveyor supports.

Connect Automation provides guide documents that you can use as a reference in determining your conveyor gear box and motor specifications. Connect Automation still recommends you to do a consultation to your conveyor supplier before making any purchase on any conveyor.