Worm gears are usually used when large acceleration reductions are needed. The decrease ratio is determined by the number of starts of the worm and amount of teeth on the worm equipment. But worm gears have sliding contact which is noiseless but will produce heat and also have relatively low transmitting efficiency.
As for the materials for creation, in general, worm is made from hard metal as the worm gear is manufactured out of relatively soft metallic such as for example aluminum bronze. That is since the number of teeth on the worm equipment is relatively high compared to worm using its number of starts being usually 1 to 4, by reducing the worm equipment hardness, the friction on the worm the teeth is reduced. Another characteristic of worm manufacturing may be the need of specific machine for gear cutting and tooth grinding of worms. The worm gear, however, may be made with the hobbing machine utilized for spur gears. But due to the different tooth shape, it is not possible to cut a number of gears simultaneously by stacking the apparatus blanks as can be carried out with spur gears.
The applications for worm gears include equipment boxes, angling pole reels, guitar string tuning pegs, and where a delicate swiftness adjustment by utilizing a large speed reduction is necessary. While you can rotate the worm gear by worm, it is generally not possible to rotate worm utilizing the worm gear. This is called the self locking feature. The self locking feature cannot continually be assured and another method is recommended for accurate positive reverse prevention.
Also there exists duplex worm gear type. When using these, you’ll be able to adapt backlash, as when the teeth put on necessitates backlash adjustment, without requiring a modify in the guts distance. There aren’t too many producers who can produce this type of worm.
The worm gear is more commonly called worm wheel in China.
A worm gear is a gear comprising a shaft with a spiral thread that engages with and drives a toothed wheel. Worm gears are a vintage style of gear, and a edition of 1 of the six basic machines. Basically, a worm gear is usually a screw butted up against what appears like a typical spur gear with somewhat angled and curved tooth.
It changes the rotational movement by 90 degrees, and the plane of motion also changes due to the position of the worm on the worm wheel (or simply “the wheel”). They are typically comprised of a steel worm and a brass wheel.
Worm Gear
Figure 1. Worm equipment. Most worms (however, not all) are at the bottom.
How Worm Gears Work
An electric engine or engine applies rotational power via to the worm. The worm rotates against the wheel, and the screw encounter pushes on the teeth of the wheel. The wheel can be pushed against the load.
Worm Gear Uses
There are some reasons why one would select a worm gear over a standard gear.
The first one is the high reduction ratio. A worm gear can have an enormous reduction ratio with little effort – all one should do is usually add circumference to the wheel. Therefore you can utilize it to either significantly increase torque or help reduce speed. It will typically take multiple reductions of a typical gearset to attain the same reduction degree of a single worm gear – meaning users of worm gears have got fewer shifting parts and fewer locations for failure.
A second reason to use a worm gear may be the inability to reverse the direction of power. Due to the friction between the worm and the wheel, it is virtually difficult for a wheel with pressure applied to it to start the worm moving.
On a standard gear, the input and output can be switched independently once enough force is applied. This necessitates adding a backstop to a standard gearbox, further raising the complication of the gear set.
Why Not to Use Worm Gears
There is one particularly glaring reason why you might not choose a worm gear more than a typical gear: lubrication. The movement between the worm and the wheel equipment faces is entirely sliding. There is no rolling element of the tooth get in touch with or interaction. This makes them relatively difficult to lubricate.
The lubricants required are usually very high viscosity (ISO 320 and better) and therefore are difficult to filter, and the lubricants required are usually specialized in what they do, requiring something to be on-site specifically for that type of equipment.
Worm Gear Lubrication
The primary problem with a worm gear is how it transfers power. It is a boon and a curse at the same time. The spiral motion allows large sums of decrease in a comparatively little bit of space for what’s required if a typical helical equipment were used.
This spiral motion also causes a remarkably problematic condition to be the primary mode of power transfer. This is commonly known as sliding friction or sliding use.
New call-to-action
With an average gear set the power is transferred at the peak load stage on the tooth (known as the apex or pitchline), at least in a rolling wear condition. Sliding takes place on either side of the apex, however the velocity is fairly low.
With a worm gear, sliding motion is the only transfer of power. As the worm slides across the tooth of the wheel, it slowly rubs off the lubricant film, until there is absolutely no lubricant film remaining, and for that reason, the worm rubs at the metallic of the wheel in a boundary lubrication regime. When the worm surface area leaves the wheel surface, it picks up more lubricant, and starts the process over again on another revolution.
The rolling friction on a typical gear tooth requires small in the form of lubricant film to complete the spaces and separate both components. Because sliding occurs on either part of the gear tooth apex, a somewhat higher viscosity of lubricant than can be strictly necessary for rolling wear must overcome that load. The sliding takes place at a comparatively low velocity.
The worm on a worm set gear turns, even though turning, it crushes against the load that’s imposed on the wheel. The only method to prevent the worm from touching the wheel is usually to have a film thickness large enough to not have the whole tooth surface wiped off before that area of the worm is out of the load zone.
This scenario takes a special sort of lubricant. Not just will it should be a comparatively high viscosity lubricant (and the bigger the load or temperature, the bigger the viscosity must be), it must have some way to help conquer the sliding condition present.
Read The Right Method to Lubricate Worm Gears for more information on this topic.
Viscosity is the major factor in avoiding the worm from touching the wheel in a worm equipment set. As the load and size of gearing determines the required lubricant, an ISO 460 or ISO 680 is fairly common, and an ISO 1000 isn’t unheard of. If you’ve ever really tried to filter this range of viscosity, you know it is problematic since it is most likely that non-e of the filters or pumps you have got on-site will be the correct size or ranking to function properly.
Therefore, you’ll likely need to get a particular pump and filter for this kind of unit. A lubricant that viscous takes a gradual operating pump to prevent the lubricant from activating the filter bypass. It will require a large surface area filter to permit the lubricant to circulation through.
Lubricant Types to Look For
One lubricant type commonly used with worm gears is mineral-based, compounded equipment oils. There are no additives that can be placed into a lubricant that may make it overcome sliding wear indefinitely, but the organic or synthetic fatty additive combination in compounded equipment oils results in great lubricity, providing an extra measure of protection from metal-to-metal contact.
Another lubricant type commonly used in mixture with worm gears is mineral-based, commercial extreme pressure (EP) equipment oils. There are several problems with this kind of lubricant if you are using a worm equipment with a yellow metal (brass) component. However, should you have relatively low operating temperatures or no yellow metallic present on the gear tooth areas, this lubricant works well.
Polyalphaolefin (PAO) gear lubricants work very well in worm equipment applications because they naturally have great lubricity properties. With a PAO gear oil, it is necessary to view the additive bundle, because these can have EP additives. A standard-duty antiwear (AW) fortified gear oil will typically be acceptable, but check that the properties are appropriate for most metals.
The writer recommends to closely view the wear metals in oil analysis testing to make sure that the AW package isn’t so reactive as to trigger significant leaching from the brass. The result should be far less than what will be noticed with EP also in a worst-case scenario for AW reactivity, but it can show up in metals testing. If you want a lubricant that may deal with higher- or lower-than-typical temps, a suitable PAO-based product is likely available.
Polyalkylene glycols (PAG), a fourth kind of lubricant, are becoming more common. These lubricants have superb lubricity properties, and don’t contain the waxes that cause low-temperature issues with many mineral lubricants, producing them an excellent low-temperature choice. Caution should be taken when working with PAG oils because they are not appropriate for mineral oils, and some seals and paints.
Metallurgy of Worm Gears
The most typical worm gears are made with a brass wheel and a steel worm. That is because the brass wheel is typically easier to replace than the worm itself. The wheel is manufactured out of brass because it was created to be sacrificial.
In the event that the two surfaces enter into contact, the worm is marginally secure from wear since the wheel is softer, and for that reason, most of the wear occurs on the wheel. Oil analysis reports on this kind of unit more often than not show some degree of copper and low levels of iron – as a result of the sacrificial wheel.
This brass wheel throws another problem in to the lubrication equation for worm gears. If a sulfur-phosphorous EP gear essential oil is put into the sump of a worm gear with a brass wheel, and the temperature is certainly high enough, the EP additive will activate. In normal metal gears, this activation generates a thin coating of oxidation on the surface that helps to protect the gear tooth from shock loads and other extreme mechanical conditions.
On the brass surface however, the activation of the EP additive results in significant corrosion from the sulfur. In a brief amount of time, you can drop a substantial portion of the load surface of the wheel and cause major damage.
Other Materials
A few of the less common materials found in worm gear pieces include:
Steel worm and metal worm wheel – This software does not have the EP problems of brass gearing, but there is no room for error included in a gearbox such as this. Repairs on worm gear sets with this combination of metal are typically more costly and more time eating than with a brass/steel worm equipment set. This is because the material transfer connected with failure makes both the worm and the wheel unusable in the rebuild.
Brass worm and brass worm wheel – This program is most likely found in moderate to light load situations because the brass can only just hold up to a lower amount of load. Lubricant selection upon this metal mixture is flexible due to the lighter load, but one must still consider the additive limitations regarding EP due to the yellow metal.
Plastic on metal, upon plastic, and other comparable combinations – This is typically found in relatively light load applications, such as robotics and auto components. The lubricant selection depends upon the plastic in use, because many plastic types react to the hydrocarbons in regular lubricant, and therefore will require silicon-based or other non-reactive lubricants.
Although a worm gear will will have a few complications compared to a standard gear set, it can easily be a highly effective and reliable device. With a little focus on set up and lubricant selection, worm gears can offer reliable service and also any other type of gear set.
A worm drive is one simple worm gear set mechanism when a worm meshes with a worm gear. Even it is basic, there are two essential components: worm and worm equipment. (They are also known as the worm and worm wheel) The worm and worm wheel is important motion control element providing large swiftness reductions. It can decrease the rotational quickness or raise the torque result. The worm drive movement advantage is that they can transfer movement in right angle. In addition, it has an interesting property: the worm or worm shaft can certainly turn the gear, but the gear can not switch the worm. This worm drive self-locking feature let the worm gear includes a brake function in conveyor systems or lifting systems.
An Intro to Worm Gearbox
The most important applications of worm gears can be used in worm gear box. A worm gearbox is named a worm decrease gearbox, worm equipment reducer or a worm drive gearbox. It contains worm gears, shafts, bearings, and box frames.
The worm equipment, shafts, bearings load are supported by the box shell. Therefore, the gearbox housing must have sufficient hardness. Otherwise, it will result in lower tranny quality. As the worm gearbox has a durable, transmitting ratio, small size, self-locking capability, and simple structure, it is used across a wide variety of industries: Rotary table or turntable, material dosing systems, car feed machinery, stacking machine, belt conveyors, farm picking lorries and more automation market.
How precisely to Select High Efficient Worm Gearbox?
The worm gear manufacturing process is also not at all hard. However, there exists a low transmission performance problem if you don’t know the how to choose the worm gearbox. 3 basic indicate choose high worm equipment efficiency that you need to know:
1) Helix position. The worm equipment drive efficiency mostly rely on the helix position of the worm. Usually, multiple thread worms and gears is certainly more efficient than single thread worms. Proper thread worms can increase effectiveness.
2) Lubrication. To choose a brand lubricating oil can be an essential factor to boost worm gearbox efficiency. As the correct lubrication can decrease worm gear action friction and warmth.
3) Materials selection and Gear Manufacturing Technology. For worm shaft, the material ought to be hardened metal. The worm gear material should be aluminium bronze. By reducing the worm gear hardness, the friction on the worm the teeth is decreased. In worm production, to use the specific machine for gear reducing and tooth grinding of worms also can increase worm gearbox performance.
From a large transmission gearbox capacity to an even small worm gearbox load, you can choose one from a wide range of worm reducer that precisely suits your application requirements.
Worm Gear Box Assembly:
1) You may complete the installation in six different ways.
2) The installation should be solid and reliable.
3) Ensure that you check the connection between your motor and the worm gear reducer.
4) You must make use of flexible cables and wiring for a manual set up.
With the help of the most advanced science and drive technology, we have developed several unique “square package” designed from high-quality aluminium die casting with a lovely appearance. The modular worm gearbox style series: worm drive gearbox, parallel shaft gearbox, bevel helical gearbox, spiral bevel gearbox, coaxial gearbox, correct angle gearbox. An NMRV series gearbox is a standard worm gearbox with a bronze worm gear and a worm. Our Helical gearbox product line comprises of four universal series (R/S/K/F) and a step-less swiftness variation UDL series. Their framework and function are similar to an NMRV worm gearbox.
Worm gears are made of a worm and a equipment (sometimes known as a worm wheel), with non-parallel, non-intersecting shafts oriented 90 degrees to each other. The worm is analogous to a screw with a V-type thread, and the apparatus is certainly analogous to a spur equipment. The worm is typically the driving component, with the worm’s thread advancing the teeth of the gear.
Just like a ball screw, the worm in a worm gear may have a single start or multiple starts – meaning that there are multiple threads, or helicies, on the worm. For a single-start worm, each full turn (360 degrees) of the worm advances the equipment by one tooth. Therefore a gear with 24 teeth will provide a gear reduced amount of 24:1. For a multi-begin worm, the gear reduction equals the amount of teeth on the gear, divided by the amount of starts on the worm. (That is different from most other types of gears, where the gear reduction is definitely a function of the diameters of the two components.)
The worm in a worm gear assembly can have one start (thread) or multiple starts.
Picture credit: Kohara Gear Market Company, Ltd.
The meshing of the worm and the apparatus is an assortment of sliding and rolling actions, but sliding contact dominates at high reduction ratios. This sliding actions causes friction and high temperature, which limits the efficiency of worm gears to 30 to 50 percent. In order to minimize friction (and for that reason, temperature), the worm and equipment are made of dissimilar metals – for example, the worm could be produced of hardened steel and the gear manufactured from bronze or aluminum.
Although the sliding contact reduces efficiency, it provides extremely quiet operation. (The utilization of dissimilar metals for the worm and gear also contributes to quiet operation.) This makes worm gears suitable for use where noise should be minimized, such as in elevators. In addition, the use of a softer material for the gear means that it could absorb shock loads, like those experienced in weighty equipment or crushing machines.
The primary advantage of worm gears is their ability to provide high reduction ratios and correspondingly high torque multiplication. They may also be utilized as rate reducers in low- to medium-acceleration applications. And, because their reduction ratio is based on the amount of gear teeth by itself, they are more compact than other types of gears. Like fine-pitch lead screws, worm gears are typically self-locking, making them well suited for hoisting and lifting applications.
A worm gear reducer is one kind of reduction gear box which includes a worm pinion input, an output worm gear, and includes a right angle output orientation. This type of reduction gear box is normally used to have a rated motor quickness and create a low speed result with higher torque worth based on the decrease ratio. They often can solve space-saving problems because the worm equipment reducer is among the sleekest reduction gearboxes available because of the small diameter of its result gear.
worm gear reducerWorm gear reducers are also a favorite type of swiftness reducer because they offer the greatest speed reduction in the smallest package. With a higher ratio of speed decrease and high torque result multiplier, it’s unsurprising that lots of power transmission systems utilize a worm gear reducer. Some of the most common applications for worm gears can be found in tuning instruments, medical testing equipment, elevators, protection gates, and conveyor belts.
Torque Transmission offers two sizes of worm equipment reducer, the SW-1 and the SW-5 and both can be found in a variety of ratios. The SW-1 ratios include 3.5:1 to 60:1 and the SW-5 ratios include 5:1 to 100:1. Both these options are manufactured with durable compression-molded glass-fill up polyester housings for a long lasting, long lasting, light-weight speed reducer that’s also compact, noncorrosive, and nonmetallic.
Features
Our worm equipment reducers offer a choice of a good or hollow output shaft and show an adjustable mounting placement. Both the SW-1 and the SW-5, however, can endure shock loading better than other reduction gearbox styles, making them ideal for demanding applications.
Rugged compression-molded glass-fill up polyester housing
Light weight and compact
Non corrosive
Non metallic
Range of ratios
SW-1, 3.5:1 to 60:1
SW-5, 5:1 to 100:1
Grease Lubrication
Solid or Hollow output shaft
Adjustable mounting position
Overview
Technical Info
Low friction coefficient on the gearing for high efficiency.
Powered by long-long lasting worm gears.
Minimal speed fluctuation with low noise and low vibration.
Lightweight and compact in accordance with its high load capacity.
Compact design
Compact design is among the key phrases of the typical gearboxes of the BJ-Series. Further optimisation can be achieved through the use of adapted gearboxes or special gearboxes.
Low noise
Our worm gearboxes and actuators are extremely quiet. This is due to the very smooth operating of the worm equipment combined with the use of cast iron and high precision on component manufacturing and assembly. In connection with our precision gearboxes, we take extra treatment of any sound which can be interpreted as a murmur from the gear. So the general noise degree of our gearbox is reduced to a complete minimum.
Angle gearboxes
On the worm gearbox the input shaft and output shaft are perpendicular to each other. This often proves to become a decisive advantage producing the incorporation of the gearbox significantly simpler and smaller sized.The worm gearbox is an angle gear. This is an edge for incorporation into constructions.
Solid bearings in solid housing
The output shaft of the BJ worm gearbox is very firmly embedded in the apparatus house and is perfect for immediate suspension for wheels, movable arms and other areas rather than having to create a separate suspension.
Self locking
For larger gear ratios, BJ-Gear’s worm gearboxes provides a self-locking effect, which in many situations can be utilized as brake or as extra protection. Also spindle gearboxes with a trapezoidal spindle are self-locking, making them ideal for an array of solutions.

Find out more regarding Helical Gear Reducer right here.