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Category Archives: Excel Gear, Inc.

Redesigned Website Offers New Gear/Gearbox Optimization Sotfware

…REDUCES TIME TO PART, IMPROVES PRODUCT PERFORMANCE…WATCH VIDEO, TEST DRIVE AND BUY IT TODAY! 

Special introductory price of only $995! 

Excel-LentTM software from longtime builder of gears and gearboxes, quickly determines optimum product parameters for various industries; time savings in hundreds of engineering hours being realized. Excel-lent software is on sale through the website. 

 Please visit www.excel-lentsoftware.com and see a demo of how easy it is to design a new gearbox. The most interesting section to design engineers will be “Design”. With minimal input, the program will calculate the number of teeth in the pinion and gear, DP or Module, face width etc. required to transmit the power, within a few seconds. The calculated data can be exported to the “Analysis” section for complete analysis with clicking the “Transfer Data “ tab on screen.  Calculated capacity will be very close to the required power, on the very first try.

Also, the Excel-Lent software’s dimensioning program is the most versatile program available on the market. Non-standard center distance or matching a new gear to an existing gear is as easy as clicking the indicated option.  The material tables provided have all the commercially available materials listed, with heat treat and mechanical properties to allow the user to choose any gear material from the list to fit their need. 

In all three sections, sample input data are stored for the users to get started. Click on the samples opens the samples table. Clicking one of the samples fills the input screen with data. To run the sample click “Calculate”. We welcome comments and suggestions about our software at any time.

In response to the gear market’s need for optimization software, which has been lacking for many years, Excel-LentTM gear/gearbox design and analysis software has been developed by Excel Gear, Inc. (Roscoe, IL) and written in Visual Basic.Net.  This software has been written by engineers who also design and manufacture gears for their own use, according to company president N.K. “Chinn” Chinnusamy.

Mr. Chinnusamy further comments, “Although commercial software has long been available in the gear industry, it has been too expensive or too complicated to be used by engineers without specialized gear design knowledge.  Our software is specifically designed with a user-friendly interactive input screen providing defaults and options in accordance with the AGMA 2001 standard (American Gear Manufacturers Association).”  The users of Excel-Lent software can easily navigate through the input screens to edit, analyze and produce reports on the optimum gear and gearbox design for various industrial and other applications.

“This software is not designed for any specific industry,” continues Chinnusamy.  It can be used for machine tools, heavy materials handling equipment or even the wind turbine industry.  For the wind turbine industry, for example, the designer needs a full understanding of all the operating loads on the gear members to arrive at the required power rating.

The key calculations performed are the AGMA power rating and load calculations, including bending strength geometry factor (J) and pitting resistance geometry factors (I).  Output from the software is a single page of data printed in a format that is easy to read and interpret.  Other commercial software typically prints five or six pages of information, which may be confusing to most design engineers unless they are gear experts, Chinnusamy further observed.

The users of Excel-Lent need not be familiar with AGMA standards to use this software.  Those who are not gear engineers can also benefit from the gear engineering knowledge embedded in the software package.

Excel-Lent contains three sections – design, analysis and gear dimensions. Any of the sections can be used individually to run calculations.  On a typical job, according to Excel Gear, hundreds of hours typically spent doing the calculations can be saved.

For further information, a test demo, pricing and purchase of this software, please visit www.excel-lentsoftware.com or contact:

EXCEL GEAR, INC. 11865 Main Street Roscoe, IL 61073 Phone:  815-623-3414 Fax:  815-623-3314

Web:  www.excelgear.com Email:  sales@excelgear.com Attention:  N.K. Chinnusamy

ABOUT EXCEL GEAR

Excel Gear brings over 50 years of machine tool experience to the design, manufacturing and quality analysis of its various gear, gearbox, fluid bearing, spindle, CNC gimbal head, nutator and special equipment production.  ANSYS software for FEA on stress, strain, deflection, as well as modal analysis, time and frequency domain, our Spindle Analysis Program, MATLAB/Simulink, AutoCAD/SolidWorks/CADAM and other programs are all utilized to affect the best solutions to customer requirements.  Excel also builds two-axis CNC gimbal heads with 20,000 RPM motorized spindle, 15,000 RPM cartridge type spindle assemblies and CNC rotary tables for major machine tool companies.  Our high-accuracy gear grinding equipment produces to AGMA 15 (DIN 2) tolerances for quality that meets or exceeds the increasing customer demands for high-speed and high power transmission with smooth, quiet operation.  Recently, the company has entered the emerging wind turbine market to provide various gears and gearbox components, as well as extensive maintenance and system performance engineering assistance.

PR agency: Tim Daro Bernard & Company 847-934-4500 tdaro@bernardandcompany.com

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EXCEL GEAR SUPPLIES GEARBOXES FOR GIANT APE QUADKONG PILE DRIVER

Sixteen precision 112.5º gearboxes fully manufactured, tested, assembled and shipped in ten weeks; run at 1800 RPM on 100 HP

Excel Gear, Inc. of Roscoe, Illinois announces the completion of a sixteen gearbox order in only ten weeks.  Seems rather normal, until you see the application, namely, one of the world’s largest ever vibratory pile drivers, the APE Octokong, to be used for erection of an over/underwater structure, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge in China.  The machine is being built by American Piledriving Equipment, Inc. (APE) of Kent, Washington.  In use, the sixteen gearboxes regulate timing on the vibratory power transmission for the apparatus needed to secure the pilings in the riverbed or sea floor.  For a video of this amazing machine design, see www.apevibro.com.

Using its “design for manufacturability” approach, according to N.K. “Chinn” Chinnusamy, Excel Gear president and its chief engineer, the company manufactured the spiral bevel gears, machined the castings, engineered special Teflon seals, created special stainless steel breather caps and holes to accommodate the tremendous pressure build-ups and air dissipation requirements in the system, then heat treated and assembled the units, finally testing them in the Excel quality inspection lab.  Each component was hand-washed and inspected for chips, the alcohol-wiped, run with oil, inspected and re-cleaned.

The sixteen gearboxes, filled with environmentally-friendly biodegradable canola (vegetable) oil and protected with special Teflon bearing seals, are used in pairs at each of eight stations to provide the sequential vibration to the massive assembly that holds the piling above the insertion tube.  As the piling vibrates, it literally shakes its way into position.  (This is shown in the video.)

“The toughest part of this job…and there were many tough parts,” comments Chinn, “was to get the shaft keyways aligned properly in orientation to the surfaces of the spiral bevel gears.  The math involved here was staggering.”  In addition, Chinn notes that special fixturing had to be built to facilitate the machining of the very large surface areas involved on this job.  He proudly reports that the very first test runouts saw keyway alignments within 0.0005” of parallel. 

Another aspect of this immense job was the need to minimize backlash for noise and distortion.  The offset bearing calculations needed the highest accuracy possible and, owing to the very nature of spiral bevel gearing, this was an immense math and machining challenge.  Excel maintains a battery of the largest gearmaking machines in the industry, as its customer base comprises heavy materials handling equipment, naval vessel gun turret builders, barge off-loading crane and other manufacturers where huge gears and precision motion are both required.

Despite the timing of the job, Excel Gear shipped the order ahead of schedule by several days, satisfying the customer completely.  Chinn acknowledges several suppliers who greatly assisted Excel in the completion of this job.  Youngberg Industries of Belvidere, Illinois performed some of the heavy fabrications needed, while Reliance Gear of Addison, Illinois did spiral bevel gearwork, a highly specialized service, and General Surface Hardening in Chicago handled the carburizing and hardening in the heat treat processes on the 4320 alloy steels used.  Finally, Chuck Schultz of Beyta Gear Surface in Winfield, Illinois did some consulting and spec writing on the job.

For more information on this success, please contact: EXCEL GEAR, INC. 11865 Main Street Roscoe, IL 61073 Phone:  815-623-3414 Fax:  815-623-3314 Web:  www.excelgear.com Email:  sales@excelgear.com N.K. Chinnusamy, President  

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New Gear/Gearbox Optimization Software Reduces Time To Part, Improves Product Performance

Excel-lentTM software from longtime builder of gears and gearboxes quickly determines optimum product parameters for various industries; time savings in hundreds of engineering hours being realized

In response to the gear market’s need for optimization software, which has been lacking for many years, Excel-LentTM gear/gearbox design and analysis software has been developed by Excel Gear, Inc. (Roscoe, IL) and written in Visual Basics.Net.  This software has been written by engineers who also design and manufacture gears for their own use, according to company president N.K. “Chinn” Chinnusamy.
Mr. Chinnusamy further comments, “Although commercial software has long been available in the gear industry, it has been too expensive or too complicated to be used by engineers without specialized gear design knowledge.  Our software is specifically designed with a user-friendly interactive input screen providing defaults and options in accordance with the AGMA 2001 standard (American Gear Manufacturers Association).”  The users of Excel-Lent software can easily navigate through the input screens to edit, analyze and produce reports on the optimum gear and gearbox design for various industrial and other applications.
“This software is not designed for any specific industry,” continues Chinnusamy.  It can be used for machine tools, heavy materials handling equipment or even the wind turbine industry.  For the wind turbine industry, for example, the designer needs a full understanding of all the operating loads on the gear members to arrive at the required power rating.
The key calculations performed are the AGMA power rating and load calculations, including bending strength geometry factor (J) and pitting resistance geometry factors (I).  Output from the software is a single page of data printed in a format that is easy to read and interpret.  Other commercial software typically prints five or six pages of information, which may be confusing to most design engineers unless they are gear experts, Chinnusamy further observed.
The users of Excel-Lent need not be familiar with AGMA standards to use this software.  Those who are not gear engineers can also benefit from the gear engineering knowledge embedded in the software package.

Excel-Lent contains three sections – design, analysis and gear dimensions. Any of the sections can be used individually to run calculations.  On a typical job, according to Excel Gear, hundreds of hours typically spent doing the calculations can be saved.
The three sections are detailed below:

DESIGN:  This section calculates the size of gears, based on minimal input by the user.  The user needs to specify only the input rotational speed, gear ratio, power to be transmitted and the material and heat treatments selected from the material tables of all commonly used materials in the industry.
Key values calculated are the diameter and face width of the pinion required to achieve the surface fatigue power rating and optimized DP or module (based on the calculated diameter) required for the bending fatigue power rating. The data are automatically exported to the analysis program for detailed analysis.  The results are the power ratings for 5,000 -100,000 hours of B1 life (reliability factor of 1).
If required, other values such as face width or center distance may be entered but Excel Gear recommends leaving the face width and center distance values blank for optimized gear design. Design and analysis programs are used to design one gear stage in sequence on an external or internal spur and helical gear mesh.

ANALYSIS:  This program calculates the power rating of a gear set for 5,000, 10,000, 25,000, 50,000 and 100,000 hours of B1 life (reliability factor of 1). Reliability factor of 1, 1.25, or 1.5 can be selected, as required. The user needs to input mesh type (spur, helical, internal and external), pressure angle, helix angle (if applicable), pinion speed, number of teeth in pinion and gear, material (from the list provided in the software), face width, DP or module and quality required.  Crown and/or profile shift, if used, can also be entered. The program will calculate the power rating of the gear set and show HP or KW capability along with torque, tangential force and static capacity.  Static capacity is based on yield strength and, if bending stress exceeds yield strength at any time, permanent deformation or even tooth breakage may occur.  If the results are satisfactory, the user can print the single page results only or, optionally, also print all the AGMA factors used in making the calculations.
Most commercially available gear software will generate five or six pages of output along with required bending and surface fatigue strength of the gear set.  The user therefore needs knowledge of metallurgy to select proper material and heat treatment or must consult a metallurgist.  By contrast, the Excel-Lent software program lists commonly used gear material for the user to select.  If the results are not as required, the user can select another material or change other design criteria as required to achieve the desired results. If a special material is desired, its yield, bending and contact stress numbers can be easily entered. If any of the required input data are missing, the program will prompt the user to supply what is missing.  Metric or inch units can also be selected with just one click.

DIMENSIONS:   In the opinion of the manufacturer, this Excel-Lent gear dimension software is the most versatile program available in the market. The program will calculate the manufacturing dimensions for a new pinion and gear or calculate the dimension of a pinion or gear to mate an existing pinion or gear.  This can be done for external gears, internal gears or a gear rack.  Users need only to enter the type of mesh (spur or helical, internal of external), pressure angle, helix angle(if helical gears), number of teeth in pinion and mating gear, DP or module and the quality of the gears.
The program will then calculate the center distance, dimension over pins, span measurement, form diameter, roll angles and all gear tolerances to match the quality required (AGMA, DIN, or ISO). The program will calculate the helix angle required to match a specified center distance if the user chooses that option.
The program displays plain English error messages when input is questionable or in error.  For example, if the center distance is incorrect, the program will flash error messages such as, “Center distance specified is too large/small.”
The program calculates optimized profile shifts for pinion and gear operating at a non-standard center distance, if the operating center distance is specified.  If the profile shift required to operate is large and makes the top land narrow, the program will flash warning messages and display the proper profile shift amount to avoid narrow top land.
Excel-Lent software further provides users the option to balance beam strength or specific sliding of gear and pinion, if desired.  This is a key requirement for wind turbine gears. The program will also calculate gear blank tolerances to achieve the desired quality level, if shaft and bore diameters are entered.  Users can switch between inch and metric dimensions with one click.

For further information or a test demo, available on CD or onsite, please contact:

EXCEL GEAR, INC.
11865 Main Street
Roscoe, IL 61073
Phone:  815-623-3414
Fax:  815-623-3314
Web:  www.excelgear.com
Email:  sales@excelgear.com
Attention:  N.K. Chinnusamy or Bill Powers

ABOUT EXCEL GEAR
Excel Gear brings over 50 years of machine tool experience to the design, manufacturing and quality analysis of its various gear, gearbox, fluid bearing, spindle, CNC gimbal head, nutator and special equipment production.  ANSYS software for FEA on stress, strain, deflection, as well as modal analysis, time and frequency domain, our Spindle Analysis Program, MATLAB/Simulink, AutoCAD/SolidWorks/CADAM and other programs are all utilized to affect the best solutions to customer requirements.  Excel also builds two-axis CNC gimbal heads with 20,000 RPM motorized spindle, 15,000 RPM cartridge type spindle assemblies and CNC rotary tables for major machine tool companies.  Our high-accuracy gear grinding equipment produces to AGMA 15 (DIN 2) tolerances for quality that meets or exceeds the increasing customer demands for high-speed and high power transmission with smooth, quiet operation.  Recently, the company has entered the emerging wind turbine market to provide various gears and gearbox components, as well as extensive maintenance and system performance engineering assistance.

PR agency:
Tim Daro
Bernard & Company
tdaro@bernardandcompany.com

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EXCEL ANNOUNCES TWO KEY APPOINTMENTS


Denis Bermingham, New Manufacturing Manager

Gear/Gearbox company names new manufacturing and marketing managers as growth continues

Excel Gear, Inc. of Roscoe, Illinois announces the appointment of Denis Bermingham as the manager of manufacturing engineering and special projects, plus William “Bill” Powers as the company’s marketing manager.  Both appointments were made by company president N.K. “Chinn” Chinnusamy, who noted these hirings were made as the result of the company’s recent growth and anticipated expansion into new market segments.

Bermingham brings a strong engineering background in metalworking and machine tool building to his new position, as well as an extensive knowledge of metallurgy and heat treatment.  He will oversee Excel’s manufacturing engineering and special projects, as well as continue the company’s ongoing implementation of lean manufacturing strategies. Denis brings 30 years of manufacturing and machine tool experience to Excel Gear. He worked the majority of his career at Ingersoll Milling Machine in Rockford, IL in the Manufacturing Engineering, Assembly, Engineering, and Prototyping departments. He has a degree in Industrial Technology and will be responsible for the various manufacturing functions at  Excel.

Bill Powers, New Marketing Manager

He notes, “I joined Excel Gear to become part of the technical/manufacturing environment here.  We can offer customers innovative solutions, with excellent quality and value.  I’m very excited to be part of this team.”

Powers brings 30 years’ experience in the gear and machine tool business to Excel.  Formerly an account manager, project manager and supervisor of customer training with Ingersoll, as well as other metalworking/automation systems firms, he has handled various sales, marketing and customer relations functions, giving him a well-rounded perspective on the dynamics of the industry.  He has a degree in Business Administration and will oversee all the marketing and business development for Excel.

Bill observes, “Chinn has structured a first-class company at Excel, supplying engineering-based products, brought to market by a very highly-skilled and dedicated team.  All customers receive the highest quality possible, backed by service and application assistance that’s second to none.  It’s a great working environment and I look forward to the challenges of our changing markets.”

For more information on these appointments, please contact:

EXCEL GEAR, INC. 11865 Main Street, Roscoe, IL 61073. Phone:  815-623-3414 Fax:  815-623-3314  Web:  www.excelgear.com Email:  sales@excelgear.com N.K. Chinnusamy, President

ABOUT EXCEL GEAR

Excel Gear brings over 50 years of machine tool experience to the design, manufacturing and quality analysis of its various gear, gearbox, fluid bearing, spindle, CNC gimbal head, nutator and special equipment production.  ANSYS software for FEA on stress, strain, deflection, as well as modal analysis, time and frequence domain, our Spindle Analysis Program, MATLAB/Simulink, AutoCAD/SolidWorks/CADAM and other programs are all utilized to effect the best solutions to customer requirements.  Excel also builds two-axis CNC gimbal heads with 20,000RPM motorized spindle, 15,000RPM cartridge type spindle assemblies and CNC rotary tables for major machine tool companies.  Our high-accuracy gear grinding equipment produces to AGMA 15 (DIN 2) tolerances for quality that meets or exceeds the increasing customer demands for high-speed and high power transmission with smooth, quiet operation.  Recently, the company has entered the emerging wind turbine market to provide various gears and gearbox components.

PR agency: Tim Daro Bernard & Company tdaro@bernardandcompany.com 847-934-4500

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CONSIDERATIONS FOR GEARMAKING IN WIND TURBINE APPLICATIONS

Gear grinding using special fixturing to support the weight and torque

Q & A with N.K. Chinnusamy, president of Excel Gear, Inc., Roscoe, IL

1. What are the challenges when machining gears for wind turbines?

Gears for wind turbine applications are typically large in diameter and have wide face widths, requiring very exacting material composition and heat treatment processing.  The gear design must be optimized to insure low rolling resistance and long life, owing to the extreme costs of maintenance, down time, and repair of the gear box assemblies once they have been commissioned in the field.  Every step in the manufacturing phase of these gears must be carefully processed, documented, and controlled to achieve the high quality, consistency, accuracy, and reliability that is demanded for operation in these environments.

The use of carburized steel for these gears is common and the associated heat treatments and stress relief operations have to be exacting to minimize part distortion and growth, as well as to achieve the proper metallurgical properties required.  Oftentimes, a preheat treatment of the forging or bar stock is necessitated on these large gears to minimize part distortion.  In addition, one of the seemingly small but critical techniques to minimize distortion on gears is the vertical insertion of the gear into the quench tank during the hardening phase.

Heat treatment can cause cracks as well, so careful processing with predetermination of stock allowance for grinding and final case depth must be considered.  Inspection for cracks with magnetic particle inspection and for grinding burns utilizing nital etching is an important inspection tool.

Finally, off center crown grinding of the tooth geometry may be needed to properly distribute the load on the gear teeth.

2. What modifications, if any, are needed in the tooling or the machine tool, to make gears for this application?

Helical gear grinding of large wind turbine gearbox components often requires off-center crowning to centerload the gear in operation.

Rigid, heavy-duty hobbing machines are needed for the coarse pitch gears, using roughing hobs or gear milling (gashing) cutters.  Likewise, coarse pitch diamond dressing rolls and special grinding wheel abrasives are required for the large, high-accuracy gear grinders to produce efficient, accurate results and to prevent grinding burns and cracks.

The cutting fluids used must have the proper viscosity, the right amount of extreme pressure additives, and must be directed to the exact location of the work piece and cutting tool interface to maximize results.  These fluids have to be routinely sampled and adjusted for optimum results.

3. Likewise, in building the gearbox, what special considerations must be taken into account?

Establishing the correct bearing clearances/preloads is critical to long life and proper gearbox operating temperature.  Sophisticated measuring techniques with bearing inspection gages can only insure these results.  The type and method of lubrication and proper sealing weighs heavily on the performance of a gearbox.  The verification of gearbox performance through computerized analysis and testing is a crucial step to insuring long life.

4. What are some of the ancillary requirements in gear prep for wind turbines?

Special work holding and fixturing is an obvious consideration to bear the weight and to reduce the vibration and movement of the gear blank while hobbing or roughing.  Careful and uniform torquing of the clamping fasteners during these operations prevents work piece movement and distortion of the gear blank during the roughing operation.  The gear blank must have accurate mounting and indicating surfaces to control the pitch line runout to critical features (bearing journals, splines, etc.) and for minimal lead error.

5.  Last thoughts?

CMM inspection of the complete gear and spindle must be done to achieve the proper parallelism

The critical factor here, as with all similar power transmission applications, is that the gears are properly designed and manufactured.  The other mechanical components that make up the assembly, along with the gearing, must be applied/designed so the overall system performance does not have any shortcomings that could affect the performance and life of the unit.  Then if the sub-assembly/assembly is carried out with real precision and care, a favorable outcome is sure to follow.

Excel Gear, Inc. is a total service company, specializing in the design, manufacture and analysis of coaxial gearboxes, custom built gears, helical/bevel gearboxes, internal gears, spur gears, worm gears, gear-driven high-speed machine spindles, CNC gimbal heads and wind turbine gearbox components.  The company performs full FEA and vibration analysis, plus complete metallurgical and heat treatment evaluation.

For more information on this interview, please contact:

EXCEL GEAR, INC. 11865 Main Street Roscoe, IL 61073 Phone:  815-623-3414 Fax:  815-623-3314 Web:  www.excelgear.com Email:  sales@excelgear.com N.K. Chinnusamy, President

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