Application Examples

DieQua Technical Institute – December 2017

Jeff Gibbons2025-11-12T20:42:06-06:00December 12th, 2017|Application Examples, DieQua News, Educational|

To further enlighten and educate our distributors on the vast array of potential solutions, DieQua established the DieQua Technical Institute, or DTI. DTI is a two-day training class covering the analytical process of identifying the characteristics of a power transmission or motion control application and selecting the proper gear product to satisfy the requirements. It is held 2-3 times per year, primarily for our distribution partners, but also for our OEM customer design engineers. The DTI starts with a brief introduction followed by a tour of the facility, showing off how motion control and power [...]

The Link Between Design and Speed Control

Jeff Gibbons2025-11-12T20:42:06-06:00November 13th, 2017|Application Examples|

The tried and true method of synchronizing the speed of multiple stations by linking them mechanically through a gearbox system remains a popular option in machine design. This is still seen in printing presses, conveyors, roll forming and packaging lines, just to name a few examples. A customer of ours recently requested some assistance in designing a conveyor and feed system for a large pipe cutting operation. The long, heavy pipe was to be loaded on a set of rollers that would then move the pipe into a cutting house where it would be sawed into [...]

Gearbox Oil Seal Leak Investigation: Symptoms, Causes, & More

Jeff Gibbons2025-11-12T20:42:06-06:00November 6th, 2017|Application Examples|

Why Do Gearbox Seal Leaks Happen? Gearbox seal leaks are the bane of gearbox users. Since lubrication is the lifeblood of enclosed drives, maintaining oil levels is critical to long life. When oil starts leaking, corrective action is necessary, but what action? What’s going wrong? Actually, the answers can be varied as the gear type used, how it’s mounted, the speed it’s running, and the environment it’s in. Investigating a Gearbox Leak: A Real-World Example We had a user of a competitive worm gear speed reducer give us a call. He had his gearbox mounted [...]

Machine Screwed Up (And Down)!

Jeff Gibbons2025-11-12T20:42:06-06:00November 1st, 2017|Application Examples|

Screw jacks are just one member of the linear motion family, more suitable for relatively low-duty cycles. A customer had a problem we had to troubleshoot that highlighted what not to do. There are two common types of screw jacks. The first type of screw jack is the ball screw jack. They have recirculating balls in the threads that reduce friction, allowing for higher-duty cycles than the other type. The second type is the machine, or acme thread, screw jack that has a sliding action similar to a nut and bolt. This limits the [...]

Mechanical Drive Design For Satellite Dish Positioning

Jeff Gibbons2025-11-12T20:42:06-06:00October 24th, 2017|Application Examples|

The need for communication and data transfer are growing at a staggering rate. More satellites and more dishes are being put into service on a daily basis to satisfy and utilize the technological advances. While we have written about satellite dish applications before, there has been a recent explosion of inquiries from various companies producing these products in different sizes. The inquiries include large land-based satellite dish positioning drive designs and mobile applications used by the media, government agencies, and the military. In the most recent applications, the requests have been for system solutions [...]

From Heaven To Earth

Jeff Gibbons2025-11-12T20:41:24-06:00October 15th, 2017|Application Examples|

Most people think of cables, wires or electronic boxes when they think of communications equipment, but there is also the mechanical element involved when it comes to transmitting data between the ground and the sky. One of our customers sought us out with a number of mechanical requirements for a large, radar dish that was being designed. There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary about this radar engineering design, but it offered an opportunity to provide several of the wide variety of drive components we offer and work with the customer to help select [...]

Reciprocating Motion Without Servos

Jeff Gibbons2025-11-12T20:41:10-06:00September 26th, 2017|Application Examples|

Shaft-phasing gearboxes can be used for more than just registration and timing applications. In this example, the customer discovered a unique application for shaft-phasing gearboxes, using their dual input gear drive design to achieve reciprocating motion, beyond traditional registration and timing applications. Shaft-phasing gearboxes go by a variety of names - including speed correction drives and timing differentials. The differential moniker came from the original bevel gear designs, with side spider gears, that could be rotated with or against the direction of the main drive gears. This had the effect of speeding up or slowing [...]

Getting Up On the Wrong Side of the Bed

Jeff Gibbons2025-11-12T20:41:10-06:00September 24th, 2017|Application Examples|

The name John Madden may be familiar if you follow professional football. He was the long-time commentator on Monday Night Football (now Sunday nights) who traveled everywhere by bus. The rumor was he was afraid of flying. No, this is not an article about John Madden. But it is an article about a bus. Mr. Madden is not the only one that rides in modified tour buses. Band crews, racing crews, and a variety of other groups that travel a circuit use modified buses to provide comfort and cost-effective movement from city to city. These [...]

Spinea Cycloidal Units

Jeff Gibbons2025-11-12T20:41:10-06:00September 19th, 2017|Application Examples, Product Focus|

The benefits of zero backlash, high torsional rigidity, high tilting capacity, and compact size enable most industrial robots to perform precise pick-and-place tasks. But it isn’t just robots that need these benefits. Devices as large as machine tools and as small as optical systems need the features that both flex spline and cycloidal gear designs offer in one way or another. While there are a couple of significant players supplying these types of drives, Spinea’s unique cycloidal gear design provides distinct advantages over the competition. For one, the torque density is unmatched providing more capacity [...]

Screw Jack Installation: Troubleshooting Alignment Problems

Jeff Gibbons2025-11-12T20:41:10-06:00September 14th, 2017|Application Examples, Product Focus|

Screw jacks are just one member of the linear motion family, more suitable for relatively low duty cycles. A customer had a noise and wear problem we had to troubleshoot. It highlighted what not to do. There are two common types of screw jacks. Ball screw jacks have recirculating balls in the threads that reduce friction, and machine, or acme thread, screwjacks have a sliding action similar to a nut and bolt. Ball screws allow more duty cycles, and machine screws allow less. Within these screw jack types, there are two versions. What we call [...]

DieQua Technical Institute – December 2017

The Link Between Design and Speed Control

Gearbox Oil Seal Leak Investigation: Symptoms, Causes, & More

Machine Screwed Up (And Down)!

Mechanical Drive Design For Satellite Dish Positioning

From Heaven To Earth

Reciprocating Motion Without Servos

Getting Up On the Wrong Side of the Bed

Spinea Cycloidal Units

Screw Jack Installation: Troubleshooting Alignment Problems

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