Curved Gear Rack Needed to Rotate Tooling Around Aerospace Component

Customer's Problem

A machine builder has an application to rotate tooling around an Aerospace component and would like to use a curved rack and pinion drive to achieve this. To maintain accurate positioning, there would be two axis drives to rotate the axis and remove backlash using electrical preloading.

The curved rack would be a special design by the customer based on the machine requirements and the design envelope they have to work with.

ATLANTA's Solution

ATLANTA was able to work with the customer on the design of the curved rack to improve it's manufacturability and confirm that it would be able to handle the application loading. The rack was produced as a special item and utilized ATLANTA's vast experience and knowledge in gear production.

A precision planetary reducer was selected with a ISO flanged pinion mounted to the output to drive on the rack. The flanged pinion offered a compact design to reduce the amount of torque required at the reducer output. The reducer provided a rigid support of the flanged pinion and allowed for a large reduction ratio to get the motor speed up as high as possible.

Using the ATLANTA solution, the customer was able to meet the machine requirements and was happy to purchase all of the required items from one source.