Worm gearboxes

Worm gearboxes

Worm gearboxes is the category of gearboxes on which the power transmission is accomplished through a particular gear pair, consisting in a worm and a worm wheel. One of the main parameters is the center-to-center distance. This is the parameter giving the name to each gearbox size: for instance, MI 50 means a unit with a center-to-center distance of 50 mm, MI 110 has 110 mm and so forth.

Strong points of worm gearboxes:

• allow a very wide range of possible ratios for each size with a single reduction stage. No other gearbox type allows this. The reason why so many ratios can be obtained on a single size, thus on the same housing, depends on the several parameters: number of teeth of worm wheel, number of ends of worm, helix angle, module.
• allow high and low speeds within a wide range of variations.