Composite gear housing

Composite gear housing refers to the use of composite materials to enclose the components of motor transmissions. Fiber reinforced composite materials are used primarily for weight reduction. Carbon fiber reinforced plastic material is commonly used in the aerospace and automotive industries.

The main problems of using Fiber reinforced plastic for gear housings are low thermal conductivity and low hardness of the composite material. Because of the low hardness, the composite gear housing requires numerous metal inserts laminated into the composite exterior or installed with adhesive in the prefabricated composite housing. High strength epoxy adhesives are used in fabrication of carbon fiber composite drive shafts for cars.

The metal inserts provide support for bearings, shafts, gears and other metal components of the gearbox. The composite gear housing does not remove heat as efficiently as an aluminum or magnesium housing. Composite gear housings require more expensive and reliable cooling systems. However, composite plastic material is widely used on low-power applications such as gear motors for electromechanical actuators. Lightly loaded rotary gear actuators can be completely made of composite plastic material. Such electromechanical rotary actuators are installed, for example, on power windows of automobiles. Higher loaded actuators can contain metallic gears inside plastic composite housing for reduction of cost and corrosion resistance.

Some modern industrial robots incorporate electromechanical rotary gear actuators installed inside carbon fiber composite housing – robotic arm. Using carbon fiber material for [robotic arm] allows to reduce inertia of the arm and as a result makes robot operate faster.

Gear Mechanic Corporation in Las Vegas, NV manufacturing composite gear housings for automotive and aerospace applications along with worm face gears. Gear Mechanic Co. uses composite gear housing for making a light weight and low inertia hypoid gear case for a racing car drive axles. Lower inertia allows faster acceleration and faster stopping which results in significant advantage on NASCAR racing and Formula One racing.

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Wikipedia