0 – Technology – Transmissions
Transmissions play a vital role in actuation devices, as they are responsible of the motor output conditioning. There are just a few critical parameters to consider when designing a transmission: gear ratio and inertia; backlash and transmission error.
Quite often, a high gear ratio is used to increase torque density on the actuator and provide more torque for the same energy, size and weight.
There´s a catch, though. Increasing the gear ratio also increases the reflected inertia, severely penalizing the total bandwidth of the system. The overall effect is a limitation on the agility and response capacity in highly-dynamic scenarios.
Backlash is basically a non-linearity on the transmission, a gap between two segments where the transmission is constant. The greater the backlash, the more difficult it will be to control the actuator. It also reduces the total bandwidth of the system.
PULSE115-60 integrates a Planetary Gear Transmission, which has been optimised to maximise the efficiency while transmission error and backlash were minimised. It has been designed for highly dynamic operations, that is the reason behind a 5:1 gear ratio, widely know as the best gear ratio for dynamic intermittent operations.
Also, as a Vanguard Exclusive, we are currently developing novel Transmissions capable of providing PGT inertia and efficiency levels and zero Backlash. It will also be completely silent and inherently safe.
