Founded in 1972, Rhein-Nadel Automation is international company group, with approximately 300 employees; the company is active in two business divisions of feeding technology: The development and manufacture of components as well as the construction of tailor made feeding systems for the feeding of workpieces in theautomation process based upon all conventional drive components.
When expanding its product range and depth Ruhrgetriebe,a specialist for DC and three phase motors, focuses on close co-operation with its customers.Time and time again, the companies from various sectors place special requirements on their motors/ drives for their machines and plants. These components in such a form are not available in the standard product range. However, they can of course be added to this range by means of new or further development. In one case, their long-standing customer Rhein-Nadel Automation (RNA) provided the impetus for a meaningful further product development. RNA supplies feeding technology based on all conventional part conveyors such as vibratory bowl, centrifugal, stepper,linear, area and inclined feeders as well as belt conveyors and hopper units. In a special case, a bunker conveyor is used to stock up work pieces with a filling volume of between 5 and 200 litres that are equipped with Ruhrgetriebe wormgeared motors in a three-phase and AC design. However, the transport speed ofthe single stage worm gear was too high for the bunker conveyor in order to fill the work pieces into the sorting pot in a dosed manner.
In order to make the feeding of the piece goods more accurate, it was necessary to quickly find a solution. Ruhrgetriebe was not able to deal with its customer using thee xisting product range. However, after acomprehensive yet brief problem analysis, the Development Department managed to find a worm geared motor in stock that could be adjusted to match the particular needs of the customer. The power of the motor already matched the requirements, but the structural design and the output shaft had to be modified.
Thus, the engineers developed prototypes within a very short period of time: A double stage worm geared motor as an attachment version complete with flange (B14) and hollow shaft for direct connection and a speed of only 0.9 rpm in comparison to 14 rpm as it was the case with the basic motor.
After a test phase was completed, the motor was shipped and then also extensively tested regarding the special needs by the customer. The motor was determined to be “excellent”, meaning that serial production could begin.
With regard to the individual application, this now means the following: Whereas the previous belt speeds amounted to 2m/min, the miniature parts can now be fed to the sorting tops extremely slowly at a speed of only 0.5m/min via the bunker conveyor. This means that the precise separation of the parts is completely guaranteed.
Furthermore, the hopper belt conveyors are equipped with a seal curtain and a reflex sensor at the factory in order to monitor the fill level. A special feature is the opportunity to quickly empty the device via a folding rear wall and the reverse mode of the drive unit. Amongst other areas, the devices are used by precision lathe parts manufacturers in the particularly high-precision sectors of medical technology, mechanical engineering and sensor technology.
The fact that the previous motor with head drive now runs as a direct drive has not only increased the smooth running of the belt conveyor but the motor position can now be set to any angle desired.
With its various gear reductions, the new SN 6 FH worm geared motor as attachment version complete with flange (B5 orB14) and hollow shaft offers output speeds of between 0.9 and 56 rpm with maximum permitted torques of between 11 and 15NM in S1 mode and can therefore be utilised for the applications of other customers as well.
