GMEINDER – GEARED FOR RAIL TRANSPORTATION

Since 1985 some 3000 Gmeinder final drives have been supplied to the UK alone, for operation on diesel multiple units, class 150, 156, 158, 165 and 166. Even after a virtual 1/4 century of service, these products are still in operation with individual drives completing over 1.2 million km before being initially overhauled.

This level of reliability and performance can only be achieved by the highest levels of research, development and design coupled to precision manufacturing techniques and excellent build quality.

Gears and gear drives are essential elements in the demanding field of motive power engineering. Gmeinder gears of spur, helical and crowned design are components that can be relied upon to provide trouble-free operation wherever they are installed. This includes a wide range of rail vehicles, operating on any kind of track, and even under the most arduous climatic conditions. These products have also been successfully used for the manufacture of heavy construction plant equipment including crawler-mounted loaders and bulldozers.

The production of high quality pinion shaft bevel gear components has been a major aspect of the Gmeinder success story. Although there are other suppliers for these products, some of the positive advantages offered by Gmeinder are that they always use hot form-forged high grade steel which gives a favourable grain flow. Competitors may use the same material or even forged round bars, but they do not use form-forged stock.

Gmeinder also manufactures the bevel gears to Klingelnberg HPG-S tooth system, where the gears are pre-machined – gas carburized – hardened – and then finish profiled to the HPG-S Method. The HPG-S Method (High-Power-Gear-Super) functions on the basis of cyclo-palloid toothed gears using special boron-nitrite tools, to remove the distortion from the gear wheels, produced as a result of the heat treatment. The machining process works within an area of a few 0.001 mm’s. Even though this method has now been available for over 20 years, some competitors still offer the traditional lapping of the gears in pairs. The HPG-S Method offers up to 30% increase in loading capacity resulting from better contact area of the tooth flanks. This increases service life expectancy and lowers running noise levels to ensure a considerable improvement in smooth running and longer life.