April 2010 - Are Your Machine Safeguards Really Safe / MagnaGear From Dodge Tackles Tough Applications
Is Your Company Machine Safe Guard Compliant?
My customer told me are were very familiar with the products from STI Omron, now represented by ISC Companies; the master distributor for the region. While he was happy to change his purchasing files to make me the vendor of record for these products he did not feel that he needed to sit down and review the product line with me.
Sound Familiar?
I persisted and fortunately for him he decided to take the time anyway. The result? He learned that there were product improvements to the STI line in the recent years and that these enhancements would improve the safety of the machines they built and (this is the really good part) these newer products were about 15% lower in purchase price over what he had been buying.
Machine safeguarding can be a complex topic. Government agencies with initials like OSHA and ANSI and ever changing and seemingly incomprehensible regulations. Citations and possibly fines for non-compliance are always a worry. And of course the most critical factor of all: keeping your employees safe from injury—or worse. All in all a pretty sobering topic.
All the more reason to partner with suppliers like ISC Companies and STI Omron. Did you know that Omron STI employees serve as active members or chairmen on more than 40 domestic and international standards committees relating to machine safeguarding issues? This level of involvement and investment of time assures STI remains current on all the latest updates to these standards, and that information is available to you.
With over 30 years of experience in industrial machine safeguarding, STI is the leading resource for machine and process safeguarding services. The best part of partnering with Omron STI is peace of mind knowing that:
- Your machines or process lines are safeguarded correctly to the current standards
- You are 100% compliant—nothing less
- You have documented risk level identification and a risk reduction strategy
- Your machine operators are fully and professionally trained on the safety systems installed
Combine that with the ability of ISC Companies Machining & Fabrication Group’s ability to fabricate custom hard guarding solutions to your exact needs and you have a winning combination. We can tackle virtually any guarding requirement in any material for any environment.
Feature Rich MagnaGear™ from Dodge Brings a New Standard for Reliability in Tough Applications
Dodge MagnaGear™ speed reducers offer the marketplace the most advanced, power dense reducer while providing the overall lowest cost of ownership in the industry today. For many years the Dodge division of Baldor has been known as the industry leader in torque-arm reducers as well as many other gear reducer platforms. Dodge is also known for their CST or Controlled Start Transmission which employs a rugged planetary gear set has become a fixture in the mining industry. Dodge has taken 
the proven technology of their planetary platform and incorporated it into the feature rich MagnaGear™ reducer.
As stated, the output group of the MagnaGear™ product line is planetary gearing. The advantage of this type of gearing includes high power density and large speed reductions in a small volume. Each gear stage of the reducer is super finished to AGMA Q11 standards or better and the design is optimized for efficiency as well as compactness. Combined with the reliability of this proven platform the MagnaGear™ saves energy while lowering maintenance costs.
The bearings used in the MagnaGear™ are selected to exceed AGMA standards for minimum adjusted L10 life. Most competitors use bearings rated for less than one-half the life of those that are engineered into MagnaGear™. This means that not only will the bearings used in MagnaGear™ will far out-last those of the competition but the end user will experience fewer maintenance issues.
The wave seal lip acts as a pump to keep oil in and contaminants out.Traditionally gear box seals are viewed as a commodity based on size, cost and availability. Nitrile is standard lip material with Viton used as a premium for harsh environments. This is not the case with Baldor. Seals are an engineered part of an integrated system. Materials are application specific and selected to maximize life.
Each shaft has a tandem seal with the Inner seal prevents lubrication leakage and the outer seal acts as an excluder to keep contaminants out. Grease purge cavity between the seals provides taconite seal functionality. The superior fit & finish between seal lip and shaft optimizes contact pressure and minimizes wear and heat generation. The seals feature a wave lip design which reduces single point wear and acts as a pump to push oil back in while pushing contaminates away. This design also reduces drag by 20% and generates 25-35% less heat.
MagnaGear™ is the only reducer on the market to use HNBR (Hydrogenated Nitrile Butadiene Rubber) seals instead of Nitrile or Viton. HNBR offers better wear resistance than Nitrile (5 to 6 times) is less abrasive to shaft than Viton, creates less heat generation and wear while maintaining better oil film generation. HNBR also has better chemical compatibility with synthetic oils and a working temperature range of -40°F to 300°F.
The MagnaGear™ housing is symmetrical and may be rotated for either right or left hand mounting. Combined with the four sided universal mounting design of the mono-block gear case, installation is very flexible and can reduce the amount of spare inventory needed.
The oversized assembly covers allow easy access to gears and bearings eliminating “ship-in-a-bottle” assembly methods. This feature provides full access without the drawbacks of a split case design such as oil-leaks and bearing alignment challenges.
The MagnaGear™ housing has been designed to maximize cooling and has increased thermal capacity. This design not only includes exterior cooling fins but also interior oil channels to critical areas promoting heat transfer while reducing oil “churning.” For the most demanding applications supplemental cooling packages are available including shaft fans, electric fans and heat exchangers.
Other housing features include flat areas on the bearing carriers for simplified mounting of bearing monitors as well as an oil sampling port and dip-stick as standard.
Baldor is so confident in the Dodge MagnaGear™ that they back each unit with a with a 36 month warranty.
The MagnaGear™ combines the best proven technologies with state of the art engineering methods, packed with all the features one can think of. The result is a reducer that is efficient, compact, low-maintenance and very reliable. For more information on the MagnaGear™ or any of the products from Baldor contact your ISC