A trend gaining ground at industrial plants over the past decade has manufacturers replacing traditional spur and worm gears with high-efficiency helical gears. While sometimes viewed as a pricey alternative, in reality, helical gears save energy, run cooler and quieter, require less maintenance, and last longer.
This can mean big savings for manufacturers. Replacing spur gears with helical gears in a 150,000 ft2 snack-food plant, for example, will save one customer of STOBER Drives, Maysville, Ky. about $1.5 million over the next 15 years.
Despite that kind of savings, an estimated half of U. S. manufacturers rely on outdated worm and spur gears that might have low up-front costs, but waste energy and tend to fail prematurely.