The Development of a »New« Planocentric Gearbox with a Closed Cage and S-gear Tooth Flank

Project Information

S-Gearbox

Grant agreement ID: 681718

DOI

10.3030/681718

Project closed

EC signature date 25 May 2015

Start date 1 June 2015

End date 31 October 2015

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

PODKRIZNIK, SPECIALNA STROJNA INDUSTRIJA DOO
Slovenia

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - S-Gearbox (The Development of a »New« Planocentric Gearbox with a Closed Cage and S-gear Tooth Flank)

Reporting period: 2015-06-01 to 2015-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Initial focus of S-Gearbox project was planocentric gearbox with special gear tooth flank geometry, lifetime lubrication that allows maintenance free operation and retention of all kinematic and structural properties and preservation of operational capacities throughout whole operational life. The goal was to build gearbox as small and lightweight as possible – a preference in general practice and application requirement.

However, initial stages of feasibility study showed that to truly take advantage of target industries in key markets of EU and outside, we need to offer even more advanced version of original S-Gearbox by integrating into it spatial-awareness encoder, integrated torque sensor for measuring of the current output torque and a self-aware condition monitoring system. We call this innovation S-Gearbox Ultra and it is what we focused on when preparing technical and economic feasibility study.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During project, we performed all work from phase 1 proposal:
• Economic: assessing the size of our market, full product development strategy and marketing strategy, IP protection
• Technical: studying potential technological risks of S-Gearbox testing and validation in operational environment, providing information on best strategy to implement the technology and start production
• Environmental: assessing environmental impact of new technology during the product life cycle

In addition, we have gone beyond the plan by:
1. Starting development of embedded torque sensor system to detect interaction with humans/things and self-monitoring intelligent system
2. Building first version of S-Gearbox prototype with integrated absolute encoder

All this is summarized and incorporated into deliverable Feasibility study.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Expected final result is S-Gearbox Ultra – the most comprehensive and technologically advanced gearbox on the market, providing better reliability, safety and cost-effectiveness in many different industries using robots for payloads up to and over 30 kilograms. Its impact will be many times greater than of originally planned S-Gearbox, as it will be more adaptable and vastly improve behavioural and safety features of the robots in which it is installed.

Feasibility study has shown Podkriznik is capable of bringing innovation to the market in the next 24-30 months (with some subcontracting help from research organisations) at estimated cost of around 1,5 million EUR.

This could lead to 16,6 million EUR of additional revenue for Podkrižnik and 20-30 new jobs created by 2022.

Profile of the assembled S-Gearbox

Photo of the final product = S-Gearbox

S-Gearbox = exploded view