Mechanical failure has been, and continues to be, a major source of frustration within the industry — causing unplanned downtime, unexpected gaps in production and lost revenue. Owning and operating an IIoT Smart Gear Drive will shorten the start-up/MTTR (mean time to repair), increase up-time/MTBF (mean time between failure), provide higher OEE (overall equipment effectiveness), improve inventory management and maintenance costs, and improve the accuracy of maintenance and replacement events for your operation.

Belt tracking is the ability to maintain control of the desired path of a conveyor belt once it is aligned and installed. Making sure a new metal conveyor belt is tracking correctly is especially important because often times when a new belt is installed, it will not track the same as the old belt. Follow these seven simple steps to ensure proper conveyor belt tracking.

Proper conveyor alignment is crucial to the longevity of your belt. To keep it tracking and stretching evenly. Follow the steps below, they outline how to properly align your conveyor. 

Plastic modular belting has been around for decades and is the preferred method for conveying numerous food and beverage products.  While the polymer-based belts are ideal for both industries, there is one decision that all end users need to make when selecting a belt: closed hinge or open hinge belts.

The housing of a gear drive is the foundation for the unit and is the main barrier between the internal components and external abrasives. The housing may look like a simple casting or fabrication, but there are many considerations to its design. In this post, you will learn the difference between housing types.

Gear drives tend to be described by either the arrangement of their shafts or the way that they mount to the driven equipment. It’s important to realize that the shaft arrangement and the mounting are two different characteristics of the drive. Asking a supplier for a “shaft mounted” drive or a “right angle” drive is not enough information for selection by itself!

The heart of a gear drive is obviously the gears within it. Gears operate in pairs, engaging one another to transmit power. In this blog post we will go over the different types of gears that are found in drives. 

Industry 4.0 ties the computer based, analytic driven Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) into the physical processes of a factory. Not to be confused with IoT (Internet of Things), Industry 4.0 is the culmination of IoT, analytics, automation, physical systems, the cloud, and additional factors that make up a “smart” operation, or a “smart factory”.

The main function of a Rexnord flat top conveying chain is to convey or transport products from one point to another. Rexnord flat top modular chains can be used to convey, transfer, accumulate, meter, elevate and lower items of various sizes and shapes. In this blog you will learn the differences between Rexnord MatTop and TableTop chains. 

And so ends the first year of content for the Rexnord Power Transmission Blog. As we look back on 2017, we thought it would be fun to take a look back on the 5 most read articles from the last year.  We hope that you’ve enjoyed reading our content as much as we have creating it for you. If you have a topic that you would like one of our subject matter experts to address, leave us a message on Twitter or LinkedIn.