Agro Industry

Gears and gearboxes are widely used in the agro industry. With the advance in technology the
agro industry has also advanced and India is still making significant advances in this field.
Agriculture has been an essential activity for the survival of mankind. The agricultural industry has come a
long way from subsistence farming to mechanized agriculture.

Importance of Gears in Agro Industry

The industry makes use of modern technology and powered machinery in different processes. Many
processes including tilling, seeding, ploughing, irrigation, pest and insect control etc. make use of a variety
of specialized gears, pumps and engines for better farming technique. Agriculture vehicles like tractor also
use different gearboxes.

In the early years agriculture was done with the power of hand. Oxen and horses were used for power,
sowing was done by hand, threshing with flail and grain cutting with sickle. With the advance in technology,
in the early years of 1900, geared tractors were used for extensive farming. In 1915 enclosed gears
developed for tractors and thereafter gears became an important part of the agro industry.

Types of Gears used in Agro Industry

All agro machinery consists of different types of gears depending upon their function and property. Different
gears are used differently in the industry.

• Spur gears - Transmit power in applications utilizing parallel shafts. They are also used as fuel
pumps.

• Helical gears - Transmit power between parallel and non-intersecting applications.

• Racks - They are used for linear rotary power motion.

• Pinion gears - connect shafts of motors on reducers.

• Worm gears - Worm is used as vertical shaft threaded with small pitch angle from the horizontal.

• Sprockets - Engages the link of a chain in the tractor.

Automotive Gears
Automotive gears transmit torque and rotation through an angle from a power source to the
driven member. Extreme pressure gear oil is a lubricant for automotive gears and bearings.

Automotive gears are machined from wrought bar stock and subsequently heat treated to develop the
required surface hardness and tooth bending fatigue durability.

Automotive Gear Ratio

Automotive gear ratio is the number of turns of the drive wheels in relation to the number of turns of the
engine. If the engine is considered the input and the drive wheel is considered to be the output then the
input gear or the pinion is said to mate with the output gear or the ring gear to drive or rotate it.

Importance of Gears in Automotive Industry

Gears play an important role in trucks, car, buses, motor bikes and even geared cycles. These gears control
speed and include gears like ring and pinion, spiral gear, hypoid gear, hydraulic gears, reduction gearbox.

Depending on the size of the vehicles, the size of the gears also varies. There are low gears covering a
shorter distance and are useful when speed is low. There are high gears also with larger number of teeth.
These high gears cover a longer distance with one revolution of pedal.

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Types of Automotive Gears

• Bevel gears - Important components on all rotorcraft drive system.

• Crown wheel and pinion - Used in motorcycle automotive gearboxes.
• Differential gear - Helps two wheels of the car to rotate differentially with respect to each other.
• Fine pitch gear - It is an anti-backlash gear used to minimize errors introduced by backlash.
• Helical bevel gears - Used as storage and retrieval units in automobiles.
• Herringbone gears - Used for power transmission in automobiles.
• Internal gears - Used in rollers and as tools for creating solid models of drive systems.
• Master gear - Used to determine the accuracy of work gears.
• Miter gears - Used to transmit motion and power between intersecting shafts positioned at right
angles.
• Rack - Converts the rotary motion of the wheel into linear motion and provides a gear reduction,
making it easier to turn the wheels.
• Ring gears and pinion - Used in heavy truck differentials. Also used to convert the driving force
from the drive shaft (power unit) to the drive wheels.
• Spiral bevel gears - Used in rotorcraft drive system. They are also used in power windows and
power seats.
• Straight bevel gears - Used in differential of an automobile to connect the drive shaft to the rear
axle.
• Worm gears - Used to transmit motion between perpendicular, non-intersecting shaft.

Marine Gears
 Marine gears meet a wide variety of marine applications in a variety of configurations and
installations to meet the most critical applications. They are used in yachts, work boats, fishing
boats and other marine applications. Selection of the appropriate viscosity grade for marine
applications is based on speed, load, operating temperature, and gear geometry. The viscosity
required increases as the speed decreases.

Specific marine applications include main propulsion, centrifuges, deck machinery such as winches,
windlasses, cranes, turning gears, pumps, elevators, and rudder carriers.

Types of Marine Gears

Worm gears - They offer corrosion protection.

Bevel gears - They are used as special reduction gears for cruise. They are also used for transportation
task.

Helical gears - Transmit power and motion between parallel axis.

Planetary gears - These are used foT co-axial drive.

Instrumentation Gears
Instrumentation is the study, development, and manufacture of instruments, as for scientific or industrial use.
Instrumentation gears are based on modular concept. Instrumentation gears are provided with or without
hubs and are best suited for instrumentation and power transmission in light duty and medical automation
fields.

Instrumentation gears are manufactured using high accuracy gear cutting equipment. Standard gears are
produced in stainless steel, hardened stainless steel, aluminum alloy an brass. Stainless steel is used when
maximum corrossion resistance is required. Aluminium offers reduced inertia and good corrosion resistance
when anodized. Hardened stainless steel offers remarkable combination of high strength and hardness.

Types of Instrumentation Gears

Rack gears - Used to turn the dial that display weight.

Pinion gears - Are used for accuracy evaluation.

Spur gears - Used to determine the direction of the principle axis.

 Bevel gears - Used to redirect the shaft from the horizontal gas turbine engine to the vertical
rotor.

Worm gears - They offer corrosion protection.

Power Station
Power station is an electrical generating station. The energy efficiency of a power station is usually called
thermal efficiency and may be defined as the electrical energy leaving the station divided by the fuel energy
entering the station. It is essentially a measure of the overall fuel conversion efficiency for the electricity
generation process.

Wind Turbine
Wind energy is a converted form of solar energy. A wind energy system transforms the kinetic energy of the
wind into mechanical or electrical energy that can be harnessed for practical use. Mechanical energy is most
commonly used for pumping water in rural or remote locations. Wind electric turbines are used to generate
electricity.

Turbine systems include a rotor, or blades which convert the wind's energy into rotational shaft energy; a
tower to support the rotor and drive train; a nacelle including a gearbox and a generator; and electronic
equipments such as controls, electrical cables, ground support equipments, and interconnection
equipments.

When the rotor rotates, the load on the main shaft is very heavy. It runs with approximate 22
revolutions per minute but generator has to go a lot faster. It cannot use the turning force to
increase the number of revolutions and that is why wind turbine uses gear to increase the
speed

Mill heads
Mill is a machine or device that reduces a solid or coarse substance into pulp or minute grains by crushing,
grinding, or pressing. Milling is a process of grinding in a mill. The gearboxes with parallel shafts can drive
mills with single or double lateral drives.

There is a milling tool designed to mill heads or sockets of joints of spherical form, which comprises a cup
formed at least partly as a half sphere and in any case can be connected with a hand-operated milling
machine to revolve around the axis of the sphere which is perpendicular to the equational plane of the half
sphere.