Cofely Fabricom realised the pre-assembly installation for the axles of Volvo Trucks in Ghent. The truck manufacturer asked the Belgian company to repeat the trick in the Swedish factory. This was only possible with the input of Apex Dynamics, which was able to quickly supply the required bevel gearboxes. We spoke with Rudi Husquet, section manager Mechanics for the Flanders region, about the challenge and the solution that Apex Dynamics provided.
Bevel gear boxes
In the installation, in which two flanking fixtures position the axes, two bevel gearboxes are mounted to rotate the axes. The whole is driven by servo motors with an output torque of 3 Nm and regulated to a maximum of 1.5 Nm. The requirements package also stated that the gearbox had to have a high power density with a very compact design and with a nominal torque of 150 Nm have sufficient reserve. It had to be a high-efficiency transmission with a helical gearing to limit the noise pollution for assembly workers. The parties opted for the Apex Dynamics AER090-120 with a transmission of 1:120 and a maximum torque of 360 Nm. Due to its design, the gearbox naturally fitted into the fixture.
Collaboration with Apex Dynamics
About the collaboration with Apex Dynamics, Husquet says the following: 'It was simply very good. Apex was able to respond and act immediately on questions and work with us on a solution to the problem. They made a good proposal and then kept their word. The delivery time of the bevel gearboxes was very short and the products more than met the requirements. In fact, we ended up with Apex too late. If we had submitted this question to them earlier, we could have delivered sooner.'
Read the entire interview from trade magazine Mechatronica&Machinebouw here…