Outdoor gear motors are exposed to weather agents, from rainfall to hail, from summer sunlight to icy winds, and are subject to the risks that all manufacturers take into account when developing applications and systems.
These risks must be assessed carefully, in order to prevent very serious issues for customers and for the company. Often, breakages entail economically damaging machine downtime. And costly after-sales support.
Water in the motor
Water seeping into the electric motor is the most significant risk for motors.
In the best case scenario, a leakage causes the bearings to block. In the worst case scenario, it causes a stator short-circuit, where the electrical winding is located.
In both situations, the motor won’t work.
Reducer oxidation
The gear unit housing and the other aluminium components have a tendency to oxidise over the medium-range period. Oxidized aluminium crumbles and mechanical resistance drops.
Even exposed shafts tend to oxidise. An oxidized output drive shaft will also damage the seal ring. With an inevitable consequence: oil leakage.
Oxidising in the motor-gear unit connection is less frequent, but equally invalidating. Without a suitable protection, the output will be the same: a damaged seal ring and oil leakage.
Seal ring life
The duration of a seal ring varies a lot, when they are directly exposed to weather events. High temperatures due to direct sunlight, water, rigid winter temperatures: they all affect the duration of seal rings.
Protective cover
Even plastic safety covers when exposed to weather agents will last significantly less. The safety cover will become mechanically weaker, and, once it breaks or cracks, leakages will occur. And leakages cause oxidising.
Risk prevention solutions
We saw the 4 risks for outdoor gear motor exposed to direct weather events.
To tackle each one of them, we came up with the perfect solution to prevent any issue and extend your gear motor’s life.
We know very well what it means to have a reliable gear motor, and the importance to reduce the need of after-sales and after-installation support to a minimum.
This is why we created a short catalogue dedicated to these solutions: you can find it here.
