The present invention relates to an electrical roller drive, which can be connected to a roller.
Nothing in the following discussion of the state of the art is to be construed as an admission of prior art.
Direct drives with high torques and total power levels at low rotation speeds are required to drive a roller in a production machine, for example a continuous press for wood materials. Currently, inter alia, it is desirable to change over in as simple a form as possible from a present drive variant (drive and gearbox) to direct drive technology. A solution is required for this purpose by means of which the given power range of the production machine under consideration can be achieved without the loss of power steps and machine sizes of the production machine. Direct drives are therefore required which on the one hand do not exceed the space required by the previous solution and on the other hand can be matched as flexibly as possible to the required torque steps of the previous production machines.
Previous concepts for driving a roller in a production machine are based on a design comprising one or more electric motors which transmit the required torques and rotation speeds to the shaft of the roller or to the roller via an intermediate gearbox. The various torques on the roller are made possible by using a variable number of electric motors. The magnitude of the required torques is achieved by means of high rotation-speed/torque step-up ratios of the gearbox. Depending on the required power level, that is to say the required drive torque for the roller, different gearboxes and different electrical drives (electric motors) are used. Drive concepts such as these incur high development costs for special motors which are manufactured specifically from the geometric and power point of view, in the area of direct drive technology and technical complexity, financial cost and time spent in replacement of damaged gearboxes.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to provide an improved electrical drive for a roller to obviate prior art shortcomings and to allow easy production at low cost, even in small quantities.