An Innovative Test Rig Helps Optimize Right-Angle Gearbox Performances

Poggi Trasmissioni Meccaniche collaborated with the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Bologna to create a test rig capable of measuring the mechanical performance and reliability of right-angle gearboxes.

by Giordano Bracco

Poggi Trasmissioni Meccaniche has taken up the challenge of creating a test rig to measure the performance of its angle gearboxes in terms of both mechanical efficiency and reliability. The project has been carried out with the University of Bologna with the aim of testing its technology, but above all to acquire useful data capable of suggesting and indicating possible improvements and of raising the performance standards of its right-angle gearboxes. The project has had, as main player in all its development stages, the synergic work between the Technical Department of Poggi Trasmissioni Meccaniche and the university researcher Luca Paiardini, supported by professor Massimiliano De Agostinis of the Department of Industrial Engineering of Bologna University. This partnership has made it possible to combine, through continuous dialogue between the parties, the practical and concrete approach of a leading company in the sector with the innovative and experimental approach of scientific research.

The data collected will enable new improvements

After the installation and the commissioning of the test bench, Poggi Trasmissioni Meccaniche will have a cutting-edge tool that will lay the foundations for the design of future generations of right-angle gearboxes. Not only will the test bench simulate different work cycles, testing the strength, the operating life and the breaking loads of right angle gearboxes, but at the same time it will allow the technical department of Poggi Trasmissioni Meccaniche to acquire, with an Industry 4.0 approach, the data relating to ongoing tests. Once studied and reworked, these data will allow Poggi Trasmissioni Meccaniche to define the performance parameters and seek new improvements, with the aim to offering its customers an increasingly qualified service based on a high knowledge of its own technology. Poggi Trasmissioni Meccaniche has become increasingly aware of the need to create a bridge between university and business world, with the aim of training new generations of professionals in the field and of solving the problem of lack of technical competence and specialist skills. This lack characterizes the marketplace and has historically represented a factor of mismatch between labour supply from younger people and labour demand from companies.