What is a gear motor (2023)?

Jiaming CaiNovember 17, 2022

Doncen Motor focus on the development and design of micro DC gear motors for 20 years. As a pioneer in the research and development of small gear motors( Power ≤ 250W ） in China, we share how we define a gear motor or geared motors in this article.

dc gear motor & dc motor — Basic dc gear motor types

Definition： What is a gear motor (Geared Motor)?
How does a dc gear motor work?
Gear motor Market analysis
Types and advantages of different geared motors
Application of gear motors

1.1 What is a gear motor

A gear motor (dc geared motor) is an electric motor (dc brush motor, bldc motor , ac motor) combine with a gear drive reduction system （gearbox） The output shaft of the motor is connected to the gear, and the bearing provides support as shown below. Gear motors can provide higher torque and lower speed than electric motors.

Squard Spur gearbox motor diagram — **DC Gear Motor diagram**

2.1 How does a dc geared motor work?

By cooperating with different gear transmission systems（Spur gearbox，Planetary gearbox, Worm gearbox), geared motors can provide applications with greater torque. The performance of geared motors will be affected by factors such as gearbox design, gear ratio, gear material, lubricating oil, output shaft, etc.

3.1 Gear motor market analysis

Geared motor is one of the most popular micro motor applied on markets. In the 21st century, the rapid development of global industrialization and the popularization of smart homes have driven the rapid expansion of the market for gear motors. Based on the reports from technavio (DC Motors Market by Type and Geography – Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025)

DC motor market is expanding with a fast and steady growth. However, in many industrial fields, what engineers want is a low-speed, high-torque micro-transmission solution which most of electrical motors cannot achieve. That is why engineers designed different gearboxes with electrical motors. Gearbox can reduce the speed and increase the torque of motors. The combination of the gearboxes and the motors is called —— “Geared motor”

4.1 Types and advantages of different geared motors

4.1.1 Spur gear motor

The design concept of the spur gear reducer is to reduce the speed of the transmission through the gear ratio generated by the meshing of gears with different numbers of teeth. So the gears of each stage are the points of force, and the speed of the transmission decreases step by step from the motor shaft, and the torque increases step by step. This is the most primitive gearbox design.

4.1.2 Planetary gear motor

Planetary Geared Motor — Plaentary Geared Motor

The planetary gearbox is mainly composed of planetary gear, sun gear and outer ring gear. And the design of different reduction ratios is realized by controlling the number of teeths of the solar energy and the number of teeths of the planetary gear. For planetary gearbox, the first-stage reduction ratio of the standard planetary gearbox is suggested les than 1:10. According to the experimental results, it is shown when the reduction ratio of each stage of the gearbox is 1:4 or 1:5, the efficiency of the reduction box will bethe highest. So engineers can achieve higher reduction ratio requirements by designing a 2-stage 3-stage reduction structure. But it means the length of the gearbox will increase compare with low gear ratio gearbox.

4.1.3 Worm gear motor

A worm gear motor is a type of gear motor that consists of two main components: the worm gear and the worm. The worm gear is a cylindrical gear with helical teeth that resemble a screw, while the worm is a cylindrical shaft with a spiral thread that meshes with the worm gear. This unique design allows the worm gear motor to provide high torque and reduce rotational speed.

5.1 Application of Gear motor

Geared motors are often used in closed space, small size, high torque, low speed applications. The design of the geared motor is more compact, with lower noise and more energy-saving. Doncen Motor found that our customers tend to use it in the following applications.