July 26, 2016 The Total Drive Source

Volume 6 | Issue 1

Nuttall Gear is the only company that specializes in providing complete packaged assemblies of mechanical and electrical drive components.

At Nuttall Gear, LLC “Your Total Drive Source” is more than a slogan. The company is the only one in its industry to specialize in providing complete packaged drive assemblies of both mechanical and electrical components. Nuttall drives can be found working in paper mills, steel mills and textile mills. The Niagara Falls-based company also makes drives for extruders, crushers, elevators, water screens, briquetting machines, debarkers and a multitude of other applications.

“We make vertical and horizontal drives, speed reducers and speed increasers, cast iron and fabricated steel housings, flange mounted and scoop mounted gearmotors, or we can provide a custom enclosed gear drive to suit any special requirements our customers may have,” says National Sales Manager John Proven.

An Illustrious History
With only one gear cutter and $500 in capital, R.D. Nuttall founded Nuttall Gear in 1887. Between 1887 and 1928, the company grew and prospered from its modest beginning in Pittsburgh, Pa., and made numerous contributions to the gear industry. Nuttall developed the modern form of the gearmotor, which is used by gear manufacturers all over the world today.

In 1928, Nuttall was purchased by Westinghouse and became the company’s Buffalo, N.Y.-based gear division. Nuttall operated within Westinghouse until 1983, when a group of investors bought the division from Westinghouse and brought back the Nuttall name. The company was moved to Niagara Falls and once again became a privately held corporation. With its new owners, Nuttall continued the tradition of leading the industry in technology – such as pioneering the use of ion-nitriding for heat treating, and the use of its MAAG SP-160, the best machine available to confirm gear quality.

A new milestone occurred in 1997 when Nuttall was acquired by the Colfax Corporation; Nuttall currently is part of Colfax’s Power Transmission Group. “While there have been corporate changes over the years,” says Proven, “our commitment to excellence in both product and service has never wavered.”

Principal Products
Nuttall’s principal products today are speed reducers, speed increasers and gearmotors. The company’s type TDS and HPD parallel-shaft speed reducers are available with torque ratings up to 6,000,000 inch-pounds, and standard gear ratios up to 1500-to-one. Its TDS and HPD units incorporate precision helical gearing (in single, double, triple, quadruple and quintuple reductions) enclosed in heavy-duty cast iron or welded steel housings. Type TDS units utilize through-hardened gears, while type HPD units utilize case-hardened and ground gears. Standard features include tapered roller bearings, large inspection plates, a positive splash system for lubrication, extra wide bearing spans and center bearing supports; all to provide a rugged, reliable unit with proven dependability in virtually every industrial application.

Type TDS, spiral-bevel right-angle speed reducers are available from Nuttall in ratings from 50,000 inch-pounds to 5,000,000 inch-pounds of torque and gear ratios from four-to-one to 357-to-one. The input shaft is at a right angle to the output shaft, which may be horizontal or vertical. This provides flexibility in space utilization for typical applications such as material handling or cooling tower drives. Type TDS design features include tapered roller bearings and heavy-duty cast iron or welded steel housings. Nuttall can supply all TDS and HPD units separately or in a completely engineered package including motor and reducer mounted on a bedplate.

“We recently unveiled our type HPD products in order to upgrade our standard line of products and make us more competitive with other gear manufacturers,” explains Proven. “With our HPD line we offer more power and capacity than our older models, all at a lower cost.” Nuttall’s type G, Moduline® integral gearmotors, are available in ratings from one to 200 hp and output speeds from one-and-a-half rpm to 1,430 rpm with AGMA Class I, II, or III service factors. The compact integral design, pioneered by Nuttall, fits many applications and provides total drive source responsibility for motor and gear application and performance. AC motors, both standard and high efficiency, and DC motors are available in all enclosures. A complete range of optional motor modifications can be supplied to tailor the Moduline gearmotor to a customer’s specific requirements. Cast iron housings and tapered roller bearings are standard features of the gearboxes. Special shafts, seals, slide rails, brakes, and a variety of mounting positions are available with this versatile gearmotor design.

For applications requiring slower output speeds, Nuttall makes available to industry its type U, Moduline scoop mount gearmotors. These gearmotors are available in ratings from one to 200 HP and output speeds from one-and-a-half rpm to 420 RPM with AGMA Class I, II, or III service factors. The type U allows for the use of standard, foot-mounted NEMA frame AC motors or DC motors. Total drive source responsibility for motor and gear performance can be left to Nuttall, with standard or high efficiency motors available in all enclosures. A complete range of optional motor modifications is also available with the type U.

The company’s HPD line isn’t the only new Nuttall product. Nuttall recently has introduced ultra high-speed gears designed especially for fan, turbine, pump and compressor drives. The type SU / SD high speed gears are available in ratings up to 40,000 hp and output speeds of up to 45,000 RPM or higher in ratios up to nine-to-one. Nuttall’s design features include heavy cast iron or welded steel housings for strength and rigidity, dynamically balanced precision double helical gears for uniform load distribution, and oversized split sleeve bearings with labyrinth oil seals to insure the reliability of these high speed units. These units can be supplied with an integrally mounted lube oil system including filter and cooler, or with a remote lube oil console. Typical options might include oil temperature and pressure gauges or switches, bearing temperature detectors, vibration probes and turning gears. Type SU/SD high-speed gears are available for AGMA 6011, API 613 / 677, and Class I-E nuclear safety related applications.

In addition to its forte in custom-engineered gear products, Nuttall also provides industry-leading maintenance, upgrade and repair services. “We don’t just service Nuttall products,” notes Proven, “we also service the old Westinghouse gear product line as well as competitors’ units.” Some Westinghouse units have been in the field for close to 50 years. During the U.S. nuclear power industry’s hey-day, Westinghouse was a major supplier of gear products to the industry and many of its units are still operational at nuclear power plants around the world.

The oil and gas industry offers exceptional future opportunities for Nuttall. Currently, Nuttall has offshore oil jack-up rig drives working from the North Sea to the Gulf of Mexico. The power generation industry is another growing area for Nuttall. “We’re already supplying the power generation industry with many of our standard high-speed units,” says Proven, “and we expect strong growth in our new ultra high-speed gears for power generation applications.”

Delroyd Worm Gear
When Colfax Corporation purchased Nuttall in 1997, it also made an additional purchase to enhance the Nuttall product line. Delroyd Worm Gear was acquired from IMO Pump Industries and the capabilities of Delroyd were merged with Nuttall’s at the latter’s 140,000-square-foot plant in Niagara Falls. Today, Nuttall offers both Nuttall and Delroyd products under one roof.

Delroyd offers enclosed and loose gearing in both standard and special designs, from two-inch center distance through 48-inch center distance. Only a select few gear manufacturers can produce gearing to these types of dimensions. Reverse engineering and a fast quotation turnaround are staple services offered by Delroyd. “We can take someone else’s gear design and reverse engineer it,” notes Sales Manager Jay DuBell.

Delroyd has a broad customer base because “our gears can find their way into everything from hand-control mechanisms to people movers, such as you would find at airports,” says DuBell. The power generation, metals, food processing, material handling, paper and pulp, wood processing, packaging and mining industries, among others, all rely on Delroyd for quality worm gearing.

At the Niagara Falls plant, both Delroyd and Nuttall’s vertical manufacturing capabilities ensure quality. They can manufacture a gearbox beginning with the raw material all the way to complete assembly. All casings, housing gearing and shafts are manufactured in-house. Much like the Nuttall product line, Delroyd’s product offerings have been well received by the power generation industry. Due to the recent power shortage concerns in California and through aggressive marketing, Delroyd was able to gain an impressive foothold supplying the power generation industry in the United States. Delroyd also hopes to flourish in Asia, especially in the Pacific Rim, where demand for energy is set to increase dramatically. Delroyd supplies the region’s power generation companies through its OEM customers.

“We like to market ourselves as a manufacturer that can coordinate a customer’s entire drive package,” explains DuBell. “We don’t advertise ourselves as a high-volume manufacturer. Instead we view ourselves as a company that can attend to the special needs and requirements of our customers. You can’t get this kind of service from any other company in the world.”

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