Gearmotors with Special Winding Design for Extended Speed Range

Conveyor Oven Gearmotors Drive Pizza to Perfection

Well the next time you run down to the corner and pick up a pizza to go, just look behind the counter. Odds are good that you will see a stainless steel conveyor pizza oven with mesh belts flanking its sides. These are efficient ovens: put your raw pizza in one end, it moves through the oven on a belt and arrives cooked out the other side!

OEM Challenge: One Gearmotor, Multiple Speeds

One of the food service equipment industry OEM partners of Bodine wanted a gearmotor solution for their new round up conveyor pizza ovens. Manufacturers would be north of using a variety of gearmotors with various speed ratios to fulfill multiple cooking requirements. But the customer desired a gearmotor design with one motor SKU while having a wider speed range, thereby eliminating the requirement for different SKUs and streamlining manufacturing.

The Trouble with Low Speed Motor Performance

At very low speeds, Permanent Magnet DC (PMDC) and Brushless DC (BLDC) motors could have a difficulty in running smoothly. At speeds under 100 rpm the commutation increments are too far apart, this can give rise to a distinct “cogging” or “stepping” sensation.

One option is to go with a higher gear ratio so that the motor armature or rotor continues spinning above 100 rpm, regardless whether the conveyor moves at less than full speed. This technique, however, reduces the useable high speed range, thereby limiting performance when faster conveyor speeds are appropriate.

Bodine’s Engineering Solution: A Special Winding Design

Bodine engineers overcame this problem by creating a customized winding for the motor that permitted the motor to run at increased base speeds. In combination with the high reduction radio a smooth, stable operation was achieved at extremely slow conveyor speeds and you can still speed up quickly if needed.

The end-product was an adaptable gearmotor offering that could address every conceivable conveyor pizza oven operating application. By minimizing the number of gearmotor types demanded, this is the amount that the OEM simplified its supply chain and could confidently say oven performance would be consistent on any application.

Benefits of the Bodine Gearmotor Solution

• Wide range speed with a single motor design
• Smooth low-speed performance without cogging
• The ability of high-speed to ensure fast cooking cycles is maintained
• Simplified portfolio by replacing multiple motor SKUs
• Virtually noise free and high reliability by demand of food equipment use

A Home Run in Food Equipment Design

With advanced winding design and Bodine’s time-tested gearmotor expertise, the OEM found a cost-efficient, all-around dependable motor solution for pizza conveyor ovens. For low-speed precision baking to high-speed cooking applications, the food service industry can count on Bodine gearmotors.