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Originally Posted On: https://www.intechpower.com/blog/topic/plastic-helical-gears

Does your segway make too much noise? Have you ever wondered where it is coming from? Segway drive gears in the segway gear box are all metal (figure 1)

The metal on metal movement, in this beautifully constructed helical drive gearbox, creates noise. This noise can become worse with time as the gears wear.  See the video below for an example of the noise we are talking about.

Intech has conceptualized a segway replacement gear box to dampen vibration and reduce the noise of the segway metal on metal wear. Our simple bolt on attachment benefits from our  PA12GC Power-Core Cast Nylon (polyamide) which doesn’t absorb moisture and won’t crack in subzero conditions. The self-lubricating material allows our gears to run quietly and oil free. Removing another annoyance from the maintenance of your segway and its gearbox.

Using plastics to design high load, high shock, and highly critical applications is our specialty here at intech and being engineers the segway was always a toy we’ve wanted to tinker with. Making plastic gears for an application of this type was not without challenges. The first of which is the tooth root stress, you see metal gears can be much thinner and carry far more load than any plastic. The second is power transmission, very few – if any plastics can evenly and continuously transmit the power needed to drive a segway in the way its meant to operate. Imagine a right gear box transmitting less efficiently than the left and the circles or compensation a rider would need to make. Luckily, Intech’s Power-core PA12GC material and its unique gravity casting process allows it to chemically bond to a metal core allowing it to transmit power evenly and continuously while perserving the benefit of a self lubricating gearing.

The retrofit is not inexpensive but if noise or vibration are causing you problems a new intech gearbox might be the solution to give you the quite and smooth riding personal movement device you’ve always wanted.