Specific gearmotors for pellet stoves and boilers

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The evolution of internal components, and of gearmotor first of all, allows heating appliances based on woody biomass to improve their energy efficiency performances.

Gearmotors’ production lines

The gearmotor holds fundamental importance to guarantee the operation of pellet stoves, and therefore particular attention is paid to reliability and silent operation, which represent fundamental features for the product marketability. The gearmotor is in fact entrusted with the task of managing efficaciously the fuel supply inside the burner and, then, the calorific power of the stove itself. On this aspect focuses the research and production by Nidec/Merkle Korff Industries, for over 35 years exclusively distributed by Autom for South Europe.
For over 100 years, Merkle Korff Industries has produced alternate current gearmotors, including those intended for the use in pellet stoves and boilers. With more than 350,000 pieces supplied every year in the European market in the pellet heating field, the United States brand satisfies the requirements of the vast majority of the manufacturers of these items, with products optimized for the specific application.

Traditional gearmotor application

The future is “brushless”
The takeover of Merkle Korff Industries by Nidec Corporation, world leader in the production of brushless direct current motors, has allowed focusing Merkle Korff’s interest on “green” high-efficiency products intended for this specific application field, permitting the design and implementation of a specific series of direct current gearmotors with brushless technology, as completion and progressive replacement of present alternate current gearmotors, which offer much lower efficiencies and then higher energy consumptions.
These gearmotors are produced on automated lines with qualitative processes based on “six sigma” methodologies, in the Mexican factory at San Luis Potosi, highly industrialized area that involves also the presence of the major world multinationals in the various fields of professional catering, of white goods, of conditioning and of automotive.

Pre-packaging visual inspection cobot

More eco-efficiency
The alternate current gearmotor is reliable and easily controlled, but it features low efficiency and high energy consumption; thanks to the use of the brushless technology, the new direct current gearmotors offer the possibility of notably increasing the efficiency of the equipment where they are installed, drastically reducing electric energy consumptions and ensuring low environmental impacts, besides guaranteeing a notable drop of noise levels and permitting more controllability.

Tailored for stoves
The new gearmotor has been fully redesigned, starting from the use of one of the most efficient brushless motors, already manufactured in dozen million pieces by Nidec Corporation, and applying the specific expertise in the pellet stove sector, gained along the last fifty years due to the collaboration with most manufacturers all over the world, succeeding in implementing an extremely sound, silent and controllable gearmotor.
The particular structural shape allows the lubricating grease to remain always in its specific position, in strict contact with gears’ teeth, assuring long service life without needing any maintenance.

The gearmotor

Integrated electronics for high temperatures
The piloting electronics is integrated on board of the motor, and it is implemented with components purposely provided for use in high-temperature environments, ensuring an excellent operation inside pellet stoves, and it withstands temperatures up to 105°C.
This product ensures the possibility of being used from 0.1 to 3.5 revolutions per minute, transmitting higher torque than those currently available on other gearmotors, permitting the fine regulation of the output speed and the rotation reversibility, with high efficiency that decreases the energy consumption from the current 60/90 Watts to 4/6 Watts.