SAE5 Bell Housing Speed Increaser

[bcavender]

I need to find a manufacturer of a gearbox that will buckle to an SAE5 engine housing (with 7.5” flywheel-1200 rpm-125 ft-lbs) and deliver 1800 rpm to drive a 4 pole alternator. Potential volume is 10-30 units first year.

(Unfortunately it appears no alternator company builds six-pole alternators down in the 10-20 kva range.)

Anyone here know of a company that might be a candidate to do the 1200-1800 gear up?

All comments, suggestions welcome!

Best regards,
B

 

[TugboatEng]

If you're doing 10-30 per year you can order generators wound in 6 pole configurations. If you were only doing one you could even take a 4 pole unit and have a motor shop wind it with 6 poles. Going the extra mile here will make for a smaller, quieter, more reliable product. As the generators will be custom units it will also make the customer more reliant on you for parts . Cost wise, a custom wind vs off the shelf plus gearbox will likely be a wash.

 

[bcavender]

Tug,

Your comment is a total revelation to me.

My responses with gen companies, at 30 quantity, is about the same as if I was cold calling them about auto title loans. I must be talking to the wrong people by a long shot.

Can you ID a company(ies) that would build 20-30 six pole machines? Maybe w an SAE bell housing?

Very, very interesting!

B

 

[TugboatEng]

Sorry, forgot part 2. You'll need to buy a standard frame generator. It's up to you to supply the bell housing adapter and flex disc.

It's a long shot but these guys might be able to supply you with something.

https://merequipment.com/

They've got all of the drawings and components to produce the adapter. They use Marathon brand generators.

 

[bcavender]

Will check it out

 

[TugboatEng]

This outfit assembles generator sets but they do lots of PTO type setups off the front of their engines which is why I think they'll have the smaller SAE 5 components nearly on the shelf.

 

[wayne440]

At one time, Marathon offered 1200RPM "LIMA SER" generators in that size range.

 

[bcavender]

Thanks for the assist!

Will research that … great!!!

 

[DAVIDSTECKER]

Have you looked at "Funk", a John Deere company or Cotta?

 

[bcavender]

David,
I had seen Cotta. Just looked up Funk.

These guys are top of the line for sure. The problem is they price the project out of the market. Nice equip for sure.

A LimaSER 6pole head-like solution is most competitive, but it’s long out of production.

Still crunching …

 

[DAVIDSTECKER]

As Tugboat said, you may need to make your own adaptor.
Bell housing dimensions are published and are very detailed
Here's one link I've found.

https://www.sbmar.com/articles/understanding-bellhousing-and-flywheel-measurements/

Depending on the input shaft of your generator, making the connection shouldn't be too hard.

 

[bcavender]

David,
Thanks! I’ll give it a shot!
B

 

[DAVIDSTECKER]

you may also want to look into a Centrifugal clutch so you not starting the engine with a load on it.

https://www.hilliardcorp.com/centrifugal-clutches/

 

[gruntguru]

Not usual when driving an alternator. There is very little load on the engine until you draw some current from the alternator.

je suis charlie

 

[DAVIDSTECKER]

True, but that's a lot of extra mass for the starter motor to get rotating too.

 

[TugboatEng]

It's not a problem.