Planetary gearbox, 160 mm frame, 40:1
The GBX1600400844D is a planetary gearbox in the Schneider Electric GBX line — a 160 mm external-diameter unit with straight-cut gear teeth and a 40:1 reduction ratio. The housing is black anodized aluminium with a C 45 steel output shaft, lubricated for life so the unit ships ready to bolt onto a servo or stepper without a grease port on the BOM. It is the output stage of a servo-driven axis — the kind of reducer that sits between a Lexium or equivalent servo and the machine's driven member, sized for the application's continuous torque rather than the servo peak.
Torque envelope and torsional behaviour
Continuous output torque is 700 N.m with a maximum output torque of 1120 N.m — the continuous figure is the one that should govern the sizing calculation, because the maximum is a short-duration overload ceiling rather than a steady-state rating. Maximum torsional backlash is 10 arc.min and torsional rigidity is 41 N.m/arcmin, so the gearbox introduces measurable windup under load — a positioning application that demands sub-arc-minute repeatability needs to budget for the lost-motion figure rather than assume zero backlash at the output. Rated service life is 30000 h at 100 rpm and 30 °C, which frames the duty-cycle math: a faster output shaft, a higher ambient, or continuous operation near the 1120 N.m peak all shorten the L10 horizon below that headline number.
Shaft loads and operating envelope
Maximum radial force Fr is 4200 N at 100 rpm over the full 30000 h life and 6000 N over 10000 h, both with the load applied at mid-distance from the output shaft — overhung loads closer to the shaft end require recalculation rather than reading the headline figure as a constant. Maximum axial force Fa is 6000 N at 100 rpm over 30000 h and 8000 N over 10000 h at 30 °C, which defines the thrust ceiling the reducer can carry on the shaft without accelerating bearing wear. Ambient operating temperature is -25 to 90 °C and the gearbox mounts in any position, which keeps the panel layout flexible — the only sealing limit on the data is the IP54 rating at the shaft output, not the housing body.
Efficiency, acoustics, and inertia
Mechanical efficiency is 94 %, which means a 700 N.m continuous load demands roughly 745 N.m at the input — the loss is split between gear mesh friction and seal drag, and the smaller the input speed the more the seal term dominates the deficit. Noise level is 70 dB measured at 1 m no-load; under load and at the upper end of the speed range the figure rises, and acoustic-sensitive installations (medical or laboratory cells) should plan for that envelope rather than the no-load spec. Moment of inertia at the output is 5.28 g.cm², low enough that the gearbox itself rarely sets the acceleration ceiling — the upstream servo rotor inertia and the load inertia are almost always the dominant terms in the sizing loop.