EATON 

EATON Corporation, headquartered in Cleveland Ohio, USA, is a global supplier of truck gearboxes, electrical distribution and control devices, engine components, hydraulic systems and semiconductor equipment. Its products are manufactured in 28 countries on 6 continents, and sold in 115 countries of the world. EATON started its business in Europe in 1946 after acquiring a small number of shares in a company manufacturing pumps and gears for engines. Today, EATON's factories are located in France, Germany, Italy, Monaco, Holland, Poland, Spain and the UK. In Russia, UralAZ and KAMAZ automobile plants purchase the company's products, and MAZ in the Republic of Belarus. Currently, work is underway to expand cooperation.

Currently, the main share in the production program of the company is occupied by 6 and 9-speed manual gearboxes with gears of constant gearing. In the 94th, this series was supplemented by a new 16-speed gearbox, an interesting feature of which is the use of synchronizers, which require less effort when shifting gears. This circumstance was reflected in the speed of switching, which, together with a decrease in the box weight and less noise, put forward the design of the assembly to the category of the best in Europe.

Let's get acquainted with the design features of EATON gearboxes in more detail. First, we consider what advantages a node provides with a scheme with two intermediate, or transmission shafts.

The distribution of torque on two groups of gears allows you to reduce the width of all teeth by about 40% without increasing the voltage in them. At the same time, dynamic loads are reduced to a minimum, since the main shaft together with the gears connected with it can freely “float” between two groups of gears of the intermediate shafts. As a result, the total length of the unit is reduced without losing reliability and endurance.

All gears are spur gears. The profile of the teeth and their additional correction provide low voltage and low noise in the transmission. The reduced noise level (by 5–7 dB) is also facilitated by the increased tooth contact area: at the same time, more than two teeth are engaged. This solution improves load distribution and reduces stresses on the tooth surface. The bearing load is also reduced. In this case, the gears of the main shaft do not need bearings, bushings or wide hubs necessary to counteract the bending moments that occur in helical gears, which also has a beneficial effect on the length of the box.

20 years of experience using Fuller gearboxes in heavy-duty trucks has revealed their high reliability and endurance. This allowed the company to offer customers an extensive range of models built on a modular basis. Numerous combinations are based on the main gearbox with 5 forward gears and an additional 2 or 3-stage auxiliary section, mounted on the rear.

In 1999, the production program includes over 40 transmission modules with the number of forward gears from 5 to 15. Thanks to their combinations, EATON can offer its customers the right transmission, which is optimal for almost every specific cargo transportation job. The modular system has another important advantage: the characteristics of the transmission can be easily changed by replacing the auxiliary section mounted on the back of the box. The same principle greatly simplifies the maintenance and repair of the entire model range, since it allows you to have a relatively small number of items in the warehouse of spare parts.

Fuller transmissions are manufactured at all the company's plants using the same production methods and in accordance with the high demands placed on both product quality and materials. This allows the company to quickly respond to changing market conditions and have at its disposal worldwide interchangeable parts and their groups.