Cyclo Drives the Veneer and Plywood Industry

Ventek Inc. (www.ventek-inc.com) designs and manufactures automated process controls, utilizing the latest in machine vision technology for the veneer and plywood industry. Founded in 1991, Ventek has become one of the largest suppliers of this equipment in North America. Ventek’s most recent product, an automated veneer plugging system, uses a scanning process to detect defects in sheets of veneer and robots to replace or plug the damaged items.

Ventek’s new automated system is quite demanding for conveyors that feed the veneer sheets to the robots. For this application, Ventek Inc. required reducers capable of handling high-speed start and stop rates at an extremely high cycle rate. All of this had to be done while running the conveyor 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As a result, Ventek management selected the Cyclo® 6000 manufactured by; Sumitomo Drive Technologies, as the speed reducer to operate their conveyor.

Devin Powell, Automation Engineer of Ventek, Inc. said, “We wanted a speed reducer that we knew could hold up to the 24-7 operation of our Robotic Patching system. Cyclo has performed better than any other reducer we have used before.” Similar to the responses from other Sumitomo customers, Ventek chose the Sumitomo Cyclo 6000 series based on its high reliability, exceptional shock load rating, ease of use, and its ability to handle extreme conditions such as temperature and dust.

The Sumitomo Cyclo Drive is unsurpassed by any other inline drive available in the market today. Cyclo's unique design has advantages superior to speed reducers using common involute tooth gears. This design enables Cyclo speed reducers and gearmotors to withstand shock loads exceeding 500% of their ratings, and provide exceptional performance, reliability, and long life in the most severe applications.

Powell explained how successful the Cyclo has been for Ventek’s operations, “Not only have we had no problems, but we have been able to push the cycle time further than we could have imagined. We will continue to use the Cyclo on all material handling conveyors that we manufacture.”

The Sumitomo Cyclo 6000 series gearmotors are available from 1/10 to 235HP and ratios from 3:1 to 658,503:1. The gearmotors are maintenance-free, lightweight, compact, and very rugged with a two-year warranty guaranteeing exceptional performance.