Fabrice Wavelet has been with Ferry Capitain (Groupe CIF, France) for the past 20 years. He first served as quality manager and for the last 12 years has been a project manager specializing in mining products. This work deals with all technical issues on the metallurgic side as well as on the mechanical side of the manufacturing of large and high-accuracy components for the mining industry. In 2010 he joined the AGMA Mill Gearing Committee and participated in the latest revision of the 6014 standard, which is dedicated to open gearing. Aside from these activities, Wavelet has also written technical papers — notably for AGMA — covering the manufacturing and inspection of large cast components for the
heavy machinery industry.
Multiple possibilities are available to increase the transmissible power of girth gears. These solutions include: using a larger module, increasing of the gear diameter through the number of teeth, enlarging the face width, and increasing the hardness of the base material. The first three parameters are mostly limited by cutting machine capability. Module, outside diameter, and face width (for a cast gear) can theoretically be increased to infinity, but not the cutting machine dimensions. There are also practical limits with respect to the installation of very large diameter/large face width gears.