The goal of the thesis was to develop and improve the swing bases for a conveyor drive. The thesis was commissioned by Kumera Drives Oy. A swing base is a structure that supports the gearbox and electric motor in conveyor usage. Already existing swing bases are manufactured case by case. The goal was to modulate the swing bases into a product family. If swing bases could be manufactured as a product family, it could save costs.

First, the already existing swing bases were examined and data was gathered to an Excel table. The main components of a conveyor drive are a gearbox, a coupling and the electric motor. These components are mounted to the swing base. Previously used gearboxes, couplings and electric motors of a conveyor drive were studied. After the research of swing bases’ components, the designing of concepts began. The concepts were made with 3D designing software Siemens Solid Edge.

The primary problems were how to fit as many different gearboxes as possible to the same swing base and how to adjust the length of the swing base. The idea of interchangeable bases for the electric motors was easier to implement than the interchangeable gearbox bases. This was due to the very large size scale of gearboxes. The gearboxes had to be narrowed to only include the G-series. It became clear that only a few gearbox sizes were fit to the same swing base. This led to the result of three swing bases, each intended for two gearbox sizes. One swing base for sizes 225-250, the second for sizes 280-315 and the third for sizes 355-400. Every IEC standards electric motor frame size from 160 to 355 could be mounted on each of the swing bases. By changing the motors base to appropriate base for the desired frame size.

The result of the thesis was the designing instructions for the swing bases for the gearboxes of the G-2000 and G-3000 series. In conclusion, the modulation of the swing bases is very difficult as gearboxes are different in sizes and power rating. It is not possible to mount every gearbox and electric motor to the same swing base.