The Altra Advantage…
Unparalleled application engineering knowledge combined with advanced technologies
For more than a century, the most important breakthroughs in power transmission products and components have been led by Altra’s industry-leading brands. Clearly, the “Voice of the Customer” is being heard throughout the Altra organization as we work collaboratively with customers to design innovative new products tailored to specific application performance criteria.
We are dedicated to finding new and better ways of handling some of the most demanding power transmission applications. By applying the latest technologies in design, materials and manufacturing we have accelerated the development process of bringing new products to the marketplace.
With state-of-the-art equipment at our disposal like the UniGraphics solid modeling design package, models can be generated quickly, expediting the initial phases of the design and sales process. Our experienced CAD design teams can create simple models for high volume projects, as well as complex models for small or large-scale custom jobs. Rapid prototyping technology is also available for full-scale evaluation.
We also have full-service test labs to validate the integrity of new product designs before we manufacture the product. In the test lab, we are able to simulate many common application scenarios to evaluate problems that customers may be experiencing in the field or on their manufacturing floor. This can decrease down time and expenses associated with trouble-shooting. You can be confident that the Altra product you get is the product you wanted.
Examples are plentiful… such as the re-engineering of Warner Electric’s ERS brakes for one of the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturers. Testing has demonstrated our capacity to surpass the customer’s design specification for dynamic braking by a factor of 20. We also worked with OEMs in the oil and gas industry to design a robust new caliper brake – the Twiflex MC-PB – that is the most rugged of its kind in oil well drawworks applications. Wichita Clutch introduced a new, dual-action brake for emergency stopping and controlled lowering of massive 5,000-ton crane hoists on heavy-lift marine vessels. Boston Gear re-designed its 700 Series stainless steel gear reducer with new features ideally suited to poultry, meat and food processing customers who require frequent, caustic washdowns to prevent bacteria contamination. And Warner Electric, already the leader in the clutch/brake market for residential and commercial lawn mowers, introduced new designs within the CMS clutch/brake family that offer 25% greater clutch torque and 100% greater brake torque of previous models.
At Wichita Clutch, leading edge engineering and technology was employed to help improve AquaMaKKs water cooled clutches and brakes, used on marine decks, with a recently introduced, corrosion resistant, water jacket made of engineered composite material.
Altra Industrial Motion’s Engineered Couplings Group (TB Wood’s, Ameridrives Couplings, and Bibby Transmissions), all contributed to the development process for the largest coupling TB Wood’s has ever built. The coupling transmits 10,000 hp to drive compressors that safely pump natural gas into a storage facility.
Altra brands continue to provide creative engineering solutions to customer-specific requirements while leading the next century of innovations in power transmission technology.