A worm wheel wears during service, and the free play at the output increases accordingly. A dual-lead worm allows you to eliminate this excess play with a minor axial adjustment, without opening the housing and without replacing the worn worm wheel.

A worm gear is a gear set that pairs a screw-shaped worm with a toothed worm wheel to carry motion between two shafts that don't intersect — almost always at a 90° angle. One turn of the worm advances the wheel by only a tooth or two, so a single stage can deliver reduction ratios from about 4 up to 360 or higher in a housing far smaller than an equivalent gear train.

In short: A worm drive is a right-angle, high-reduction gear transmission built around a screw-shaped worm meshing with a toothed worm wheel. Because the contact pattern relies on sliding rather than rolling contact, a properly designed worm drive can deliver single-stage ratios up to 360, self-lock against back-driving, and hold a load without a brake — at the cost of lower efficiency and higher heat generation than parallel-shaft gearing.

ESSOR manufactures to DIN 1 – the tightest tolerance class commonly specified for precision worm gearing. Our mass production typically achieves DIN 3–4, with DIN 1 available as the top specification.

Worm gear technology is one of the oldest yet most reliable mechanical transmission solutions in modern industry. From CNC rotary tables to concentrated solar power (CSP) heliostats, worm gear sets deliver high reduction ratios, self-locking capability, and compact torque transmission in a single mechanism.