
Felix Müller is currently a Research Assistant at the Chair of Machine Elements, Gears, and Tribology (MEGT) at University of Kaiserslautern-Landau, a position he has held since 2023. He leads the Mechanical Drive Technology group at the chair, and his current research focuses on worm gears and grease lubrication.
For worm gearboxes, oils are mainly used in combination with splash lubrication. Consistent lubricants, such as greases, are used less frequently and are used, for example, in gearboxes where it is not possible or difficult to seal the housing (Ref. 1). These applications include positioning gears, but also power gears with high sealing requirements, such as in the food industry. Grease lubrication has, in comparison to oil, a negative thermal effect on the worm, resulting in higher mass temperatures (Ref. 2). However, this effect becomes less relevant in the application of positioning gears, so that the advantages of grease lubrication outweigh the disadvantages in these applications.