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Sustainable Rotor Shaft Manufacturing

The automotive industry and its suppliers are undergoing profound structural change. Electrification, volatile markets and geopolitical instability, along with increasingly intense global competition, are creating high costs and innovation pressures across the entire value chain. These developments not only affect the general drivetrain components but also rotor shafts for electric motors, which combine high functional density with demanding manufacturing and quality requirements. Recent restructuring efforts, plant closures and bankruptcies have highlighted the need to critically reassess existing manufacturing concepts, especially for components such as rotor shafts with integrated functional elements. For automotive suppliers, technological capability and cost efficiency are no longer the only priorities; process robustness and investment security are increasingly moving into focus. New manufacturing solutions must not only be technically convincing, but also enable a substantial reduction in manufacturing costs, energy consumption, the associated CO2 emissions and process complexity (Refs. 1,2).

The Near Future of Mechanical Drive for Humanoid Robots

AI has moved humanoid robots forward, but safety, reliability and cost in the actuator drivetrain still stand in the way of commercial deployment

Strain Wave Gear Production in the Age of Humanoid Robots

Humanoid robots need precise strain wave gears in their joints, and building and inspecting those gears at scale will call for equally advanced production technology

Perceive, Understand & Perform

AICA and Schaeffler demonstrate the role Physical AI can play in the manufacturing environment

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Technical Articles

Twenty Years of Pulsator Tests on Helicopter Gears

Leonardo Helicopters’ 20-year, 650+ test campaign characterizing tooth-root bending fatigue strength across gear materials, heat treatments, and finishing processes (notably shot peening and superfinishing) to support aerospace gear design.

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Analytical Calculation of the Gear Body Stiffness of Face Gears

This paper presents a new analytical method using plate and disk mechanical models to calculate the gear body stiffness of face gear wheels, showing that stiffness decreases toward the outer radius—a behavior that conventional cylindrical gear approaches fail to capture.

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Root Interference

This excerpt from Gear Technology Solutions explains how oversized cutter blade edge radii cause root interference in bevel gears, and how to select correct radii to avoid noise, flank damage, and tooth fracture.

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Design Principles of Bevel Gears: Rationale for Zero Sum Profile Shifts and Generating Gear Choices

This article demonstrates why bevel gears are designed with a zero sum of profile shifts—showing that independent shifts merely replicate what a modified pressure angle already achieves—and explains the practical benefits of using conical generating gears for tooth profile crowning.

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Design

In modern automotive vehicles, gear noise becomes more and more of an issue. The main reason is the reduced masking noise of the engine, which vanishes completely in the case of an electric driveline. Improved gear quality unfortunately does not correlate with a better noise performance in any case. High gear quality makes sure that the gear flanks are inside tight tolerances and that all teeth are nearly identical. Even if the running behavior of such gear sets shows a very low sound pressure level, the noise perception for human ears may be annoying.

Grinding

2023 is shaping up to be our planet’s hottest year on record, and the wind energy industry is feeling the heat. The GWEC (Global Wind Energy Council) says that the rate of wind turbine installations will need to quadruple globally by the end of the decade if we’re to achieve the IRENA’s (International Renewable Energy Agency) goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050—and keep the average annual temperature worldwide from increasing more than the predicted 1.5° C. Fortunately, “net zero” commitments are gathering global momentum. Before year’s end, total global windpower is expected to reach a historic milestone of 1 TW of installed capacity, eliminating 1.2 billion tons of CO2 annually, roughly the equivalent of all the carbon emissions of South America.

Skiving Tools

Klingelnberg recently invited customers to its first Open House in Saline and the two-day event did not disappoint. Customers from major automotive, off-highway, construction and agriculture OEMs attended a morning of technical presentations before heading into the showroom to learn more about Klingelnberg’s latest machine tool technology.

Heat Treating

Gas carburizing has been around for a long time. One could argue that gas carburizing is the most common heat treating process. Heat treaters performing gas carburizing are often characterized by a dirty environment, hazy surroundings, and that “smell.” While the product quality may be acceptable, gas carburized parts do come with some challenges, like excessive intergranular oxidation (IGO) or intergranular attack (IGA), which is often ground off. Low-pressure carburizing (LPC) has proven to be a much cleaner and very capable alternative process. Most furnace companies have combined LPC with high pressure gas quenching, which moved carburizing from the dark back room to a relatively “clean room” environment. However, there is still a strong need for oil quenching, which is the common feature of the long used standard integral-quench (IQ) furnace.

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Videos

Forest City Gear Knows Robots!

Forest City Gear manufactures extremely high-precision gears made for the most advanced robotics, right in Roscoe, IL.  This family-owned team of gearheads specialize in high-precision gears engineered to handle the most demanding robotic applications—on Earth, and way beyond.

Industry News

The countdown is officially on, and this one comes with a milestone attached. In just one year, the gear and bearing industries return to Detroit for the Motion + Power Technology Expo (MPT Expo), and 2027 marks the show’s 40th anniversary. It started in 1985 as Gear Expo, back when exhibitors worked out of tabletop displays rather than full booths. Four decades later, it’s still the one event where gear and bearing manufacturers, suppliers, and the OEMs who depend on them show up in the same room, at the same time.

Product News

Universal Robots (UR), a Teradyne Robotics company, introduced Gen 7, its seventh-generation collaborative robot platform, at IMTS 2026 in Chicago. Gen 7 has a redesigned control box, teach pendant and tool flange and runs on the company's PolyScope X operating system. It is designed to support AI-based applications such as vision guidance and force-sensitive assembly on the production floor.

Calendar

CES 2027

Jan 6, 2027 - Jan 9, 2027

Attracting a diverse range of professionals, including executives, engineers, designers, and entrepreneurs, CES (Las Vegas) is an excellent opportunity to connect, collaborate, and grow your professional network. The broad range of exhibits and industries represented at the show can inspire innovative solutions. Industries include 3D printing, AR/VR/XR, AI, cloud computing/data, construction tech, cybersecurity, robotics, e-Mobility, AI, vehicle tech and more.

PowerGen 2027

Jan 18, 2027 - Jan 21, 2027

SPS Smart Production Solutions 2026

Nov 24, 2026 - Nov 26, 2026

CTI Symposium Berlin 2026

Dec 8, 2026 - Dec 9, 2026

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