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Perceive, Understand & Perform

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

Conversations on the role Physical AI will play on shop floors across manufacturing took place at every stop I made during the Automate Show in Chicago. Robots—in addition to literally doing the heavy lifting—are now being asked to independently learn from experiences and discover solutions without the assistance of human programmers. At the Universal Robots (Teradyne Robotics) booth, I was treated to some amazing force sensing applications that led to a discussion on a recent gearbox assembly use case between AICA (a partner of UR) and Schaeffler that tapped robots to assemble gearboxes.

METAL’s Manufacturing Workforce Network

A DoW-funded partnership brings online courses and hands-on bootcamps to Purdue’s foundry lab, training that feeds gear production

Automation for Every Shop Size

A new CNC-based application puts cost-effective robot part handling and articulation directly on the machine tool’s control screen, eliminating the need for a separate robot pendant

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Technical Articles

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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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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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 and Load Capacity of Crown Gears in Comparison to Bevel Gears

Through loaded tooth contact analysis of two applications, this paper demonstrates that crown gears can match bevel gear load capacity while offering meaningful advantages in weight reduction, axial-force-free pinion mounting, and assembly simplicity.

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Design

Grinding

The world of bevel gear grinding is a complex topic. How do you determine which grinding and dressing parameters to select for a desired surface finish? What type of grinding wheel should be used? What type of dresser should be used? How do all these factors affect the gear noise and quality levels? These are some questions that will be addressed in this article.

Inspection

Complete inspection of gear surface finishes at the submicron level became a reality with the introduction of Gleason’s 300GMS nano, in 2022. The new system ushered in an exciting new era in gear inspection. For the first time, producers of EV transmission gears, and gears for other applications requiring very tight tolerances and low noise requirements, could quickly inspect surface finishes and perform extremely reliable noise analysis at submicron levels—benefits that were almost impossible to achieve just a few years ago.

Heat Treating

Since I have had the privilege of visiting numerous gear plants and research centers in the U.S., as well as 170 in 33 countries, and I closely watch the progression of technology, I wanted to share my observations about some technological advancements. For the purpose of this article, I will focus on three key areas: Robotics, Machine Tools, and Heat Treating.

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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

At IMTS 2026, ANCA will demonstrate a connected regrinding workflow bringing together the ANCA MX7 ULTRA, ZOLLER genius measuring technology, and AIMS Connect software to help manufacturers extend tool life, reduce carbide consumption and gain greater control over the regrinding process. 

Product News

L.S. Starrett Co. launched the HDV250. This next-generation digital comparator is engineered to deliver superior surface illumination, clearer image quality and enhanced measurement accuracy for manufacturing environments.

Calendar

CTI Symposium Berlin 2026

Dec 8, 2026 - Dec 9, 2026

CTI Symposium Berlin offers active discussions on the latest technologies and strategies on automotive transmissions and HEV & EV drives for passenger cars and commercial vehicles. At CTI Symposium Berlin, more than 650 senior experts and decisionmakers from OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, technology companies, and research institutions come together to discuss the latest developments in electrified drivetrains, hybrid technologies, energy systems, software integration, and future mobility strategies.

RPM Symposium 2026

Sep 22, 2026 - Sep 23, 2026

Furnaces North America (FNA) 2026

Oct 12, 2026 - Oct 14, 2026

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