[advertisement]

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

“The time has come for robots,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang proclaimed at his company’s annual GPU Technology Conference in March 2026. “Everyone, pay attention. This could very well be the largest industry of all.”

Perceive, Understand & Perform

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

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

[advertisement]

Technical Articles

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.

.

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.

.

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.

.

Conjugate Bevel and Hypoid Gears

An excerpt from Gear Technology Solutions by Dr. Hermann J. Stadtfeld exploring the mathematics behind conjugate bevel and hypoid gears—from the fundamental laws of gearing and the conditions for perfect conjugacy to why real-world power transmissions require deliberate crowning rather than theoretically exact conjugate designs.

.

[advertisement]

Design

As a community, we gear engineers collaborate and share ideas to progress our collective capability. Technology progresses based on our efforts, and we have seen solid advances in the performance of our products as they become quieter, cheaper, more efficient, and more power dense. The pages of this magazine (past and present editions) are filled with examples where talented engineers have dug deeper into a subject using a more precise approach to a particular area concerning gear performance. The implied belief is always that greater precision (complexity) in the calculations brings greater accuracy (alignment with reality).

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

When electric drives are used in vehicles, the masking effect of an internal combustion engine disappears, allowing the noise behavior of the transmission to take center stage. At the same time, peak power and torque increase, engine speeds increase, and power must be transferred optimally in both directions due to the regenerative braking system. Conventional design parameters remain important, however: The build space is limited, durability must not be compromised, and the product must still be cost-efficient. Optical metrology as part of a hybrid measurement concept helps to overcome all these challenges.

Heat Treating

Furnaces North America 2022 (FNA 2022), presented by the Metal Treating Institute (MTI), in partnership with its media partner, Heat Treat Today, is the heat-treating industry’s go-to event every other year. FNA 2022 attracted attendees from across North America, including Fortune 500 companies. For three days attendees took part in networking, connections, and learning about the vast changes taking place in emerging technologies, industry trends, and advances in equipment.

[Sponsored Content]

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

Nick Piselli recently joined the sales team at Piselli Enterprises located in Statesville, NC. He joins his father Richard and his brother Matthew to serve the gear industry with high-quality new and used gear machinery equipment. 

Product News

Verisurf Software announced the availability of Verisurf 2027, the latest release of its model-based metrology software. New capabilities help manufacturers carry engineering requirements into inspection, automatically generate inspection plans, and return measurement results tied to the original design, from first article through production.

Calendar

AIoT World Expo

Feb 9, 2027 - Feb 11, 2027

The AIoT World Expo (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) explores the potential of intelligent machines, prescriptive analytics, sensor driven analytics and block chain solutions. Attendees learn about IoT technologies that are driving the transformation in manufacturing, supply chain and operations.

Additive Manufacturing Strategies 2027

Feb 23, 2027 - Feb 25, 2027

CES 2027

Jan 6, 2027 - Jan 9, 2027

PowerGen 2027

Jan 18, 2027 - Jan 21, 2027

[advertisement]

Current Issue


Current Issue
Archives
Subscribe

Buyer's Guide

Cutting Tools Gear Blanks & Raw Material Gear Drives Gear Machines Gear Manufacturing Services Gears Grinding Wheels & Abrasive Tools Heat Treating Inspection Equipment Lubricants Machine Tools Resources Services Software Used Machinery Workholding & Toolholding

The Gear Industry Buyers Guide is your complete directory of suppliers in the gear industry, including great companies like these.


VIEW ALL