The Sixth Annual Kapp-Niles Rocky Mountain Gear Finishing School (RMGFS) will be held this year October 16, 17 & 18 in Boulder, Colorado. The school is designed to benefit gear manufacturing engineers, machine operators and production managers, as well as gear designers. The opening presentation, Gear Basics provides a solid foundation, including section on gear nomenclature for relative newcomers.

The RMGFS provides both classroom-style and shop floor lessons, each focusing on advances in profile and generating gear grinding. In the multi-layered program, sessions are interconnected and lead each step to the next. Participants study the principals and mechanics behind different gear finishing processes, apply them through practical sessions on a Kapp-Niles machine, and hold group workshops for discussions. In addition, the workshops give participants a platform to explore their own specific applications and challenges. An in-depth review of CBN non-dressable solutions is also presented, along with a tour of Kapp Technologies’ CBN-plated tool production plant where participants are taken through the steps of the plating of a CBN tool, from beginning to end.

“The Rocky Mountain Gear Finishing School focuses on all modern tooth finishing processes for the entire spectrum of parallel gear applications,” says Bill Miller, vice president of sales for Kapp-Niles in North America, “and the environment created is intended to foster interactions among participants, with tangential benefits as the outcome.”

RMGFS is not limited to Kapp-Niles customers, but for many existing customers it has become an annual event, some companies sending different employees every year. Class size is limited in order to facilitate a higher-quality learning environment. Participants are encouraged to bring their own specific application questions or problems to solve during workshops, panel discussions, or one-on-one with application engineers.