After teaching the AGMA Gear Failure Analysis course for 27 years, Bob Errichello and Jane Muller of Geartech retired from instructing in June 2017. Two highly recommended industry professionals - Rob Budny, from RBB Engineering and Andy Milburn, from Milburn Engineering, Inc. - have been assigned by AGMA to teach this course that has become a staple in the curriculum over the years - as well as the most popular. Budny and Milburn led the facilitation of the course this past June. Errichello and Muller were onsite to assist with the final stages of succession planning.

"We have known Rob for over thirteen years and have cooperated with him on many failure investigations," explains Errichello. "We are confident that they will maintain the high standards that we have set for the seminar."

Budny is president of Petaluma, California-based RBB Engineering - a rotating equipment consultancy with special expertise in gearbox failure analysis. He holds a BSME degree from UMBC in Baltimore, Maryland. Before founding RBB Engineering in 2012, he was a mechanical engineering manager with Clipper Windpower in Carpinteria, California from 2004 to 2012. He previously held the position of mechanical designer and stress analyst with Lockheed Martin in Baltimore, Maryland from 1997 to 2002. In 2014, Errichello, Budny, and Rainer Eckert co-authored the STLE Tribology Transactions paper - "Investigations of Bearing Failures Associated with WEAs in Wind Turbine Gearboxes." This paper won the Edmond E. Bisson Award for the best STLE paper published in 2014. 

Andy Milburn is president of Milburn Engineering, Inc. in Vaughn, Washington. He holds a BSME from the University of Washington. Before founding Milburn Engineering in 1990, he was a mechanical designer and failure analyst with The Gear Works in Seattle, Washington from 1975 to 1989. Milburn was an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1971 to 1974. In 1990, Milburn, Errichello and Douglas Godfrey coauthored the AGMA paper - "Polishing Wear."