"One of the reasons AGMA has been
successful over our 93-year history is
that the association’s agenda, programs
and activities reflect the voices of our members," says Joe T. Franklin, Jr., AGMA President.
Industrial gear standards have been used to support reliability through the specification of requirements for
design, manufacturing and verification.
The consensus development of an
international wind turbine gearbox
standard is an example where gear
products can be used in reliable
mechanical systems today. This has
been achieved through progressive
changes in gear technology, gear
design methods and the continual
development and refinement of gearbox
standards.
What do glam and avant garde rock star Brian Eno, AGMA and Seattle Gear Works have in common? Admittedly, not much. But there is a connection of sorts.
The organizers of Gear Expo 2007 promise to combine the most popular features of shows past with some innovations for this year’s attendees. By the time the show closes on October 10, the association hopes its targeted 175 exhibitors walk away with new insights leading to profitability and renewed contacts.
“The gear marketplace is a global marketplace.” Bill Bradley says it easily, with no special emphasis. The vice president of AGMA’s technical division sees the statement as an obvious fact.
As the international business community grows closer together, the
need for understanding differences between national and international
gear rating standards becomes increasingly important for U.S. gear
manufacturers competing in the world market.
The major focus of the American Gear Manufacturers Association standards activity has been the accurate determination of a gearbox's ability to transmit a specified amount of power for a given amount of time. The need for a "level playing field" in the critical arena was one of the reasons the association was formed in the first place. Over the past 85 years, AGMA committees have spent countless hours "discussing" the best ways to calculate the rating of a gear set, often arguing vigorously over factors that varied the resulting answers by fractions of a percentage point. While all that "science" was being debated in test labs and conference rooms all over the country, out industry's customers were conducting their own experiments through the daily operation of gear-driven equipment of all types.