For many years, when gear engineers have been confronted with tough problems either in the field or on the drawing board, one of the inevitable suggestions has been, "Ask Darle Dudley," or "Check the Dudley book." That's not surprising. With more than fifty years' experience in gear design and credits for five books (with translations in French, German, Spanish and Italian), numerous papers, lectures, and patents, and a worldwide reputation as a gear expert, Darle Dudley's position as one of the men to ask when dealing with knotty gear problems is unassailable.

Gear Technology speaks with David Goodfellow, president of American Pfauter, L.P., and Pfauter-Maag Cutting tools, L.P., to get his impressions about the state of the gear industry and its prospects for the future.

Peter Kozma, executive vice president of Liebherr-America, Inc., talks with us about Liebherr and its partners in the Sigma Pool.

For this interview, we spoke with George Wyss, president, and Dennis Richmond, vice president of Reishauer Corporation about gear grinding and its place in gear manufacturing today.

Continuing our series of interviews with industry leaders, Gear Technology spoke recently with Bradley Lawton, executive vice president of Star Cutter Co., about the role and direction of cutting tools in the gear industry today.

This is the second in our series of interviews with the leaders in the gear industry. This interview is with Dennis Gimpert, president of Koepfer America, South Elgin, IL.

What follows is the first of a series of interviews Gear Technology is conducting with leaders in the gear industry. We will be asking them for their insights on where the industry is, where it's been and where they see it going in the future. Our first interview is with Jim Gleason, president and chairman of Gleason Corporation, Rochester, NY.