Liebherr’s components product segment and mtex antenna technology joined forces in 2023 to provide the antennas for the next generation Very Large Array antennas (ngVLA), which will offer a glimpse into the infinite space reach. 

You may or may not know that AGMA manages the American Bearing Manufacturers Association, ABMA, similarly to AGMA. Because gears and bearings go together like “peas and carrots!” to borrow a phrase from one of my favorite movies. I thought that the GT audience would like an update on what is going on in the technical division of ABMA.

OK, audience. I’m going to divide you into two groups. Everybody whose company is a member of AGMA, please move over to the left-hand side of the room, and everybody else, please move over to the right.

This report investigates the wear morphology on the large end of tapered rollers and the inner ring's large end rib on a planet carrier TRB from a multi-megawatt wind turbine gearbox. The literature on abrasive wear has many classifications, including 2-body abrasion, 3-body abrasion, scratches, grooving abrasion, rolling abrasion, cutting abrasion, and plowing abrasion. For this analysis, we have selected grooving abrasion, a common problem in wind turbine gearboxes and a prominent failure mode on many bearings, particularly planetary carrier bearings and planet bearings. Grooving abrasion is frequently observed on cylindrical roller bearings (CRB) and tapered roller bearings (TRB). Fitzsimmons and Clevenger conducted tests on roller end/rib wear for TRBs with contaminated gear oil, and they provided an excellent explanation of the mechanism.

Bega Special Tools introduces a portable multi-purpose induction heater on the North American market. The MF Quick-Heater 3.0-3.5 kW can be used for mounting, dismounting and pre-heating purposes. Weighing less than 8 kg and fitting in a small carrying case, this easy-to-use but powerful tool is just plugged into the mains 230 V. It can be used in difficult circumstances where other systems are impossible to operate, for instance where there is little space to work in or where no open fire is permitted. The heater’s flexible inductors are ideal for a large variety of parts with a maximum diameter of 120 mm. Application examples can be found in all types of industries. 

The individual components that go into a power transmission system such as gears, bearings, shafts, seals, fasteners, housings, or lubricant, all affect one another. A small tweak to the design of one may require a cascade of other design changes throughout the system. Because of this, the gear engineer should have some knowledge of the design of components besides gears. To that point, for this month’s article, I’m taking a sidestep from writing about gears to give an update on bearings; components found in nearly every power transmission system.

The objective of this paper is to improve the methodology for determining the tooth flank temperature. Two methods are proposed for assessing scuffing risk when applying AGMA 925 for high-speed gears. Both methods provide similar results.