This posting is the start of our fourth year of blogging on the gear industry. When the idea was first presented to me I did not have a firm idea o...

The guys who taught me to estimate all had great memories for part shapes, features — even part numbers. It takes years to develop that kind of tal...

I would like some instructions for setting the degrees and minutes on a Liebherr or Barber Colman hob. Our machines use a Vernier scale to match the lead angle of the cutter to the part to form straight teeth. There is a dispute on how to do this task, and I wanted insight from another professional.

[starbox] My last blog concerned project management and the problems of staying on schedule. I thought it only fair to pass on some techniques I...

Multiple CAM initiatives at Snyder Industries are improving safety, quality and productivity for parts ranging from 50 to 5,000 lbs.

Recently, a new type of hob with carbide inserts has been introduced, providing higher cutting speeds, longer tool life and higher feed rates when compared to re-grindable, high-speed steel hobs. But with this kind of hob, new challenges occur due to positional errors of the cutting edges when mounted on the tool. These errors lead to manufacturing errors on the gear teeth which must be controlled. In this paper, the tooth quality of a gear manufactured by hobs with different quality classes is analyzed using a simulation model in combination with Monte Carlo methods.

Decades ago, technology shifted from HSS to indexable inserts in turning and milling. This movement wasn't immediately realized in gear hobbing because coated PM-HSS hobs and complex gear profiles remained highly effective and productive methods. Only fairly recently have gear manufacturers started to take a serious look at indexable technology to cut gear teeth.

[starbox] In the most recent issue of Gear Technology, the Publisher’s Page recounts the inaugural issue’s coverage of “transformative ...

[starbox] On Saturday I began my 44th year in the gear industry. I remember way too many details of my first day as a drafting apprentice at the...