Gear Technology's handy list of which booths to visit at IMTS 2012.

Booth previews from exhibitors showing products and services for the gear industry.

We talked with a number of major companies in the midst of their planning and strategizing for IMTS 2012, with the thought of determining just how much things have in fact changed for exhibitors regarding the trade show experience.

Why traditional lean manufacturing approaches need to be adapted for job shop environments.

The complete Technical Calendar from the June/July 2012 issue of Gear Technology.

AGMA introduced ANSI/AGMA 2015–2–A06— Accuracy Classification System: Radial System for Cylindrical Gears, in 2006 as the first major rewrite of the double-flank accuracy standard in over 18 years. This document explains concerns related to the use of ANSI/AGMA 2015–2–A06 as an accuracy classification system and recommends a revised system that can be of more service to the gearing industry.

The turbines are still spinning. They’re spinning on large wind farms in the Great Plains, offshore in the Atlantic and even underwater where strong tidal currents offer new energy solutions. These turbines spin regularly while politicians and policy makers— tied up in discussions on tax incentives, economic recovery and a lot of finger pointing—sit idle. Much like the auto and aerospace industries of years past, renewable energy is coping with its own set of growing pains. Analysts still feel confident that clean energy will play a significant role in the future of manufacturing—it’s just not going to play the role envisioned four to five years ago.

It’s a brave, new hardware-software world out there. Players in the worldwide gear industry who don’t have plenty of both run the risk of becoming irrelevant—sooner than later.

The first edition of the international calculation method for micropitting—ISO TR 15144–1:2010—was just published last December. It is the first and only official, international calculation method established for dealing with micropitting. Years ago, AGMA published a method for the calculation of oil film thickness containing some comments about micropitting, and the German FVA published a calculation method based on intensive research results. The FVA and the AGMA methods are close to the ISO TR, but the calculation of micropitting safety factors is new.