Two items of interest have crossed my desk in the last couple of weeks. One of them is a copy of a speech by Harry E. Figge, Jr., Chairman and CEO of Figge, International Inc., and the other is an article by Peter Brimelow in the July 19, 1993, issue of Forbes. The two items are directly related to one another, the Brimelow article being a response to the points raised in Figge's speech and in much grater detail in his book, Bankruptcy 1995: The Coming Collapse of America and How to Stop It. Both the speech and the response are well worth our attention.

Optimization is applied to the design of a spiral bevel gear reduction for maximum life at a given size. A modified feasible directions search algorithm permits a wide variety of inequality constraints and exact design requirements to be met with low sensitivity to initial values. Gear tooth bending strength and minimum contact ration under load are included in the active constraints. The optimal design of the spiral bevel gear reduction includes the selection of bearing and shaft proportions in addition to gear mesh parameters. System life is maximized subject to a fixed back-cone distance of the spiral bevel gear set for a specified speed ratio, shaft angle, input torque and power. Significant parameters in the design are the spiral angle, the pressure angle, the numbers of teeth on the pinion and gear and the location and size of the four support bearings. Interpolated polynomials expand the discrete bearing properties and proportions into continuous variables for gradient optimization. After finding the continuous optimum, a designer can analyze near-optimal designs for comparison and selection. Design examples show the influence of the bearing lives on the gear parameters in the optimal configurations. For a fixed back-cone distance, optimal designs with larger shaft angles have larger service lives.

Complete calendar for September/October 1993

The Hobbing Process The hobbing process involves a hob which is threaded with a lead and is rotated in conjunction with the gear blank at a ratio dependent upon the number of teeth to be cut. A single thread hob cutting a 40-tooth gear will make 40 revolutions for each revolution of the gear. The cutting action in hobbing is continuous, and the teeth are formed in one passage of the hob through the blank. See Fig. 1 for a drawing of a typical hob with some common nomenclature.

Gear Expo '93 - another trade show, another plea to send people and/or equipment out of town, away from the office or plant. Another bid to spend time, money, and effort. Oh, please! Hasn't anybody heard that these are the "lean and mean" '90s?

AGMA's Gear Expo '93 is expected to be at least 10% larger in terms of floor space than the '91 show, according to Joe Franklin, AGMA's executive director. "As of June 1, we have 80 exhibitors registered", he says.

Gear Expo '93, "The World of Gearing," is scheduled for October 10-13 at Cobo Conference & Exhibition Center, Detroit, MI. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on all four days of the show.

New freedom of motion available with CNC generators make possible improving tooth contact on bevel and hypoid gears. Mechanical machines by their nature are inflexible and require a special mechanism for every desired motion. These mechanisms are generally exotic and expensive. As a result, it was not until the introduction of CNC generators that engineers started exploring motion possibilities and their effect on tooth contact.

Could the tip chamfer that manufacturing people usually use on the tips of gear teeth be the cause of vibration in the gear set? The set in question is spur, of 2.25 DP, with 20 degrees pressure angle. The pinion has 14 teeth and the mating gear, 63 teeth. The pinion turns at 535 rpm maximum. Could a chamfer a little over 1/64" cause a vibration problem?

The object of any business transaction, be it foreign or domestic, is making a profit. That's why you go through all the effort of making and selling your product in the first place. Getting paid in a timely manner is crucial to making profit, but when your customer is in another country, this "timely and convenient" payment can become complicated; hence, your need for a banker with expertise in international markets.