From reports I have gotten, 2016 is proving to be a challenging year for the gear industry. Traditional markets such as mineral extraction and gas/...

With the election distraction finally behind us, we can hopefully get back to the very challenging job of building a better world for ourselves, ou...

The call for abstracts for the 2017 AGMA Fall Technical Meeting went out months ago. While it seems early to many readers, this schedule has to be ...

News from around the Industry

In a capitalist society, the way things usually work is that government and academia focus on research and development, while industry focuses on commercialization. The result is an increasingly wide disconnect in the applied research sector, which deals primarily with technology development and demonstration.

It's Monday morning, December 15, 2036. An autonomous vehicle drops off two engineers in front of a gear manufacturing facility in Metro Detroit. They punch in for work on their wristwatches and pay Uber for the ride on a smartphone. One of the engineers begins walking the shop floor, monitoring a series of collaborative robots using a tablet the size of a paperback novel. These robots interact right on the floor with the minimal staff scheduled to oversee manufacturing operations. Another engineer wears an interactive headset and begins training a group of new engineers (in real time) from China using some form of augmented reality.

More than 100 years ago, gear manufacturers were facing a significant challenge from industry. The incredible advances in industrialization and transportation that occurred at the turn of the 20th century resulted in incredible growth for gear makers, but there were significant technical issues. "The lack of process and product standardization was a continuing problem in all U.S. industry. The lack of industry-wide gear standards meant there were no standard gear tooth sizes, ratings, quality definition or consistent manufacturing methods" (Celebrating 100 Years of Gearing, pg. 22).

No, not that president! I mean Matt Croson, the new president of the American Gear Manufacturers Association, who started in June and has been busy getting to know the gear industry and AGMA's members.