Two Forest City Gear employees, CNC Supervisor Mike Miller and CNC Lead/Programmer Josh Gates, recently attended a four-day training retreat in Pfronten, Germany hosted by DMG MORI. The event featured various seminars and opportunities for guests to experience firsthand DMG’s newest equipment and technologies, as well as networking and a taste of German culture.

Lockheed Martin Space has entered into its first-ever international Long-Term Agreement with Melbourne-based manufacturer Ronson Gears under its Global Supply Chain (GSC) Program agreement with the Commonwealth of Australia. This Long-Term Agreement will supply multiple gear and gear sets across various Space programs to enhance lead times while decreasing administrative burdens. 

State of the Gear Industry Perspectives takes an in-depth look at the challenges and opportunities in gear manufacturing today and in the future. Our seventh installment online is an interview with Kika Young, president, and Jared Lyford, director of manufacturing operations at Forest City Gear (FCG). 

For the 2014 Orion launch, NASA introduced the Launch Abort System (LAS). This large manifold housing made from 6AL-4V titanium is designed to rapidly propel astronauts away from the main rocket in case of a catastrophic explosion or any other unexpected event. Once fired, the LAS will accelerate the astronauts away from the main rocket at forces up to 10 to 15 times normal gravity (“G’s”). This critical part of the safety system was once again vacuum heat treated by Solar Atmospheres of Western PA for their most recent launch. 

To centralize operations and continue to better serve its customers, tooling supplier Ceratizit USA, Inc. has shifted its official U.S. Headquarters from Warren, Michigan, to the company’s Schaumburg, Illinois, facility location. Ceratizit acquired the Schaumburg facility when it absorbed the Komet tooling brand name and product line under the Ceratizit Group umbrella.

Beaumont Machine is a builder of Electrical Discharge Machines (EDM) for the aerospace, power gen and electronics production industries. Founded by Ed and Tanya Beaumont over 30 years ago, the company was recently repurchased, after the owners had sold the business in early 2013.

Guill Tool, a growing supplier of components to the global aerospace industry, has announced the production of a new internal spline tool made of anodized carbon steel. 

DN Solutions (formerly Doosan Machine Tools) recently announced the opening of a Technical Support Office in Troy, Michigan. The new location will provide process improvements and technical solutions to both dealers and customers. 

TCI Precision Metals will be showing its precision Machine-Ready Blanks capabilities to customers at IMTS 2022, McCormick Place, Chicago, IL, September 12-17, 2022, West Building, Booth #432123. 

Aircraft engines can be made more efficient by integrating planetary gears. In such an application, the planetary gears experience very high load cycles under fully reversed bending loads. Pulsator test rigs, which nowadays offer the possibility to perform UHCF investigations, can only be used for purely pulsating loading of gears. Therefore, for the investigation of the UHCF tooth root load carrying capacity under fully reversed bending load, a back-to-back test rig is required. Back-to-back test rigs usually have speeds of n = 3,000 rpm, which makes investigations in the UHCF range take a very long time. Therefore, a high-speed back-to-back test rig was developed.