Suppliers are working hard to make sure their heat treating equipment is controllable, repeatable and efficient, and manufacturers continue to incorporate technology that gives heat treaters and their customers more information about what's going on inside the magic box.

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.

Plastic gears are everywhere today - throughout your car, at the oceans' lowest depths, in deep space. The question, when is a metal gear a candidate for plastic conversion, can be addressed in three words, i.e. what's the application?

News about New Products

Here is some history that bears repeating - or at least re-reading. So take a few minutes to give it up for a long-gone Brit named Henry Maudslay (August 22, 1771 - February 14, 1831) - also known as "A Founding Father of Machine Tool Technology." You might also consider him an early leader in inspection, as he also invented the first bench micrometer capable of measuring to one ten-thousandth of an inch.

The complete technical calendar from the March/April 2015 issue of Gear Technology.

The complete Product News section from the January/February 2013 issue of Gear Technology.