For many of us, 2016 was a rough year - and the results of our annual State of the Gear Industry Survey show it. 40% of respondents indicated their companies
had cut staff, while only 27% indicated an increase in employment. Clearly, there have been widespread cutbacks.
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.
IMTS, held bi-annually here in Chicago, ended September
17. It was the third-largest IMTS ever, both in terms of registrations
(115,612) and exhibit space occupied (1,370,256 square
feet). Also, this year's show had more exhibiting companies
(2,407) than any previous IMTS.
Chicagoans are very particular about their hot
dogs. To begin with, it has to be an all-beef product, served on
a steamed poppy seed bun. But just as important are the essential
toppings. If you walk into a proper Chicago hot dog stand
and order it "Chicago Style," you'll get exactly these seven ingredients
on your dog: yellow mustard, chopped white onions,
neon green pickle relish, a dill pickle spear, tomato wedges,
sport peppers and, of course, celery salt.
I'd like to apologize to the dedicated people working on revisions to the AGMA 925 standard and the Technical Report ISO 15144-1, both of which deal with the issue of micropitting. In the
March/April issue of Gear Technology, we published an opinion piece in our Voices column that harshly criticized the methods for predicting micropitting outlined in ISO 15144-1.