Every so often manufacturing is jolted out of its inertia by a transformative technology – one that fundamentally changes not only the way products are made, but also the economics of the business.

Gear Technology magazine begins the celebration of our 30-year anniversary.

Gear manufacturers are generally an optimistic bunch, as revealed by our 2013 State-of-the-Gear-Industry Survey, which appears in this issue.

For anyone involved in gear manufacturing, Gear Expo is an absolute treasure. In 2013, it was bigger and more varied than it's been in a decade. With 226 exhibitors covering every conceivable gear-related technology, Gear Expo offered visitors unparalleled opportunities to interview potential new suppliers.

Like many of you in the gear industry, we’ve been working extremely hard over the past few months getting ready for Gear Expo 2013, which takes place September 17-19 in Indianapolis.

It's an ideal time for a pilgrimage to AGMA’s Fall Technical Meeting and Gear Expo, which take place in Indianapolis.

Over the past few months we've talked with a lot of gear manufacturers. Many of them tell us business is strong, while others are struggling with reduced demand. The difference between them isn't so much in the quality of their manufacturing operations, but rather trends in the end markets they serve.

Like many Americans, I've been trained with the idea that those who see a problem should be the ones responsible for helping to solve it. If you see that something is broken, and you know how to fix it, don't wait for your dad, your boss or the government to tell you what to do. Just fix it.

Trying to figure out what’s going on in this crazy economy of ours seems a bit like reading tea leaves—one part pseudoscience and three parts wild conjecture. Of course some pundits are telling us that this bull market has legs, while others insist that we’re due for a major correction. Some pump us up with positive news, while others remind us about scary stuff like the budget deficit, the European financial crisis and unemployment.

Publisher Michael Goldstein explores Gear Technology's history and its future as he introduces the back issue archive online and our new features and columns for 2013.