Positive feedback regarding Gear Technology, the Journal of Gear Manufacturing, from some of its new readers.

These are changing times for industry. Trauma and uncertainty are always a part of change, and change is not always for the better. Change is usually forced, most frequently by competition. Our competitive free enterprise system should be able to respond to competition because that's its basis. These are critical years. If we do not respond effectively to change and competition, it could be disasterous.

At the present time, technology seems to be moving faster than our ability to educate people in its utilization. this is particularly true of the manufacturing engineering profession.

Since we are a high volume shop, we were particularly interested in Mr. Kotlyar's article describing the effects of hob length on production efficiency which appeared in the Sept/Oct issue of Gear Technology. Unfortunately, some readers many be unnecessarily deterred from applying the analysis to their own situations by the formidabilty of the mathematical calculations. I am making the following small suggestion concerning the evaluation of the constant terms.

I received a letter from Mr. G. W. Richmond, Sullivan Machinery Company, N.H., in which in addition to correcting mistyping, he made several suggestions concerning my article "General Equations for Gear Cutting Tool Calculations."

As I travel around the country visiting with many of our customers, I am finding that not only are we, as an advertiser in the journal, meeting our advertising needs, but you are also meeting those very high ideals that you put before us during that meeting.

One of the current research activities here at California State University at Fullerton is systematization of existing knowledge of design of planetary gear trains.

Your May/June issue contains a letter from Edward Ubert of Rockwell International with some serious questions about specifying and measuring tooth thickness.

In response to Ed Uberts letter, we have come a long way in gearing since WWII. The Europeans do use long addendum pinions in many cases. This modification does improve load capacity, sliding conditions and the working life of a gearset. When modifying a pinion tooth it is necessary to modify the gear tooth or adjust the center distance accordingly but we will leave that to the designers.

This letter is in response to your article asking the readers where their interests lie. The division of Rockwell International where I work has engineering departments in Cicero.