Liebherr is well-known as one of the world’s largest privately owned companies — a titan in heavy industry specializing in cranes, trucks and mammoth earth moving and mining
equipment.
When Dr. Hermann J. Stadtfeld speaks,
people tend to listen.
Considered one of the world’s foremost
experts on bevel gears, Stadtfeld,
the vice president of bevel gear technology at Gleason, recently revealed several cutting-edge advancements that the company has been working on.
In 1964, a young and tidy Bob Dylan sang away in that infamous voice of his,
all nasally and grating yet wonderfully distinct, opining to the fervent masses: “The times, they are a-changin.”
NASA is now 3-D-printing spare parts up at the ISS (International Space Station). And in zero-gravity environments. And some of these parts are small gears and actuators, for starters. Every indication is that the list of power transmission-type parts to be converted will soon grow.
The process of forging metal into shapes possesses
a surprisingly long and storied history.
For example, the method of hot rolling can trace its protracted existence all the way back to an enigmatic Italian polymath named Leonardo da Vinci (you may have heard of him), who reportedly invented the rolling mill one lazy day in the 1400s.
In this special section, our editors have gathered recent news and information related to the heat treatment of gears. Here you’ll find a comprehensive assortment of news and upcoming events that will help you understand the various heat treatment processes available for gears and choose the best option for your projects, whether you heat treat in-house or send your gears to a commercial heat treating provider.
At the dawn of the Industrial
Revolution, so-called mechanics
were tasked with devising the precise methods that would make mass production possible. The result was the first generation of machine tools, which in turn required improved tooling and production methods.
The name Gleason is practically synonymous with gear manufacturing. Since the company was founded in 1865, the technology of gear manufacturing has
been its focus, its core and its competitive advantage.