As the year draws to a close, I’d like to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude for the continued support of Gear Technology’s readers, advertisers and authors. Thank you for being an integral part of the gear community. This holiday season, as I reflect on the challenges, triumphs, and growth of the past year, I am reminded of the shared passion we all have for advancing the field of gear manufacturing.

A classic candy store offers a dazzling display of lollipops, gumballs and every variety of sprinkled, dusted chocolate and chewy, gummy delights. The bright colors and sugary sweet smell are designed to make an eight-year-old’s eyes bulge, mouth water and tongue hang out. IMTS is just like that, but for technical trade journalists. The show provides an immersive display of manufacturing technology and a seemingly unlimited supply of experts (some of them also colorful) to talk about applications of that technology.

Next month, much of our team will be heading to IMTS (Sept. 9–14 in Chicago) to explore all the latest technology in manufacturing. As always, the show promises to include a wide variety of ways for manufacturers to improve their quality, productivity and profitability.

Take this issue of Gear Technology, for example. It’s full of really great knowledge, including information about the latest technology for manufacturing; important gear-related events that have taken place or are about to; technical knowledge based on R&D, academic research and product development; and much more. In your hands, this issue has a lot of power. It can give you ideas about ways to help your company improve operations, become more profitable or make better gears. Maybe this knowledge could help you become better at your job. 

Gear Technology recently had the opportunity to sit down with Thomas White, Marketing Manager for Northern Technologies International Corporation, whose ZERUST line of corrosion prevention solutions includes specialized packaging, testing and comprehensive corrosion management services.

A single gear, by itself, doesn’t do much good. No matter how brilliant its design or how superb its quality, it has to mesh with another gear to achieve anything useful. The transfer of torque, the change of direction and the increase or reduction of rotational speed only occur when two or more gears come together. The same is true of you.

Gear Technology began with the May/June 1984 issue. Forty years later, we’re still going strong! Please join us in looking back at some of our milestones and celebrating what makes this publication truly unique in the marketplace.

I joined the staff of Gear Technology 30 years ago, as a lowly editorial assistant. I had just moved back to the Chicago area after a brief stint working for a family business in Louisiana. The nice people at Randall Publications offered me an opportunity to put to good use my journalism degree as well as my enthusiasm for math and science.

OK, audience. I’m going to divide you into two groups. Everybody whose company is a member of AGMA, please move over to the left-hand side of the room, and everybody else, please move over to the right.

Last year, when I wrote this column about our annual State-of-the-Gear-Industry survey, I urged most of you to consider whether you were working for one of those gear industry companies engaged with the future or one of those ignoring it. I feel like I could run the same words again, and they would still apply.