Gear Training - Courses, Schedules, Rates and More

The following article provides details on the specific programs and learning opportunities discussed in the January/February 2011 article Now, More Than Ever by senior editor Jack McGuinn.

Ohio State Univerity
OSU GearLab
Brigham Young University
Daley College
AGMA
Koepfer America

Students who wish to major in mechanical engineering should have a solid high school background in math and science. They should also have a natural interest in how mechanical things work and how they might be improved. Perseverance, imagination, and the ability to invent and analyze are also important. Students who come to Ohio State to study engineering that have a minimum ACT Math score of 24 or SAT Math score of 560 will be directly enrolled as pre-engineering students in the College of Engineering. Those students not eligible to directly enroll in engineering may enroll in the Science and Technology Exploration Program that is part of our Exploration Program described further at exploration.osu.edu.

Acceptance into a major is based on a numerical ceiling (200 students) and the cumulative point-hour ratio (CPHR) and secondary point-hour ratio (SPHR) after completion of the specified program of pre-major courses. Students who have completed the required pre-major courses with a SPHR of 2.0 or higher will be admitted into the designated major if the demand for admission is below the numerical ceiling. Otherwise, admission will be on a rank-order basis using the SPHR until the ceiling is reached.

Program Educational Objectives
The program educational objectives of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering are to educate graduates who will be ethical, productive, and contributing members of society. As they progress professionally after graduation, our alumni will do the following:

1. Use their engineering foundation for success in:

• Technical careers in industry, academia, government, or other organizations
• Graduate school in engineering
• Nontechnical careers in areas such as law, medicine, business, public policy, secondary education, service industries, etc.
• Careers involving engineering practice, research and development, or engineering education, management, or service
• Careers involving management or entrepreneurship

2. Use lifelong learning skills to:

• Take advantage of professional development opportunities in their disciplines
• Develop new knowledge and skills and pursue new areas of expertise or careers
• Adapt to changing global markets and workforce trends

3. Engage in professional service by:

• Using their engineering background to advance society and to help solve technical and societal problems
• Developing new knowledge and products that will promote sustainable economic development to improve quality of life
• Promoting the practice of engineering as a source of societal good

Mechanical Engineering Requirements
A summary of college requirements for mechanical engineering includes the following:

• Fundamentals of Engineering (2 courses)
• Chemistry (2 courses)
• Electrical Engineering (2 courses)
• Industrial and Systems Engineering (2 courses)
• Materials Science (1 course)
• Mathematics (5 courses)
• Mechanical Engineering (20 courses)
• Physics (3 courses)
• Technical Electives (15 credit hours)

The college requirements total 157 hours of course work. The university requires that students take 35 hours of General Education Curriculum courses which total 192 hours required for graduation.

Contacts:
Mechanical Engineering: mecheng.osu.edu
College of Engineering: engineering.osu.edu
Women in Engineering Program: wie.eng.ohio-state.edu

Engineering Admissions:
http://engineering.osu.edu/futurestudents/admissions.php

Honors Programs
The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering offers two programs for high-achieving and creative students: the honors program and the combined BS/MS program. The department honors program consists of special honors courses and the opportunity for students to pursue an independent research project under the guidance of a faculty mentor. Students report the results of their research in the form of an honors thesis and the words “Graduation with Distinction” are printed on their diplomas and in the official graduation program. A minimum CPHR of 3.4 is required for the honors program. Honors students are eligible for many research scholarships granted by the department and the College of Engineering. For more information, consult the Freshman Engineering Honors Program web site, feh.osu.edu.

The combined BS/MS program is designed to give outstanding students an opportunity to reduce the amount of time required to meet the master’s degree requirements. Students in this program are normally accepted at the end of the junior year and begin taking graduate-level courses as seniors. These courses are double counted toward the BS and MS degrees. This enables most students to complete the MS requirements in four quarters after completion of the BS degree.

Career Prospects in Mechanical Engineering
Perhaps the greatest single reason for studying mechanical engineering is to prepare students for employment in a wide range of exciting industries including aerospace, automotive, biomedical, chemical, computers, electronics, fossil and nuclear power, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, robotics, and textiles.

Mechanical engineers find employment in eight broad classifications within the field: research, development, design, testing and evaluation, production and manufacturing, operation and maintenance, marketing and sales, and administration. The breadth of the mechanical engineering program also provides for greater mobility for career shifts later in life. Additionally, a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (BSME) can open the door to post-graduate study in several engineering fields, business, law, and medicine. Beginning salaries for graduates with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering range from $50,000 to $56,000 with the average being around $54,000. Differences depend on candidates’ skills, previous work experience, and other factors determined by various employers including the willingness to relocate. The Engineering Career Services Office maintains a web site at career.eng.ohio-state.edu. (Revised April 2010.)

For the most up-to-date information on the mechanical engineering program, please visit mecheng.osu.edu.

Curriculum Sample
This is a sample list of classes a student will take to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering. Since university students need more than specific education in a narrow field, they also will take classes to complete the General Education Curriculum (GEC). The GEC will allow students to develop the fundamental skills essential to collegiate success across major programs. Course work options satisfying the GEC often come from a variety of academic areas of study allowing students to tailor their GEC toward their interests. (Note: This sample represents one of several possible paths to a degree in Mechanical Engineering.)

Consult the departmental web site, mecheng.osu.edu, for details on each specific track.

Freshman Year:
Engineering Survey 1
Introduction to Engineering 6
Calculus & Analytic Geometry 15
Chemistry 9
Physics 10
GEC (English composition) 5
Total hours 46

Sophomore Year:
Calculus & Analytic Geometry 5
Dynamics 4
Electrical Circuits 3
Materials Science 3
Numerical Methods 4
Ordinary and Partial Differential Equations 4
Physics 5
Statics 4
Strength of Materials 4
Thermodynamics 4
GEC (ethics) 5
GEC (historical study) 5-10
Total hours—50-55

Junior Year:
Electronic Devices 3
Engineering Economics 3
Fluid Dynamics 6
Heat Transfer 3
Kinematics 4
Manufacturing Engineering 3
Mechanical Design 8
System Dynamics 7
Thermodynamics 3
GEC (arts and humanities) 5-10
GEC (second writing course) 5
Total hours 50-55

Senior Year:
Automatic Controls 4
Design Capstone 4
Design Lab 4
Fluids/Heat Transfer Lab 2
Measurements 5
Mechanical Design 3
Technical Electives 15
GEC (social sciences) 5-10
Senior Program Review
Total hours 42-47

(Ohio State’s mechanical engineering program is accredited by the Engineering Commission of ABET.)

The New Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
The proposal to merge the department of aerospace engineering with the department of mechanical engineering, to form the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering, has been approved by faculty members of the two departments with overwhelming majorities, as well as by the college of engineering, the University Senate, and the OSU Board of Trustees. It was effective July 1, 2010.

All aerospace engineering degree programs will continue to be fully supported. Thus, the merged department will offer B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in aerospace engineering as well as mechanical engineering and M.S and Ph.D. degrees in nuclear engineering. The change in the name of the merged department will also ensure that the merger does not impair the visibility of the disciplines to potential students as well as to the public at large.

OSU’s national visibility in the aerospace engineering community will be heightened by the greater number of faculty members in the two departments working collaboratively and closely in aerospace engineering research and education. The merged department will offer a strong mentoring environment for junior faculty and graduate students involved in aerospace engineering research. Further, academic synergies between the disciplines would allow faculty in the merged department to work collaboratively in teaching courses as well as in introducing new courses that would be of interest to students in both disciplines. In order to facilitate interactions between all faculty members in the merged department, faculty members in the aerospace engineering department will be housed in the current home of the mechanical engineering department, the Peter and Clara Scott Laboratory, a state-of-the-art 240,000-square-foot facility constructed in 2006 at a cost of $71 Million.

The larger size of the merged department offers significant benefits in the form of heightened visibility in the mechanical engineering community, as well as opportunities for increased investment in the focus areas of the merged department. Over time, such investments are expected to lead to improved rankings of all programs of the merged department.

We are confident that the merger, taken together with the strong positive growth trends in both the current aerospace and mechanical engineering departments, will raise national awareness of the totality and high quality of aerospace engineering research at OSU, and further strengthen OSU’s links with NASA GRC, AFRL, and GE Aviation, while maintaining the visibility of the aerospace engineering program to potential student populations and the public. The merger will also enable the merged department to invest its resources in targeted focus areas of excellence in mechanical and aerospace engineering and thus elevate rankings of both disciplines.

OSU GearLab

Related Sites:
Department of Mechanical Engineering–The Ohio State University
The Ohio State University Acoustics and Dynamics Laboratory
University of Cincinnati Vibroacoustics and Sound Quality Research Laboratory
Advanced Numerical Solutions
ASME Power Transmission and Gearing

GearLab Facilities
The Gleason Gear and Power Transmission Laboratory consists of 6 high-bay rooms having 4,000 square feet (about 400 square meters) of laboratory space with built in facilities such as isolated test beds and two computational research laboratories that house the research team. The test facilities are arranged in three laboratories, dedicated to experimental investigation of different aspects of gearing.

First of these laboratories, Gear Dynamics Research Laboratory, houses a number of state-of-the-art test set-ups and machines to investigate the behavior of gear pairs and gear systems under dynamic operating conditions. It includes the Gear Dynamics Test Machine that is designed to measure transmission error, vibrations and root strains of spur and helical gears with or without shaft misalignments. Both encoder- and accelerometer-based transmission error measurement systems are incorporated with this test machine.

Another test set-up housed in this laboratory is a planetary test gear machine to measure planet load sharing, efficiency and dynamic behavior of planetary gear sets under loaded conditions. Other test set-ups in the lab include a low-speed load dynamometer that is currently being used for planetary gear set and hypoid transmission error measurements as well as full-scale transmission dynamometer that is suitable for loaded dynamic tests of gearboxes, transmissions as well as spin tests of axles. Some of these arrangements are shown here.

Gear Design Education at Brigham Young University

Manufacturing Technology Competitions
Electric streamliner (6 years)–going for the world’s record for its class on the Utah Salt Flats.

Research
The College of Engineering & Technology has pursued several research projects involving gearing and other automotive applications. A current on-going effort involves the development of Positively Engaged Infinitely Variable (PEIVT) and Continuously Variable Transmissions (CVT). Click here to download BYU student engineer Benjamin Pace works on the engine of the Formula One race car he and peers from around the world designed and built. Click here to download The finished product.

Daley College Spring 2011

Transportation, Distribution & Logistics 212—Supevised Work-Based Learning (5 credit hours)
Learning is designed to provide an opportunity to perform in a supply-chain/warehousing setting. Students are placed in a college-approved employment situation for 200 hours during a semester. The students may work full or part-time to complete this requirement. Writing assignments, as appropriate to the discipline, are part of the course. Prerequisite: Permission of instructor.

AGMA Education and Training

Register online through the Gear Consulting Group website.

Gear Materials: Selection, Metallurgy, Heat Treatment, and Quality Control
February 15-17, 2011 | 8:00 am - 4:30 pm
Sheraton Sand Key Resort, Clearwater, FL

Instructors: Ray Drago, Roy Cunningham
Discover how both the gear design engineer and the gear metallurgist can better grasp their related, critical roles in the exciting world of gear processing, heat treatment and inspection.

The gear design engineer is responsible for the initial selection of material and heat treatment, but the finalization of both material and thermal processing must be a joint effort.

This seminar shows how the gear design engineer first approaches the problem of material selection and heat treatment technology, as influenced by the performance and life requirements of the gear set. It also shows how the gear metallurgist can participate in and thereby optimize the finalized gear manufacturing process.

Interspersed in the course are examples of gear-related problems, failures and improved processing procedures. Analyses and comments on a number of relevant failures are given.

Certificates will be awarded to those who complete this course.

Who should attend this seminar?

• Gear design engineers
• Management involved with the design and manufacture of gearing type components
• Metallurgists and materials engineers
• Laboratory technicians
• Quality assurance engineers
• Furnace design engineers
• Equipment suppliers

AGMA members: $1,895 first registrant, $1,695 additional member registrant from same company

Nonmembers: $2,395 first registrant, $2,195 additional registrant from same company

Please note: This course is taught in English only.

HOTEL INFORMATION:
Sheraton Sand Key Resort Gulf Boulevard
Clearwater Beach, FL 33767
727-595-1611

The room rate is $175 single/double plus applicable taxes. This rate is in effect until the cut-off date of January 14, 2011. After this date, your reservation may be accepted based on availability.

Logical Troubleshooting for the Gear Manufacturing Process (presented by CGC)
March 7-9, 2011
Overton Chicago Gear, Lombard, Il

Gear Consulting Group is licensed by the American Gear Manufacturers Association to present a three-day course on what it takes to manufacture a quality gear, with emphasis on understanding the basic theory as it applies to the different machining methods, and the problems associated with each process used to manufacture a gear.

Particular attention is placed on the inspection of the part, and understanding the results of the inspection data so that the cause is identified and appropriate corrective action taken in a logical manner.

Topics to be covered in this course include:

• Gear involute geometry inspection procedures
• Manufacturing process: hobbing, shaping and shaving
• Troubleshooting manufacturing process
• Improvements in productivity
• Getting the best from present equipment
• The realities of carbide and super-HSS cutting tools
• Discussion of problems

Who Should Attend?
This course is designed for new hires, machine operators, set-up people, engineers, and management.

Registration Information
AGMA Member $895
Nonmember $995

Registration for this course is handled directly by Gear Consulting Group.

Register online or send an e-mail to gearconsultinggroup@aol.com.

Course Instructor: Geoff Ashcroft
Geoff Ashcroft has over fifty years of experience in gear manufacturing and the related machine and cutting tool industries. He is a practical engineer with strong problem-solving skills bringing a wide range of experiences to the classroom for this course.

Workforce Training Series*
The AGMA Workforce Training Series has been developed to assist current new-and mid-level employees of gear manufacturers. The series provides a comprehensive overview of gearing to enhance students’ understanding of essential terminology and practices within the industry. Students will go through a self-paced training course followed by a test for each course. Study guides and related materials, including practice tests, are provided for optimal success.

(*This series of courses has been developed using AGMA Standards. The material references AGMA information sheet 915-1-A02 and ANSI/AGMA technical standards 2015-1-A01 and 2015-2-A06.)

The creation of these online training courses was made possible by a grant from the "AGMA Foundation". Read more about each course below.

Special AGMA Member rate–get all three courses for $375.00 (Save $102.00) CLICK HERE!

Fundamentals of Gearing
This course is a comprehensive overview of the industry. It begins with a little history of gearing and proceeds through the topics of:

• Parallel axis gear basics
• Involute tooth form
• Description of the gear
• Diametrical pitch/Module Pitch
• Pressure angle
• And then finishes by defining a series of 37 crucial terms used in gearing.

Students will also receive a copy of the ANSI/AGMA 1012-G05 Gear Nomenclature, Definitions of Terms with Symbols. ($78 value)

System Requirements:
Internet browser and Adobe Flash Player

Parallel Gear Inspection
The level one gear inspection module includes basic concepts for gear measurement, the tools and instruments used, the evaluation of gear characteristics, definitions of terms, and an introduction to gear quality classification.

Topics covered include:

• Categories of measurement on a gear
• Double flank composite inspection
• Single flank composite inspection
• The sequence of measurements
• When should gear elements be measured
• Mean helix slope deviation
• And classification of gear quality

System Requirements
Internet browser and Adobe Flash Player

Hobbing
This course is designed to present the basics of hobbing to hobbing machine operators, gear technicians, and engineers.

It covers the following material:

• Hobbing process
• Hob cutting tool terminology
• Generating gears
• Hobbing machine terminology
• Measuring, mounting, and truing the hob
• Mounting and truing the work piece
• Basic part inspection
• Tooth size, runout
• And recognizing problems

System Requirements
Internet browser and Adobe Flash Player

Video Course: Detailed Gear Design
Learn right at your computer – no travel!

Through generous support from the AGMA Foundation, we have recorded the popular Detailed Gear Design live course for wider availability. Taught by gear expert, Ray Drago, P.E., of Drive Systems Technology, Inc. Students can get the full experience of the course through 15 one-hour segments and supporting training documents. Detailed Gear Design teaches students about gear design and then walks students through carefully crafted “problems” that will demonstrate the practical application of the optimization methods presented in this seminar.

Who Should Take This Course
Gear engineers, gear designers, application engineers, people who are responsible for interpreting gear designs, technicians and managers that want to better understand all aspects of gear design.

The majority of the course material is presented through qualitative descriptions, practical examples, illustrations and demonstrations, which require basic mathematical and engineering skills.

However, some familiarity with gear design and application will enhance overall understanding of the material.

Benefits of this Training
After taking this course, you will be able to:

• Improve your gear designs
• Better understand gear rating theory and analysis methods
• Investigate differences in stress states among various surface durability failure modes
• Discuss time dependent and time independent failure modes related to tooth design
• Use computer generated graphics to examine mesh action and tooth interaction
• Gain new insight into the concepts presented through illustrations and demonstrations

System Requirements:
Windows Operating System: Windows 7,Windows Vista; Windows XP Service Pack 2. Intel® Pentium III 450MHz or faster processor (or equivalent). 128MB of RAM

Mac OS Operating System: Apple Mac OS X 10.4.8 or above. Intel Core Duo 1.83GHz or faster processor. 128MB of RAM.

KOEPFER

Register Online

Pheasant Run Resort
St. Charles, Illinois

This seminar is designed for entry-level gear manufacturing personnel. Attendees include manufacturing management, industrial engineers, supervisors, set-up personnel, operators and quality control.

The seminar is an intensive three-day program with a limited class size of 30, providing an optimum learning environment. The seminar fee includes a workbook, miscellaneous materials and demonstration of current gear manufacturing equipment. Transportation to and from the demonstrations and plant tours will be provided.

Seminar Content

• Gear Nomenclature
• Basic Gear Mathematics
• The Hobbing Process
• Multi-Thread Hobs
• The Shaping Process
• Gear Inspection, AGMA, DIN
• Proper Cutting Tool Use and Support
• Automation Systems
• Fixturing and Blanks
• Production Estimating
• Finishing Techniques
• Skiving
• Equipment Demonstration
• Troubleshooting

Plant Tours
As part of the comprehensive training, we will visit gear manufacturing facilities for demonstrations and plant tours.

Seminar Location
Pheasant Run Inn and Resort
4051 East Main Street
St. Charles, Illinois 60174
Phone: 800.474.3272 -or- 630.584.6300

Seminar Registration
Seminar Fee: $795 per person, includes meals. Price of hotel room is not included in seminar fee. For room reservations, contact Pheasant Run Resort directly, advising them you are with the Koepfer group.

Please plan to arrive on Monday evening or early Tuesday morning, as the seminar begins Tuesday at 10.00 AM. You will receive a complete schedule with your confirmation.

Send your registration including your name, title, company, address, phone and P.O. number to:

Koepfer America, L.L.C.
635 Schneider Drive
South Elgin, Illinois 60177
Call 847.931.4121
Fax 847.931.4192