January/February 2012

The Difference Between Busy and Profitable

Over the past several months, many gear manufacturers and industry suppliers have been telling me how busy they are. Their backlogs are the largest in history, their sales the highest they’ve been in many years. They’ve invested in new capabilities, new machinery and people.

The Global Challenge to America's Engineering and Innovation Position

John P. Walter and Abby Dress analyze the challenges facing America's manufacturers to remain competitive in a global environment.

Accelerating Validation Testing

Bringing new or improved products to market sooner has long been proven profitable for companies. One way to help shorten the time-to-market is to accelerate validation testing. That is, shorten the test time required to validate a new or improved product.

Evaluation of Methods for Calculating Effects of Tip Relief on Transmission Error, Noise and Stress in Loaded Spur Gears

The connection between transmission error, noise and vibration during operation has long been established. Calculation methods have been developed to describe the influence so that it is possible to evaluate the relative effect of applying a specific modification at the design stage. These calculations enable the designer to minimize the excitation from the gear pair engagement at a specific load. This paper explains the theory behind transmission error and the reasoning behind the method of applying the modifications through mapping surface profiles and determining load sharing.

Rattle: Addressing Gear Noise in a Power Take-off

At Muncie Power, the objective of noise and vibration testing is to develop effective ways to eliminate power take-off (PTO) gear rattle, with specific emphasis on PTO products. The type of sound of largest concern in this industry is tonal.

New Energy - Same Challenges

Uncertainty casts a shadow over future business opportunities for manufacturers serving the new energy markets.

Multifunctional Advancements

The latest in big gear machining with DMG/Mori Seiki.

Getting a Grip on Big-Gear Lubrication

In the wide, wide world of moving parts, the gears required for the big jobs—the really big jobs—often experience big problems. Proper lubrication of these gears is paramount in industrial applications such as wind turbines, kilns, sugar mills, crushers, heavy construction, offshore drilling rigs, mining and quarrying.

The Art of Involutes

The Forest City Gear booth at Gear Expo featured a wide variety of gears utilized in medical equipment, Indy cars, fishing reels, even the recently launched Mars Rover. Scattered among Forest City’s products in Cincinnati were some unique gear sculptures created by an artist that finds more inspiration from the pages of industrial magazines than art galleries.

Product News

The complete Product News section from the January/February 2012 issue of Gear Technology.

Industry News

The complete Industry News section from the January/February 2012 issue of Gear Technology.

Technical Calendar

The complete Technical Calendar from the January/February 2012 issue of Gear Technology.