I've been tuning in to a lot of information in new ways, lately. Chances are, you have, too. The pandemic has restructured all of our lives in ways we couldn’t have imagined just a year ago. From work to school to family, video chat and teleconference have replaced warm hugs and handshakes. There's no kibitzing around the water cooler.
All cutting and machining operations produce some type of burr or leave sharp edges on metal components. These unwanted byproducts are especially troublesome when producing precision components such as gears. The burrs can loosen from
the gear - either during assembly or later when the gear is in operation - and damage components or lead to critical part failure.
I felt a tap on my shoulder. Turning, I saw the chief draftsman who said, "You're in charge of gears." And he walked away. Dumbfounded, I stared at the back of his head, and sat down at my drafting board. It was November, 1963, shortly after JFK was assassinated, and after I was discharged from the U.S. Army.
The first chapter from a new book by Dr. Hermann J. Stadtfeld provides an overview of the need for new technologies and approaches when it comes to developing transmissions for electric vehicles.
Gear noise is a common evil any gear manufacturer must live with. It is often low enough not to be a major problem but, at times, gear whining may appear and then, tracking the source and, especially, curing the ill can be tricky at best.
Lately, the use of asymmetric gears in automotive and other applications is an upcoming trend, though few applications
are known to have asymmetric teeth. However, an increased interest in asymmetric gears can be seen. Many companies have started to design and test such applications.
Agostino Ramelli was a 16th-century Italian military engineer of some note who designed many machines and other contributions used in the go-go Renaissance period, including cranes, grain mills, and water pumps. But his most compelling apparatus was a real mindbender - a revolving wooden wheel with angled shelves that allowed users to read multiple books at one time.