The ever-volatile election cycle has ended. Gear companies—and metalworking organizations in general—must now shift their focus toward customers. Can they meet orders in a timely fashion? Is it time to strengthen the talent pool? How is their equipment stacking up against the competition? Overall, there is a feeling business will turn the corner in the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2025. Gear Technology spoke with representatives from Atlanta Gear Works (AGW), Croix Gear and Forest City Gear (FCG) on the state of gear manufacturing in 2025.
The rise of power skiving to a preeminent cylindrical gear cutting process has been one of the gear industry’s most compelling success stories in recent decades. What began many years ago as a promising, but specialized, cutting process alternative for cylindrical gears with challenging interference contours is now exceeding performance and application expectations across the board.
Gear cutting has witnessed remarkable advancements over the years, with modern technologies transforming traditional methods into streamlined, highly efficient processes. NIDEC’s tools and methodologies increase productivity and quality in manufacturing. This article delves into the technological innovations, market relevance, and advantages of their gear-cutting solutions.
Power skiving has evolved from a complex and difficult-to-control cutting method into a viable alternative to traditional shaping or broaching. Liebherr-Verzahntechnik GmbH’s Skiving3 technology package combines machines, tools, and processes to make gear skiving more efficient and flexible. This advancement enables manufacturers to machine a broad range of workpieces, from small to large batch sizes, making it suitable for both series production and contract gear manufacturing.
Lubricant Expo is North America’s leading exhibition and conference event dedicated to the lubricant industry. Connecting lubricant solution providers with end-user buyers and the entire chemical and equipment supply chain, the show attracts thousands of engineers and executives each year. As the sister show to Europe’s largest industry event, Lubricant Expo Europe, these two shows provide the largest dedicated exhibitions for lubrication solutions on a global scale, with a free to attend expo and conference that serves the interests of thousands of visitors representing more than 75 countries. Exhibitors cover the end-to-end chain of the industry, from finished lubricants and technologies for lubricant users, to the chemical ingredients and development devices for formulators and lab professionals.
Every year, Gear Technology’s State-of-the-Gear-Industry survey takes the pulse of the gear manufacturing world, revealing the latest trends, challenges, and outlooks shaping the industry. Conducted anonymously, the survey gathers insights from subscribers, AGMA members, gear manufacturers, suppliers, and industry experts—primarily from North America but with voices from around the globe. This year, nearly 200 professionals shared their perspectives, offering a real-time snapshot of the industry’s health and direction.
It was a busy year for the gear industry. Large and small companies had to navigate the interest rates, tariffs, supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, and the unknown economic outlook with an election year in the U.S. Leaders that normally would be brainstorming their five-year strategic plans had to get comfortable with a day-to-day strategy. As each quarter ended, however, AGMA witnessed resiliency, innovation, collaboration, and even quite a bit of growth for some sectors—it was an exciting year to visit members in person.
As you navigate the ever-evolving landscape of gear manufacturing, it’s become increasingly clear that success isn’t solely determined by the precision of your machines or the latest technological advancements. While these factors remain crucial, the true differentiator in today’s competitive market lies in cultivating and nurturing your most valuable asset: your people.
Gears that aren’t properly chamfered and deburred can lead to overloaded edges and unanticipated and undesirable noise. This is particularly true in EV applications where torque transmission, unlike combustion engine vehicles, goes from zero to a much higher maximum almost instantly. As a result, EV gears require hard finishing (honing and threaded wheel grinding), and chamfering/deburring becomes critical.
Zahnradfertigung OTT GmbH & Co. KG was the first company to install the new fully automatic CNC-controlled P 152 precision measuring center from Klingelnberg in its ultra-modern machine park.
Since I have had the privilege of visiting numerous gear plants and research centers in the U.S., as well as 170 in 33 countries, and I closely watch the progression of technology, I wanted to share my observations about some technological advancements. For the purpose of this article, I will focus on three key areas: Robotics, Machine Tools, and Heat Treating.
The importance of clean air in manufacturing is often underestimated, yet it’s one of the critical elements that can impact both production efficiency and employee well-being. This is particularly true in facilities that rely heavily on CNC machining, where oil mist and coolant byproducts can create significant air quality challenges. Wolfram Manufacturing, based in Austin, has addressed this challenge head-on by integrating advanced mist collection systems into its operations.
This article by Reishauer AG summarizes the insights gained from digitization in the machine tool sector, highlighting the long-term collaboration between the two companies. ZF Getriebe Brandenburg GmbH, distinguished by a team of over 1,500 specialists, leads in producing exclusive manual and dual-clutch passenger car transmissions used in high-end German sports cars for maximum precision and performance. A crucial factor in the quality of these transmissions is the precise ground gears manufactured on machines from Reishauer AG, a Swiss pioneer in gear grinding machines.
For more than 60 years, Forest City Gear has crafted a legacy of excellence in precision gear manufacturing, leveraging advanced techniques and cutting-edge technology to earn the business of customers as exclusive as NASA. At the heart of the company’s technology-focused philosophy lies a long-time relationship with Sunnen Products Company, a leading manufacturer of honing systems, tooling, and accessories. The relationship helped Forest City set itself apart as one of the world’s most precise gear makers, and now the company’s parts are found on everything from fishing reels to the Mars Rovers.
By 2030, the global robotics market size is expected to range anywhere from $160 billion to $260 billion. The world is expecting robots to do a lot of the “heavy lifting” going forward. But with demand pressuring supply for many of the essential components, new production technologies are needed to keep pace. Nowhere is this truer than for the smaller, high-precision spiral and hypoid bevel gears that play such a critical role in transmitting power and delivering precise, reliable movement in increasingly complex, multiaxis robotic systems. Yet, manufacturers of these gears have, up until now, had surprisingly few options available to help them ramp up production of this new generation of high-efficiency bevel gears—particularly in the increasingly common size range of 100 mm in diameter and smaller.
This article requires that the reader be familiar with Job Shop Lean, an approach to adapt the principles of lean manufacturing for a job shop, regardless of its size or industry sector. A job shop typically executes a different schedule every day. Each day’s schedule could have a different mix of jobs, due dates, lot sizes, and number of gear operations. Regardless of all these differences, it is important that the shop receives a feasible schedule that does not exceed available capacity constraints on key resources (machines, labor, materials, dies, etc.).
Gears serve as essential mechanisms in a wide range of mechanical equipment, helping to transmit torque, adjust rotational speeds, transfer power, distribute load and more. Used in necessary applications such as automobiles, energy systems, aerospace and industrial equipment, gears must be able to operate for long periods without maintenance. While gears can be made from a diverse assortment of materials, carbon and alloy steel offer superior benefits in terms of strength, durability and cost efficiency. As a remarkably recyclable material, steel may also be a preferable choice for environmentally conscious manufacturers.
The 67,000 sq. ft. facility occupied by Precision Gears Inc. in Pewaukee, WI, contains a full range of gear manufacturing equipment to meet the varied customer demands of the many industries it serves. Founded in 1919, the company possesses both the technologies and experience to efficiently serve the multiple requirements of manufacturers in fields as varied as agriculture, lawn and garden, foodservice, power transmission construction, pumps, and others.
The International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS)—September 9–14 at Chicago’s McCormick Place—is the largest manufacturing technology show and marketplace in the Western Hemisphere, and it’s right around the corner! With visitors from more than 110 countries, IMTS is where the creators, builders, sellers and drivers of manufacturing technology come to connect and be inspired. But with more than 1.2 million square feet of exhibit space, where do you begin? Here at Gear Technology, we do our best to help you make the most of your show experience by assembling booth previews that will be worthy of your attention.
If all goes as planned, NASA will launch its Sample Retrieval Lander (SRL) Mars mission from Florida’s Space Coast in June 2028, the start of its latest, and greatest, mission to Mars. By sometime in the early 2030s, the SRL mission will have succeeded in traveling to Mars; gathering samples already collected by the Perseverance Rover; launching them into Mars orbit; and capturing and returning them safely to Earth. For NASA’s scientists, the SRL mission is the culmination of a decades-long series of Mars explorations designed to find evidence of life outside of Earth or, at the very least, provide important insights into the origin of life here on Earth.
As the automotive industry continues to move towards e-mobility, the manufacturing world is adapting to the respective requirements. Large gear ratios are necessary to reduce the high input speeds of electric motors to the required speed of the drive wheels. At the same time, masking noise of combustion engines is now missing, posing challenges to the noise level of transmissions. Principally, two main transmission concepts have become established for e-drive applications: two-stage layshaft transmissions with four gears, and planetary transmissions.
This article requires that the reader be familiar with Job Shop Lean, an approach to adapt the principles of lean manufacturing for a job shop, regardless of its size or industry sector. The following articles will give the interested reader a sufficient background on the many differences between Job Shop Lean and Lean.
The International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) September 9–14 at Chicago’s McCormick Place is fast approaching and, for newcomers and veterans alike, it is always worthwhile to plan as much as possible in advance to make the most of it. For Gear Technology readers looking for gear manufacturing equipment such as gear cutting, forming, and finishing, as well as broaching, shaping, and slotting machines, you must first visit the Gear Generation sector in the North Building, Level 3.
Manufacturers of EV drive systems are leaving no stone unturned in their quest for quiet-running, dependable transmission gears and shafts. Where once chamfering and deburring operations were almost an afterthought, they’re now considered a primary soft machining process, with widespread recognition that anything less than a flawless tooth flank can result in premature transmission failure, less-than-optimal efficiency, and unacceptable noise.
The world of bevel gear grinding is a complex topic. How do you determine which grinding and dressing parameters to select for a desired surface finish? What type of grinding wheel should be used? What type of dresser should be used? How do all these factors affect the gear noise and quality levels? These are some questions that will be addressed in this article.
For precision measuring, skilled machinists, toolmakers, and inspectors must have accurate tools and gages, produced from quality materials, carefully manufactured, and rigidly inspected, to ensure lasting dependability. Gages have evolved throughout the years beginning with mechanical, then electronic models, and now convenient wireless electronic versions have come on the scene. Each type has an important place in today’s quality control and inspection processes.
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.
Thanks to advancements in material science and chemistry, particularly in nanoscience, a new solution has emerged: nanocomposite coatings, more broadly referred to as thin-film coatings. But how did we arrive at this point in coating development? As with many technologies, war highlighted the need for more advanced coating development eventually leading to nanocomposite coatings.
When electric drives are used in vehicles, the masking effect of an internal combustion engine disappears, allowing the noise behavior of the transmission to take center stage. At the same time, peak power and torque increase, engine speeds increase, and power must be transferred optimally in both directions due to the regenerative braking system. Conventional design parameters remain important, however: The build space is limited, durability must not be compromised, and the product must still be cost-efficient. Optical metrology as part of a hybrid measurement concept helps to overcome all these challenges.
Complete inspection of gear surface finishes at the submicron level became a reality with the introduction of Gleason’s 300GMS nano, in 2022. The new system ushered in an exciting new era in gear inspection. For the first time, producers of EV transmission gears, and gears for other applications requiring very tight tolerances and low noise requirements, could quickly inspect surface finishes and perform extremely reliable noise analysis at submicron levels—benefits that were almost impossible to achieve just a few years ago.
From the outside, Gallmar Industries, nestled into an Oshkosh, WI, neighborhood, looks like any unassuming, medium-sized gear shop. Then take a plant tour with Gallmar’s VP of Operations Kenan Zolota—and prepare to be amazed. The facility stretches on like the Army’s warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, with everything from gear cutting to heat treat, gear grinding to inspection, all under one roof. Gallmar’s breadth of product line is in evidence too: defense-related transmission gears, 60-in. diameter internal gears for mining equipment, axle components for fire/ rescue trucks five feet in length, right down to a bin of brass ammunition casings that Zolota says are a special order.
The arrival of Gleason’s Hard Finishing Cell (HFC) in 2018 represented a paradigm shift in the way automotive transmission gears and gears for e-drives, could be produced in high volumes. Now, for the first time, 100 percent inspection of every gear, and every gear tooth was possible in-process, without impacting the high speeds at which these gears need to be hard finished. Identifying, and correcting for, conditions that create unacceptable noise behavior in these gears, on the fly, was finally a reality too.
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.
Gear backlash refers to the clearance, or play, between the teeth of gears in a mechanical transmission system. Gear designers have strived to minimize gearing systems’ backlash due to the impact on precision, efficiency, noise, vibrations, wear, motion control, system complexity, and safety. Their significance varies depending on the applications, but designers need to carefully consider these factors when developing robotics systems to ensure they meet the desired performance and safety standards.
Specialty forgers can manufacture custom, high-quality, seamless rolled rings in a variety of materials and finishes in as little as eight weeks. Open die forgings and seamless rolled rings are essential components in the wind energy sector, contributing to the overall reliability and efficiency of turbines, generator systems, and transmission and distribution equipment.
Training has quickly evolved in recognition of the new realities of the factory floor. The training tool kit has never been more diverse or effective. Training regimens today, at the best companies, are analogous to those of the most successful professional sports or Olympic teams. Instead of weight room, nutrition, and practice, workers use digital webinars, simulations, and classrooms. If modern training tools and techniques result in faster, higher, and stronger on the athletic field, they also produce faster, smarter, and better for companies seeking a competitive edge in the marketplace.
As a community, we gear engineers collaborate and share ideas to progress our collective capability. Technology progresses based on our efforts, and we have seen solid advances in the performance of our products as they become quieter, cheaper, more efficient, and more power dense. The pages of this magazine (past and present editions) are filled with examples where talented engineers have dug deeper into a subject using a more precise approach to a particular area concerning gear performance. The implied belief is always that greater precision (complexity) in the calculations brings greater accuracy (alignment with reality).
Manufacturers have a relatively new option that offers several key advantages—gear skiving on machining centers. Gear skiving on a mill-turn machining center with fully synchronous spindles is highly efficient, fast, and accurate. In some cases when producing small and medium-sized volumes, gear skiving will gradually replace established gear-cutting processes.
Gear tooth profile grinding, also known as form grinding, is a finishing method used in gear manufacturing. It involves the use of vitrified bonded grinding wheels to modify or correct the profile of gear teeth, often after heat treatment. The grinding wheel runs between two opposing teeth, grinding both surfaces at the same time.
In a world where hard finishing operations are now commonplace and high precision is the rule rather than the exception, many gear manufacturers are taking a closer look at workholding. Manufacturers have come to realize that workholding, long under-appreciated and over-looked, can play an important role in squeezing precious seconds out of idle time, help reduce costly runout on precision gear teeth to just a few microns, and cut the high cost of maintenance and repair.
Gear Technology’s annual State-of-the-Gear-Industry survey polls gear manufacturers about the latest trends and opinions relating to the overall health of the gear industry. As in years past, the survey was conducted anonymously, with invitations sent by email to our subscribers, AGMA members, and others in the gear industry. Primarily, our responses come from North America, but they also include responses from around the world. Nearly 200 individuals responded to the survey.
Gear Technology sat down with several expert machine tool suppliers to discuss the challenges of manufacturing gears for electric vehicles. The experts included Dr. Oliver Winkel of Liebherr, Pascal Diggelmann of Reishauer and Dr. Hermann Stadtfeld of Gleason. The discussion took place to MPT Expo 2023 in Detroit.
Gleason's Coniflex® Pro Design and Manufacturing System for producing stronger, quieter, and more reliable e-drive differential gears in high volumes, for automotive, truck, bus and off-highway transmissions. It‘s the differential difference!
National STEM Day, celebrated on November 8th this year, provided a platform for Gear Technology to engage in a conversation with four remarkable women shaping the manufacturing industry: Ruthie Johnston, CEO and Owner of Croix Gear; Robin Olson, Senior Manager, Applications Engineering—Engineered Gear, Regal Rexnord; Michelle Maddox, Sales and Business Development Manager, B&R Machine and Gear Corp.; and Claudia Hambleton, Office Manager and Corporate Treasurer, German Machine Tools of America (GMTA). Each of these women, driven by a shared passion for fostering the next generation of female leaders, revealed their unique journeys and perspectives in this male-dominated field.
A deep dive into the world of gear dynamics and gear noise has led many a mechanical engineer to Columbus, OH in search of the methods by which gear noise is measured and predicted as well as the techniques employed in gear noise and vibration reduction. Over the past 40+ years, about 2,550 engineers and technicians from 385+ companies have attended the Gear Dynamics and Gear Noise Short Course at The Ohio State University.
This article introduces the process of polish grinding of gears. Improved surface quality increases the overall efficiency of gearboxes, resulting in reduced friction and torque loss, higher power density, and noise-optimized gears (lower NVH); all these factors are highly relevant, especially for electric drives. When Reishauer developed polish grinding in 2012, the process aimed to improve the efficiency of ICE engine transmissions, and the set goals were easy to achieve. Today, in 2023, the situation is dramatically different. While an ICE engine operates at around 3,000 rpm and supplies acoustic masking of the gear noise, EV drivetrains feature up to 20,000 rpm and offer no such masking.
AGMA’s Motion + Power Technology (MPT) Expo is a biennial trade show—running this year from October 17–19 at Huntington Place in Detroit—designed to serve the gear and power transmission industry, representing the full spectrum of professionals involved in the life of a gear, gearbox, or other power transmission device—from design to manufacturing, testing, heat treating, and more. You will find equipment and materials suppliers to make gears; gear and gear drive manufacturers; and every imaginable industry-adjacent supplier from software to tooling, lubrication to bearings, and much more.
The EV to-do list grows daily. Once the engineer has settled in on solving noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH) challenges, they pivot toward energy efficiency. They consider the vehicle’s weight, the tooling needed to manufacture the gears, the skiving needed to make the surface finishes as smooth as possible.
The roots of heat-treating run deep within ASM (American Society for Materials) International, as its society was founded in Detroit in 1913 as The Steel Treaters Club. The heat-treating constituency of ASM created the Heat Treating Society (HTS) to provide focused leadership, communications, and service development to its network of worldwide membership of captive and commercial heat treaters, equipment manufacturers, researchers, governments, and technicians. To discuss Heat Treat 2023, the 32nd annual HTS Conference and Exhibition, Gear
Technology took a moment to catch up with conference chair Andrew Banka, vice president of Airflow Sciences Corporation. Heat Treat 2023 is colocated with IMAT and Motion + Power Technology Expo in Detroit, October 17–19.
This article describes a cloud-based process and machine component monitoring system called ARGUS. The term “swarm” is used for a large population of gear-grinding machines of individual and independent customers connected to the ARGUS system and the ARGUS cloud. These “swarm” machines permanently feed their anonymized process data into a common cloud database. Reishauer uses this database for big data analytics to discover patterns that indicate successful process and machine component behavior patterns worth integrating into the ARGUS algorithms and propagate them across the complete ARGUS customer base.
2023 is shaping up to be our planet’s hottest year on record, and the wind energy industry is feeling the heat. The GWEC (Global Wind Energy Council) says that the rate of wind turbine installations will need to quadruple globally by the end of the decade if we’re to achieve the IRENA’s (International Renewable Energy Agency) goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050—and keep the average annual temperature worldwide from increasing more than the predicted 1.5° C. Fortunately, “net zero” commitments are gathering global momentum. Before year’s end, total global windpower is expected to reach a historic milestone of 1 TW of installed capacity, eliminating 1.2 billion tons of CO2 annually, roughly the equivalent of all the carbon emissions of South America.
The Motion + Power Technology Expo is a three-day show that’s designed for the gear and power transmission industry, representing the entire community of professionals involved in the life of a gear, gearbox or other power transmission device—from design to manufacturing, testing, heat treating and more. You can find the suppliers of the equipment to make gears as well as gear and gear drive manufacturers themselves, along with related suppliers of things like software, tooling, lubrication, bearings and more.
Heat Treat 2023 is the Heat Treating Society’s 32nd conference and expo for heat treating professionals featuring three days of face-to-face networking opportunities with approximately 200 heat treat exhibitors/companies. All the top heat-treating companies will offer the latest research and industry insights during more than 100 technical programs. This year’s show includes a VIP-guided industry tour, as well as student/emerging professionals initiatives, including free college student registration, Fluxtrol Student Research Competition, and the ASM Heat Treating Society Strong Bar Student Competition. Heat Treat 2023 is colocated with Motion + Power Technology Expo 2023 with access to additional exhibitors. The event takes place October 17–19, 2023 at Huntington Place in Detroit.
The manufacturing version of Indiana Jones is much more interested in lithium, cobalt, and nickel than arks, grails or “Dials of Destiny.” So much so that the current administration is doing its part to keep up with China in the dramatic supply chain cold war taking place across the globe. We’ve all read and reread the headlines, electrification is imminent for our carbon-neutral future—the path toward electrification, however, is quite complicated.
A range of gear manufacturing applications such as planetary carriers and gear wheels with strict tolerances demand comprehensive, reliable clamping solutions. Whether the objective is to reduce vibrations or ensure concentricity of only a few microns, the clamping must meet challenging requirements.
Automate 2023 in Detroit featured 757+ exhibits with 30,000+ registrants. The success of the 2022 and 2023 events prompted A3 to continue the show as an annual event moving forward. Historically, the show was biennial until the pandemic changed scheduling.
Range anxiety, infrastructure debates, raw material shortages and unanswered questions shake up automotive’s move toward electrification—the journey won’t be easy, but the industry will push technology until it finds a way.
Keep it simple. More often than not it turns out to be the best course of action in life and on factory floors. Take, for example, Gleason LeCount Expanding Mandrels. You’ll find them in quality labs around the world, delivering reliable, repeatable workholding performance for the inspection of gears and other bore-type workpieces. Quality labs today are at the epicenter of the drive to produce increasingly complex, high-precision parts, while at the same time racing to take time and cost out of the inspection process. Counter-intuitively, perhaps, the best workholding solution to meet these ambitious new inspection requirements turns out not to be something new and more complex—but the simplest solution of all: Gleason LeCount Expanding Mandrels.
During our interactions with customers, we find the common challenge faced by customers about getting incorrect component parameters using corrected lead hobs. To address the challenge, we will talk about what corrected lead hobs are, why it is necessary to design such hobs, and how to set up the hob on the machine depending upon the type of hobbing machine (manual, semiautomatic CNC, or CNC).
On the surface, it may not seem like the gear inspection industry has changed much over the last few years. Shops still primarily use either machines that are dedicated solely to measuring gears, or multiuse Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMMs). And regardless of which machine they use, software serves as the backbone that supports their many diverse sensors.
If trade shows are still a major indicator of market growth, the construction and off-highway industries seem to be in a good place in 2023. CONEXPO-CONAGG and IFPE 2023 welcomed more than 139,000 attendees to Las Vegas in March. These visitors were treated to 2,400 exhibitors from 36 countries reaffirming the belief that innovation and sustainability will drive these markets in the coming years.
Continuous generating cylindrical gear grinding is one of the most demanding grinding applications for automotive and aerospace manufacturers. To improve gear efficiency, gear life, and noise levels, gear profile tolerances and surface finish requirements are becoming more stringent. This is especially true for EV gears, which typically require lower noise characteristics than traditional automotive gears. These new quality requirements must be maintained without sacrificing cycle time, and without inducing grinding burn.
In conventional gear manufacturing, quality control is carried out for a number of pieces per batch. Most parts enter final gearbox assembly without any inspection. Among other things, this approach is based on two facts: measuring time is significantly longer than the machining time, and the limited measuring capacity available.
The electrification movement is in full swing despite many obstacles still in play. Regardless of these challenges, machine tool providers are expanding their machine operations and tooling capabilities to meet the e-mobility demands of the future.
When grinding steel parts, the surface of the part can "burn" if too much heat is applied in a short time. Grinding burn refers to all those structural changes in edge zones of steel parts that are caused by grinding processes in steels due to the thermal energy introduced. Grinding burn can mainly occur in the form of tempering zones or new hardening zones.
It’s little wonder there’s more and more interest in the potential of lights-out or unattended production. The benefits seem immediately obvious. Staffing costs fall significantly if you can run equipment unsupervised, or with far fewer operators. Production capacity of the business greatly increases, offering the opportunity to add more customers without the expense of adding new equipment or staff.
Quality control, EV components, energy consumption and material influences are just a handful of topics being discussed in heat treating today. New heat treat methods and global trends will be the topic of conversation later this year at Heat Treat 2023. Here’s a round-up of some stories circulating across key market segments.
Press quenching is a tried-and-true process for the controlled hardening of flat, circular close tolerance parts. The process ensures good dimensional control and uniform hardening, thus allowing for seamless processing post heat treatment.
Wind power has emerged as one of the most important sources of renewable energy in recent years. The global wind power capacity was estimated to be 837 gigawatts in 2021 (statista.com). In the United States alone, wind is the largest source of renewable electricity, providing 10.2 percent of the country’s electricity and still growing (cleanpower.org/facts/wind-power/). However, to ensure maximum power generation, the efficiency and reliability of the wind turbine are critical.
In modern automotive vehicles, gear noise becomes more and more of an issue. The main reason is the reduced masking noise of the engine, which vanishes completely in the case of an electric driveline. Improved gear quality unfortunately does not correlate with a better noise performance in any case. High gear quality makes sure that the gear flanks are inside tight tolerances and that all teeth are nearly identical. Even if the running behavior of such gear sets shows a very low sound pressure level, the noise perception for human ears may be annoying.
Gear Technology’s annual State-of-the-Gear-Industry survey polls gear manufacturers about the latest trends and opinions relating to the overall health of the gear industry. As in years past, the survey was conducted anonymously, with invitations sent by e-mail to gear industry companies—primarily in North America, but also including some respondents from around the world. Nearly 200 individuals responded to the survey.
The trend towards hard fine finishing of gears for automotive transmissions is accelerating. In recent years, the focus has been on increasing the efficiency of gears in order to make optimum use of the narrow gear ratio range, gear by gear, and to reduce fuel consumption. Surface finish, in particular, is under increased scrutiny since it plays such a decisive role in achieving the noise and efficiency requirements of gear units for today’s EV applications.
The story of finding—and keeping—skilled workers in manufacturing has been told for decades. It’s always the “next-generation,” that’s going to swoop-in and create a manufacturing renaissance both here and abroad. Yet, the conversation remains largely unchanged since as far back as the 1980s.
The American Gear Manufacturers Association (AGMA) recently applied for and received reaccreditation from the International Accreditors for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) organization for its educational courses. An IACET accreditation allows gear industry professionals to earn Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for attending AGMA courses. To celebrate, Gear Technology caught up with Stephanie Smialek, Education Manager, AGMA, to discuss the full breadth of AGMA’s professional development programs.
The 2022 Gear Technology Buyer's Guide was compiled to provide you with a handy resource containing the contact information for significant suppliers of machinery, tooling, supplies and services used in gear manufacturing.
In the world of automotive racing, every component is critical, and even the most minute detail can contribute to the difference between winning and losing. No parts supplier is more aware of this than the team at ZPE Inc. of Temecula, Calif., manufacturers of the GripTec pulleys that drive the serpentine belts powering superchargers and compressors in competition cars.
Powder producers continue to respond to the needs of the industry by developing new and improved materials and additives for conventional press and sinter, MIM, and metal AM. Over the past two years, dry lubricants have been in limited supply and high demand, forcing companies to seek alternatives. The demand to improve “value‐added” machining has resulted in new high green strength materials that are suitable for green machining.
Furnaces North America 2022 (FNA 2022), presented by the Metal Treating Institute (MTI), in partnership with its media partner, Heat Treat Today, is the heat-treating industry’s go-to event every other year. FNA 2022 attracted attendees from across North America, including Fortune 500 companies. For three days attendees took part in networking, connections, and learning about the vast changes taking place in emerging technologies, industry trends, and advances in equipment.
When it comes to noise, vibration and harshness (NVH), I’m reminded of that dog-van scene from Dumb and Dumber where Jim Carrey says, “Want to hear the most annoying sound in the world?” and then proceeds to emit an astonishingly awful noise. Annoying as NVH may be, it’s a key metric in drive-system development for e-mobility, and the careful design and manufacture of gears are crucial to minimizing NVH as tolerance variations can result in large differences between nominally identical components.
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