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Machine Tools

FEATURE ARTICLES | 2025-02-27

The State of Gear Machine Tools 2025

As the gear industry steps into 2025, manufacturers are navigating a landscape shaped by geopolitical uncertainties, evolving workforce dynamics, and rapid technological advancements. Alongside Gear Technology’s annual State of the Gear Industry survey, we like to gather insights from leading machine tool manufacturers on the challenges, opportunities, and trends defining the year ahead.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2025-02-27

Star Cutter Offers Advanced FLX Machine with NUM CNC Control System

Star Cutter Company launched the FLX machine in 2024, powered by NUM’s advanced FlexiumPro CNC control system with NUMROTO software to easily program all kinds of different tools. This significant advancement underscores Star Cutter’s commitment to delivering cutting-edge solutions for high-volume tool manufacturers, providing an enhanced platform for automated, high-precision manufacturing.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2025-02-27

B&R Automation Introduces New Safety Functions

B&R – a division of ABB – introduces Safety+, an innovative open approach to programming safety functions. Developers can now also use the latest software engineering tools and methods for safety applications. An innovative data structure with a digital fingerprint makes the source code freely accessible while also meeting the special requirements of functional safety. In this way, B&R has overcome an obstacle that was previously a barrier to innovation in safety programming. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2025-02-27

Mazak Opens New Customer Solutions Center

As manufacturers continue to face shortages of skilled labor, Mazak helps them address the issue with the opening of its new Customer Solutions Center located in Florence, KY. The secure facility specializes in the development of production-ready, custom automation solutions that allow manufacturers to overcome existing labor issues while increasing production output.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2025-02-27

Helios Gear Products Announces Registration for 2025 Helios Gear Schools

Helios Gear Products is excited to announce that registration is now open for the 2025 Helios Gear Schools. These intensive courses are designed to provide both entry-level and experienced industry professionals with a comprehensive understanding of gear manufacturing.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2025-02-27

EMAG Adds Business Development Manager

Jeff Holtzapple joins EMAG L.L.C. as Business Development Manager, bringing over 30 years of experience in the manufacturing and machine tool industries. Having successfully performed various roles in management, sales and technical support in both machine tool distribution and at the OEM level, he brings a wealth of knowledge to the EMAG Group.

 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2025-02-26

Reshoring In Action with C&B Machinery

C&B Machinery supported the reshoring of a 30” double-disc grinding machine for a major U.S. automotive manufacturer’s transmission plant. Originally installed in an overseas facility, this machine is now being brought back to the U.S., where it will be retooled, reautomated, and upgraded to enhance performance and efficiency for a Michigan-based production program.

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INDUSTRY NEWS | 2025-02-26

Index Corporation Announces Reorganization and Team Additions

Index Corporation has announced that Michael Huggett will succeed Cris Taylor as the company’s President & CEO. Mr. Huggett will assume leadership of the company during a transition period in April 2025, concluding with Mr. Taylor’s retirement at the end of that month. Index has also announced a restructuring of its sales team that includes the addition of three new members and reorganization of its territories. Bryan Young has joined the company as National Sales Manager, while John Kemezis and Jason Shorette have joined as Regional Sales Representatives.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2025-02-24

See the Big Picture for Small Gears

New Phoenix® 100C Bevel Gear Cutting Machine for dry and wet cutting of straight and spiral bevel gears up to 100 mm (3.94”) OD combines maximum productivity and quality with ease of operation and minimum floorspace – with or without integrated automation. Complemented by the intuitive GEMS® HMI, precision workholding, and different cutter systems, it lets you focus on the big picture.

FEATURE ARTICLES | 2024-12-12

Keeping Up with the Latest Technology

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.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2024-12-12

Nidec Launches Latest ZFA Gear Grinders

The two ZFA series gear grinders are designed to perform high-speed and high-precision finish machining on gears. The two models are each designed for a different gear size range, with ZFA160 capable of handling gears with an external diameter of up to 160 mm, and ZFA260 accommodating gears with an external diameter of up to 260 mm. Capable of meeting the increasingly sophisticated users’ needs, both ZFA160 and ZFA260 can mass-produce gears with a gear accuracy level equivalent to ISO 3 (JIS level N3).

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-12-04

MTB Names New Director of Sales and Marketing

Machine Tool Builders has added highly experienced sales professional and machine tool industry veteran Ross Wegryn-Jones to its national sales organization. 

EVENT | 2024-11-12

Industrial IoT Conference 2025

The Industrial IoT Conference (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) explores the potential of intelligent machines, prescriptive analytics, sensor driven analytics, and block chain solutions. Attendees learn about the industrial IoT technologies that are driving the transformation in manufacturing, supply chain and operations. Attendees include implementors, manufacturing companies, supply chain professionals, service providers, IoT manufacturers and more. Topics include implementation, warehouse logistics, robotics, sensors, cybersecurity, data analytics and more.

VIDEO | 2024-11-07

Gleason Modernization Programs / P300 Recontrol

Complete Machine Remanufacture on a Gleason P300 - Complete remanufacture addresses all machine functions. The machine is returned to Gleason, where it is completely disassembled and rebuilt. A machine remanufacture is similar to buying a new machine but without the need to purchase new peripherals or to rethink existing process chains.

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PRODUCT NEWS | 2024-10-22

Walter Introduces Automated Tool Production System

With the new Automated Tool Production (ATP) system, Walter now offers a comprehensive automation solution for cutting tools. ATP networks grinding, eroding and measuring machines from Walter, as well as upstream and downstream machines from other system partners in the production process.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2024-10-22

Unisig Operating System Streamlines the Human-Robot Interface

Unisig’s next-generation operating system further improves the human-robot interface and slashes programming times. The new operating system, featured on Unisig’s UNE6-2i-750-CR small-diameter gundrilling machine, streamlines the setup of dozens of different part handling combinations to reduce new part setup times by 80% or more. The system significantly improves the communication between the machine’s human machine interface (HMI) and the robotic controller. This enables centralized data storage or a single source of truth -– the coding and data for the gundrilling operation and the program for the part handling are stored together for ease of recall.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2024-10-22

ANCA Highlights Gear Tool Technology at AMB 2024

At AMB 2024 in Stuttgart, ANCA recently presented a range of innovations and partner solutions. From blank to a finished high-quality tool, all on one machine – ANCA’s ultimate single setup solution for complete machining of cutting tools, including blank preparation, was shown on the MX7 Ultra. This technology ensures a seamless process that optimizes efficiency and productivity, allowing you to manufacture a wide range of tools below 0.2 Ra with reduced cycle time.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-10-22

Klingelnberg Welcomes 22 Young Apprentices

Starting a career is something special for every young person. In August 2024, Klingelnberg once again welcomed 22 young apprentices who started their training in various professions. During the orientation week in early August 2024, the trainees had the opportunity to demonstrate their teamwork skills in the climbing park in Hückeswagen, Germany, attend a first aid course, and learn about the company’s values.

VIDEO | 2024-09-18

Helios Improves Gear Hobbing at Buffalo Gear

The Helios team installed a Hera 350 CNC Gear Hobbing Machine at Buffalo Gear in Buffalo, NY. See how Buffalo Gear's capabilities have expanded with the upgrade.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-08-16

Mollart Machinery Production and Support Moving to USA by Bourn & Koch, LLC

In 2023, Bourn & Koch and Mollart Machinery were both welcomed into the InCompass™ portfolio through two acquisitions completed just days apart. To leverage the strengths of both organizations, Mollart Machinery's production operations and field service support, previously based in Chessington, United Kingdom, will be based out of Bourn & Koch's facility in Rockford, IL, USA. Ongoing support from Mollart's headquarters in Chessington will ensure a seamless transition.

FEATURE ARTICLES | 2024-08-15

Step Right Up! It’s Time to Preview IMTS 2024

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.

FEATURE ARTICLES | 2024-08-15

Combi Honing of Gears

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.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-08-01

Now on Site in Mexico: Liebherr Sales and Service

Liebherr Gear Technology has opened a new location in Querétaro, Mexico. This expansion will allow Liebherr to further improve the service and be closer to our customers in this region.

VIDEO | 2024-07-19

EMAG VSC 400 PS

The EMAG VSC 400 PS offers the integration of power skiving and turning technologies in one machine, a solution that significantly increases both the flexibility and efficiency of production. By using up to four gear skiving tools and six turning tools, you can produce even complex gears in a single clamping operation, which increases productivity enormously.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-06-24

Siemens Loses Longtime CNC Asset Randy Pearson

The Siemens Machine Tool Business sadly announces the death of Randy Pearson, 70, on May 21, 2024, in Reno, Nevada, following a long battle with lung cancer.  Randy had recently retired after more than 20 years with Siemens, where he served as dealer support manager and much more.  

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-06-07

The ANCA Group Celebrates 50th Anniversary at U.S. Headquarters

On May 7-8, 2024 in Wixom, Michigan (Detroit), the team of the North American operation for Australian-based ANCA Group, a global leader in grinding machines and automated manufacturing technologies, celebrated the company’s 50th anniversary with company founder Pat Boland. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-06-04

Mazak Celebrates 50 Years of Kentucky Manufacturing Excellence

This year marks the 50th Anniversary of Mazak North American manufacturing operations in Florence, Kentucky. Through its industry leadership in manufacturing innovation and technology, engineering and customer support, the company has securely positioned itself as a champion of the North American manufacturing industry. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-06-04

Big Daishowa Announces Personnel Appointments

Big Daishowa announces personnel changes to support the company’s strategic initiatives. "Our company is at a pivotal point in its growth trajectory and bringing on talented professionals like Edgar, Glen and Tom is crucial to our continued success," said Mike Herman, Vice President Sales, BIG DAISHOWA. "Each of these individuals brings experience, innovative thinking, and a commitment to excellence that aligns perfectly with our vision for the future. We are excited to see the positive impact they will have with our customers."

VIDEO | 2024-06-03

DMG Mori: 3-Axis vs. 5-Axis Machining

DMG Mori highlights the advantages of 5-axis in order to increase efficiency and precision. This includes avoiding chip nests, reducing clamping positions as well as throughput times by changing from 3-axis to 5-axis machining.  

VIDEO | 2024-06-03

Aerospace Grinding Summit Recap

United Grinding recaps a successful Aerospace Summit 2024 where the industry showcased the latest aerospace technologies and innovations.  Demos included grinding of nonferrous advanced aerospace material with dressable super abrasives on the MÄGERLE MFP 30, improving grinding performance through optimized dressing techniques, single-step finishing of multifeature and mixed-material shaft components containing hard coatings on the Studer S41 and much more! 

EVENT | 2024-06-03

Aachen Conference on Gear Production

Although gears have been indispensable components in various areas such as mechanical engineering, the automotive industry and industrial gear production for many decades, increasing requirements and current market developments are constantly presenting the drive technology sectors with new challenges. The aim of the Aachen Conference on Gear Production is an exchange of knowledge and experience between engineers who work in or are responsible for the design, development, production, assembly and application of gears.

EVENT | 2024-05-28

Okuma and Emuge-Franken Multitasking Event

Emuge-Franken USA is teaming up with Okuma America Corporation to present and demonstrate Multitasking Machining Innovations for complex turbine components on June 13th, 2024, from 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. at Okuma America Corporation located at 11900 Westhall Drive in Charlotte, North Carolina. This complimentary Multitasking Event is designed for manufacturing engineers.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-05-21

Klingelnberg's Japan Subsidiary Celebrates 70 Years

The founding of the Japanese operation in May 1954 laid the groundwork for offering customers and partners consultations and services in-country and in the local language. Since then, not only has the market continually evolved, so too has the company.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-05-20

GF Machining Solutions Celebrates 70 Years of Pioneering EDM Technology

Seventy years ago, the invention of Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) revolutionized worldwide manufacturing. AGIE and Charmilles pioneered this technology and remain world market leaders today under the umbrella of GF Machining Solutions, a company that is constantly pushing the boundaries of what is possible.

FEATURE ARTICLES | 2024-05-10

Anatomy of a Rebuild

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.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2024-05-10

EMAG Offers Flexible External Grinding with WPG 7 CNC

In many areas of application, it is uneconomical to use oversized universal cylindrical grinding machines for the external machining of smaller components - a lot of floor space is lost and the functionality is not fully utilized. With the new WPG 7 CNC external grinding machine, EMAG Weiss demonstrates another way of grinding workpieces with a maximum length of 250 millimeters. The very small machine requires only a minimal footprint, but at the same time features a whole range of high-tech components for flexibility and productivity. What is important in detail? 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-04-29

Reunion at the Klingelnberg Hückeswagen Plant

Alongside the annual service anniversary celebration, the reunion of retired employees is another traditional event at Klingelnberg. Every three years, the Klingelnberg works council and Management Board invite all retired colleagues back for a reunion celebration. On 18 April 2024, Group Executive Board Members Christoph Küster (CFO), Philipp Kannengießer (COO), and Prasad Kizhakel (CSO) joined deputy chairman of the works council Ibrahim Er and Head of Human Resources Michael Schwarzer in welcoming the retired employees to this year’s get-together at the Hückeswagen, Gemany plant.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-04-29

Ensure Rapid External Grinding Processes in the Smallest of Spaces

In many areas of application, it is uneconomical to use oversized universal cylindrical grinding machines for the external machining of smaller components--a lot of floor space is lost and the functionality is not fully utilized. With the new WPG 7 CNC external grinding machine, EMAG Weiss demonstrates another way of grinding workpieces with a maximum length of 250 millimeters. The very small machine requires only a minimal footprint, but at the same time features a whole range of high-tech components for flexibility and productivity.

VIDEO | 2024-04-16

Klingelnberg Highlights Höfler Cylindrical Gear Roll Testing Machine R 300

The Höfler Cylindrical Gear Roll Testing Machine R 300 is the latest machine development from Klingelnberg in the area of cylindrical gear technology. Designed for all roll testing methods, this compact machine is the ideal solution for anyone who wants to combine inspection cycles and reduce disassembly costs while benefiting from a user-friendly design.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2024-04-09

Mitsubishi Electric Automation Provides Machine Tending Solution for TL Aerotek

TL Aerotek, a small job milling shop customer, experienced a large influx of orders. To keep up with demand, they sought a solution that would alleviate labor uncertainty and help to grow the business. TL Aerotek turned to their long-time supplier of milling machines for support, Expand Machinery. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-03-18

Mazak Joins the Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute as Collaborative Partner

Continuing its leadership role in secure digital connectivity and Industry 4.0 manufacturing, Mazak has joined major cybersecurity research universities and enterprises throughout the country as a collaborative partner with the Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CyManII). 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-03-18

Helios Opens Registration for Flagship 2024 Chicago Gear School

Helios Gear Products has opened registration for their flagship gear school in Chicago, IL, May 14–16. This intensive three-day program covers the basics of gear manufacturing from cutting to finishing, through final inspection, and is designed for entry-level gear manufacturing personnel including manufacturing management, industrial engineers, supervisors, set-up technicians, operators, and quality control. With a limited class size of 35, the course provides the optimum learning environment for attendees new to the industry and those with experience in need of a refresher.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-03-18

Romi's GL 250 Horizontal Turning Center Now Available Through Rental Program

The New Generation Romi GL 250 horizontal turning center is now available through the ROMI MAAS machine tool rental program. Rental options range from 24 to 48 months with up to 300 hours of monthly run time. The new program allows customers to take full advantage of Romi's machine tool technology without the capital outlay necessary with a purchase. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-03-06

PTG Holroyd’s Helical Rotor and Thread Grinding Machines

UK-based PTG Holroyd has announced that, in the future, all models in its TG Series of ultra-precise helical rotor and thread grinding machines will be equipped with the Siemens digitally native Sinumerik One CNC as standard.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-02-23

Murata Machinery USA Celebrates 50 Years of Automation in North America

Murata Machinery USA (Muratec), a manufacturer of industrial automation, celebrates its 50th anniversary across North America. Various activities are planned throughout 2024 to commemorate Muratec's golden year. Operating as a subsidiary of Kyoto, Japan-based Murata Machinery Ltd., Murata Machinery USA provides sales, service, and support for the Muratec brand. Muratec has a rich history in North America of offering automation solutions. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-02-23

Next Level Control for PTG Holroyd’s Helical Rotor And Thread Grinding Machines

UK-based PTG Holroyd has announced that going forward, all models in its TG Series of ultra-precise helical rotor and thread grinding machines will be equipped with the Siemens digitally native Sinumerik One CNC as standard. 

ADDENDUM | 2024-02-16

The Tin Woodman and Mother Machines

Gear Technology regularly covers machine tools, often referred to as “mother machines” due to their role in producing other machines, which serve as the cornerstone of industrial civilization by cutting or shaping metal. Think of all the gears in the machine tools that not only cut and polish gears but are indispensable for manufacturing a wide range of goods, with nearly every product being created either directly using machine tools or through machines manufactured using these tools.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2024-02-15

NUM and Lanzi Collaborate on Retrofitting a Gear Hobbing Machine

There are many key performance gains when retrofitting a gear-cutting machine originating from the 1960s and 1970s. First, it can be noted that the new retrofitted CNC machine performs the same machining operations as the conventional mechanical machine, but - quite clearly - with an exponentially higher output. This is thanks to a reduction in set-up and production time and with a significantly higher quality of the finished gear. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-02-12

DN Solutions America Appoints Daniel Medrea as CEO

DN Solutions is pleased to announce the appointment of Daniel Medrea to CEO of DN Solutions America (DNSA) as of October 18, 2023. Medrea brings with him twenty-seven years of experience in both technical and leadership roles in the machine tool industry in North America. 

PRODUCT NEWS | 2024-02-12

Nidec Machine Tool Develops Polish (Grinding) Method to Process Internal Gears for Mass-Production

Nidec Machine Tool Corporation (“Nidec Machine Tool” or the “Company”), a group company of Nidec Corporation, today announced that it has developed the a high-accuracy polishing (grinding) method to machine internal gears for mass production that are used for automobiles’ drive units and transmissions and robots’ joints. While there are already high-accuracy polish-machining methods for external gears for mass production, no such methods have been available for internal gears. After conducting research focused on this point, the Company has achieved positive results in securing the level of accuracy and production that conventional grinding, honing, or skiving methods could not.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2024-02-12

Kapp Niles E-Mobility Solutions

For over 10 years, the mechanical engineering company Kapp Niles has been working intensively on the topic of gears in e-mobility and has established itself as a pioneer in this rapidly growing industry. With a focus on innovation and quality, Kapp Niles offers customized solutions for the production of gearboxes and gears in electric vehicles.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-02-07

Klingelnberg Celebrates 29 Employees for 50, 40, and 25 Years of Company Loyalty

In keeping with tradition, machine manufacturer Klingelnberg has in 2023 once again honored its long-standing employees with an anniversary celebration. This year’s honorees included four colleagues celebrating 40 years with the company and 22 employees looking back on 25 years of service. Three employees are even marking a full 50 years of service. The corresponding celebrations are planned for early summer 2024.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-02-06

WFL Millturn Technologies Hosts Technology Days

The WFL headquarters in Linz opens its doors, from March 5th to 7th, 2024, and will be hosting national and international guests of different industries related to complete machining. In three days, you can find out more about the industry’s current trends and developments in an exhibition area of more than 4,000 m². And you get your first-hand WFL experience getting to know its offerings.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2024-01-26

Doubling Down on Hera Hobbing with Dayton Gear

Dayton Gear partnered with Helios Gear Products to install a new Hera 200 CNC gear hobber, followed shortly after by a Hera 500 CNC gear hobber. Helios had a chance to check in with Adam Baird and Brian Baird, 3rd generation at Dayton Gear, to see how their production has changed since the installation, and how they're planning and looking forward to the future.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-01-23

GROB Systems Breaks Ground on Significantly Expanded US Manufacturing Facility

GROB Systems, Inc., a global leader in the development of manufacturing systems and machine tools, announced it broke ground in December 2023 on a 135,000 sq. ft. expansion project that will add approximately 35% more space for production and shipping to the existing 400,000 sq. ft., and add 200 new jobs to its US headquarters and manufacturing facility in Bluffton, OH. 

VIDEO | 2024-01-23

GMTA Profilator S300

GMTA machines in the S Series are better than broaching and most applications feature a dry machining process. All machine components are designed for especially high static stiffness and optimal dynamic behavior. The following video examines the Profilator S300 with tool changer: 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2024-01-12

DN Solutions Attains ISO 50001 International Standard for Energy Management

DN Solutions, a leading provider of CNC machine tools and integrated smart manufacturing solutions, recently achieved ISO 50001 international energy management system certification. Before this accomplishment, DN Solutions had already attained various international standard certifications, including ISO 9001 (Quality Management System), ISO 14001 (Environmental Management System) and ISO 45001 (Health and Safety Management System).

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-12-20

MTB Names New Director of Sales and Marketing

Machine Tool Builders Inc. has today announced the addition of Anthony (Tony) Johnson to the company’s sales and marketing team, to help represent and support the company’s expanding lines of new gear machines and its machine tool rebuild and recontrol services. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-12-20

Helios Expands into Europe with Expert UK-Based Team

Helios Gear Products has combined strengths with the expert team, Euro CNC R&D, to form Helios Europe. The proven engineering expertise of both teams enables Helios to expand gear manufacturing and machine rebuild support, to empower even more manufacturers across the globe.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-12-07

Speedgrip Chuck Company Invests $200,000 Grant in Advanced Technologies for Manufacturers

Indiana-based Speedgrip Chuck Company has been awarded a $200,000 Manufacturing Readiness Grant by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) to boost the company’s investment in advanced manufacturing technology and products.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-12-07

Lena Risse, Precision Toolmaker at Risse Tool Technology is the first ever winner in ANCA’s Inaugural Female Machinist Award

Johanna Boland, Strategy and Communications Manager at ANCA, expressed her pride in introducing the first-ever Female Machinist of the Year award for ANCA. “Since joining this industry I have met and worked with some truly intelligent, driven female leaders. However, let’s face it, female machinists are not that common and encouraging diversity can only make our sector stronger and more successful.”

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-12-07

Michael Koch Promoted to MC Machinery Systems Senior Laser Applications Manager

Michael Koch has been promoted to senior laser applications manager at MC Machinery Systems in Elk Grove Village, IL. Koch joined MC Machinery in 2011 as a waterjet installer. Since then, he has held positions in the installation, service and sales departments, primarily helping customers with specific applications, manufacturing issues and process improvements.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2023-12-07

Gear Hobbing Machine HLC 150 H from EMAG Koepfer

Machining the teeth of a rotor shaft for electric cars has demanding machining requirements. Very few other applications place such high demands as transmission components. The very quiet motor requires the highest surface finishes so that disturbing running noises do not occur. In addition, the number of units in e-mobility is greatly increasing, which is an additional challenge for the mechanical engineering involved. What is needed, therefore, are process-reliable solutions for cost-effective rotor shaft production. EMAG Koepfer HLC 150 H gear hobbing machine demonstrates how this can work, ensuring new productivity in this gear sector.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2023-12-07

GF Machining Solutions Expands Customer Digital Assistance with New My rConnect Platform

To ensure all customers and their machines benefit from digital assistance, GF Machining Solutions (GFMS) has launched their new My rConnect platform engineered for the company’s EDM, milling, and laser texturing machines. The all-encompassing platform allows shops to connect any model of GFMS machine for fast, responsive, and easily accessible service and support while also providing expanded digital capabilities.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-12-07

Helios Gear Products Founding President Dennis Gimpert Passes the Baton

Dennis Gimpert, founding President of Koefper America (now Helios Gear Products), officially announces retirement at Motion + Power Technology Expo 2023 and looks forward to a strong future for Helios with expert leadership in place.

VIDEO | 2023-11-20

FANUC Collaborative Mobile Machine Tending

FANUC demonstrates mobile machine tending. This mobile manipulator solution is produced by Capriol and features a FANUC CRX-20iA/L collaborative robot integrated with an OTTO 100 Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR). The mobile manipulator demonstrated autonomous, on-demand tending of a ROBODRILL vertical machining center, feeding blanks into the machine via a magazine and removing machined parts via a basket. The machined parts are then washed and dried in a separate washer station and new blanks are kitted into a magazine, ready for the next cycle.

EVENT | 2023-11-16

DMG Mori Open House Pfronten 2024

Visit DMG Mori's "Home of Innovation" showroom and find out how to optimize your processes with MX - Machining Transformation (Pfronten, Germany). Experience solutions for process integration, automation as well as digital and green transformation. The open house includes 45+ high-tech machines and more than 20 automation solutions, including a world premiere and innovations from various sectors: the DMF 400|11, a new traveling column machine with 4,000 mm travel, and the new PH Cell 500, a modular pallet handling system with a transfer weight of 500 kg. Attendees can also view CELOS X, the holistic digital and data-based ecosystem for optimizing production processes.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-11-10

Shane Herendeen Promoted to MC Machinery Systems Fabrication Division Vice President of Sales

Shane Herendeen has been promoted to fabrication division vice president of sales at MC Machinery Systems in Elk Grove Village, IL.
Herendeen began his 20-year career in the manufacturing industry as a sales engineer with a Midwest Mitsubishi Laser distributor, followed by running his own manufacturing consulting company for several years. He joined MC Machinery Systems in 2010 as national sales manager for fabrication and was promoted to North American sales manager in 2015.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-11-10

United Grinding Opens Subsidiary in Southeast Asia

United GrindingAsia Pacific (UGAP) Pte. Ltd. is the new group subsidiary of United Grinding Group (UGG). UGG has had a presence in Southeast Asia for many years thanks to representatives and the Walter Ewag Asia Pacific subsidiary. This new group strengthens the United Grinding's presence in the region with grinding, eroding, laser, and measuring machines.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-10-12

PTG Holroyd Wins Siemens' Global Award for Digital Transformation at EMO Hannover

EMO Hannover 2023 didn’t simply provide PTG Holroyd with a platform to showcase its industry-leading helical rotor and gear milling and grinding machines to a global audience. The UK-based machine tool manufacturer was presented with Siemens’ Digital Transformer award during the event.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-10-12

Heidenhain and Acu-Rite to Exhibit at Southtec

Heidenhain Corporation announces its participation at the Southtec trade show, scheduled from October 24–26, 2023, at the Greenville Convention Center in Greenville, SC.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-10-11

Gear Technology, Gear Cutting Tools and Automation Systems Highlights from Liebherr

Are you looking for a solution to ensure quality and increase productivity in gear manufacturing? There is a clear trend towards saving resources and sustainable manufacturing. Here Liebherr highlights their gear technology, gear-cutting tools, measuring technology, and automation systems.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-10-10

Federal Broach Introduces Vertical Rising Table (VRT) Machine

Federal Broach, a division of Nidec Machine Tool Corporation of Japan, will exhibit their Vertical Rising Table Broach Machine (VRT) for the first time at the Motion + Power Expo, October 17-19, 2023. The machine is capable of fully automatic broaching of internal spur splines. In addition, the companion Federal Broach tools will be available for show attendees to review.

VIDEO | 2023-09-25

Inside the DMG Mori Portal Series

Automobile manufacturers can develop ever more sophisticated car body molds because they can rely on 5-axis portal machines as the backbone of automotive tool and die making. The aerospace industry achieves unprecedented part quality thanks to full technology integration of milling, turning and grinding, ensuring maximum passenger safety. Thanks to 5-axis technology in large format, portal machines ensure that hydroelectric power can be converted into energy. Mechanical engineering also benefits worldwide from portal machines from Pfronten, which repeatedly demonstrate their performance in demanding machining operations such as gear production. DMG Mori has more than 1,400 Portal machines installed worldwide.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-09-19

ANCA's FX7 Ultra for Small Tools

New software, hardware, and design features significantly improve surface finish, accuracy, and controlled runout, ensuring batch consistency from the first ground tool to the last. The FX7 Ultra is a refined solution for precision grinding in industries that rely on small tools, including electronics, telecommunications, medical devices, aerospace, automotive, die mold, and general machining. 

PRODUCT NEWS | 2023-09-15

GMTA Offers Profilator 300-V with Linear Drives to North American Market

German Machine Tools of America (GMTA) is now selling Profilator 300-V with linear drives in the North American market.
This modular machine platform used to cut gears, is equipped with one or two workpiece spindles in a compact design. It offers maximum flexibility due to modular design and is individually configurable for various machining processes (i.e. Scudding, hobbing, cycloidal milling, pointing, chamfering and deburring). State-of-the-art linear drives in the x and y axis, as well as a torque drive in the a axis offers high machine dynamics for short cycle times and maximum accuracy/low costs. High machine rigidity is available for Hard Scudding of inner and outer diameters. 

EVENT | 2023-09-15

Southtec 2023

Southtec 2023 draws manufacturing suppliers, distributors and equipment builders from across North America and around the world – bringing them together in Greenville, South Carolina. With hundreds of exhibiting companies, attendees can find all the latest technologies and services – plus the experts who build them – ready to demonstrate solutions that can help them grow their business. Visitors can make side-by-side comparisons, discover integrated equipment, hear about industry trends and forecasts, and leverage their purchasing power. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-09-08

Grand Opening: FFG's North America Tech Center

October 17th & 18th—SAVE THE DATES for the GRAND OPENING of FFG's North America Tech Center in Sterling Heights, Michigan with eighteen (18) machines being showcased from MAG, SMS, FEELER, LEADWELL and FFG DMC.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-08-29

United Grinding To Highlight Latest Offerings At EMO Hannover 2023

At EMO 2023 in Hannover, Germany, the United Grinding booth in hall 11, booth E34 will showcase 16 machines, innovative technology, and updates from the Customer Care team. The United Grinding Group, one of the world's leading manufacturers of grinding, eroding, laser and measuring machines, is considered one of the pioneers in the development of innovative technologies in the manufacturing industry. Fittingly, ”Innovate Manufacturing” is the motto of this year’s EMO in Hannover. 

FEATURE ARTICLES | 2023-08-28

ARGUS “Swarm-Based” Gear Grinding Expertise

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.

FEATURE ARTICLES | 2023-08-28

Hot Technologies to Help Cool the Planet

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.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2023-08-22

Grob Systems to Highlight 5-Axis Machining Center at Southtec

Grob Systems, Inc., a global leader in the development of manufacturing systems and machine tools, has announced it will be highlighting power skiving applications on its G550T Mill/ Turn Universal Machining Center at Southtec Booth #829 located at the Greenville Convention Center in Greenville, SC, from October 24–26, 2023. The  G550T is part of the Grob 5-Axis Turning Centers Line, capable of machining a part by milling and turning in a single setup, saving time, costs and floor space. 

PRODUCT NEWS | 2023-08-21

Complete Machining of Crankshafts in Small Series

As the energy sector continues to advance, efficient and high-precision methods of producing components are a crucial aspect. One area that requires special attention is the machining of crankshafts. WFL Millturn Technologies is responding to this need by offering ground-breaking solutions for the complete machining of crankshafts in small series.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-08-21

Mazak to Highlight Advanced Machine Tools and Automation at CMTS 2023

Canadian manufacturers who want to boost their machining productivity and profitability will experience high-efficiency precision from Mazak solutions at the Canadian Manufacturing Technology Show (CMTS) from September 25–28 in Booth #1217. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-08-04

Edmund Boland Appointed as General Manager of ANCA CNC Machines

ANCA is proud to announce the appointment of Edmund Boland as the new General Manager of ANCA CNC Machines. Edmund is the son of ANCA co-founder Pat Boland and brings an impressive 15-year tenure at ANCA. Pat Boland, ANCA co-founder said, “When Pat McCluskey and I founded ANCA, our primary goal was to design the best technology that solves real customer problems. I am proud that my son has joined this mission and has accepted this important leadership role in the business to continue fostering a culture of innovation.” 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-08-02

Nidec Completes Acquisition of Three Companies

Nidec Corporation today announced that it has acquired full ownership of Automatic Feed Company, Lasercoil Technologies LLC, and Automatic Leasing Company, privately owned US companies, from its founding family on August 1, 2023. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-08-02

InCompass Enhances Industrial Machinery Portfolio with Acquisition of Bourn & Koch, Inc.

InCompass, a platform company of TJM Capital Partners, is pleased to announce the successful acquisition of Bourn & Koch, Inc. As a leading manufacturer of precision automated machine tools, Bourn & Koch, Inc. aligns perfectly with the InCompass commitment to delivering superior industrial solutions. TJM Chairman Tom McDonough commented, "We are excited to welcome Bourn & Koch into the InCompass family. Their machinery solutions and expertise will significantly enhance our ability to meet the evolving needs of our customers." This strategic acquisition supports the InCompass vision for growth and diversification.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-08-01

MTB Announces Organizational Changes

Machine Tool Builders Inc. has today announced that, effective immediately, its president and co-founder Ken Flowers has assumed the sole ownership of the company, and that former business partner Ron Peiffer will be moving on to new opportunities. 

FEATURE ARTICLES | 2023-07-27

Efficient Turnkey Machining of Complex E-drive Components

For the transmissions of electric vehicles to develop the desired high torque under all driving conditions, a very large gear ratio is needed, which requires high speeds. And to ensure sufficient momentum at all speeds and enable the driver to accelerate without shifting gears, the electric drive must achieve up to 15,000 rpm, which is about three times that of a typical combustion engine. This puts a lot of strain on the rotor shaft. The manufacturers of rotor shafts are thus facing new challenges, such as the significantly lower shape and position tolerances and the need for greater machining precision.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-07-25

New C&B Clamp Bore Grinding Machine Offers Simplified Design

C&B Machinery (C&B) announced the completion of their newly redesigned Clamp Bore Face Grinding Machines. After months of planning, redesigning, and building the machines, C&B is excited to announce the latest CBVR-2F-2S model Clamp Bore Grinders.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-07-17

Dr. Markus Nolte Takes the Helm as EMCO's New CEO

As of 1 July 2023, Dr. Markus Nolte began as CEO at EMCO GmbH. A total of 800 employees, 5 production sites and a global sales and services network stand for high-quality machine tools “Made in the Heart of Europe”, for innovations and for customer proximity.

VIDEO | 2023-07-17

EMAG VSC 400 PS Skiving

Power skiving has been turned into a highly efficient process for the production of internal and external gear teeth by the VSC 400 PS machine. The VSC 400 PS can accommodate up to four different power skiving tools on two spindles, plus up to six turning tools. 

VIDEO | 2023-07-17

Graetz Mfg Increases Productivity with Mazak Machine Tools

The Pound, Wisconsin, Graetz Mfg. began as a family-run sawmill and blacksmith shop that made equipment and repair parts for the local farming community. To support both equipment and part manufacturing, Graetz Mfg. gradually expanded its machine shop capabilities to make gears, sprockets and shafts, and today the shop produces components and entire machines used in agricultural, marine, logging and packaging applications.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-07-06

ANCA is Granted U.S. Patent for New Motor Temperature Control Technique

Melbourne Australia based machine tool builder ANCA has been granted a U.S. patent for Motor Temperature Control (MTC), a technique that dramatically improves the stability of precision machine tools.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-07-06

ANCA Launches Inaugural Female Machinist Award

ANCA, a leading global manufacturer of CNC grinding machines, proudly announces the launch of its first Female Machinist Award. This prestigious accolade aims to recognize and honor the outstanding achievements of female machinists in the tool and cutter grinding industry. By promoting gender diversity and equality, ANCA is dedicated to fostering an industry that excels in every aspect. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-07-06

Three Efficiency Improvements with Digital Assistance Systems in United Grinding Machines

At home, digital assistance and communication systems have become indispensable. In professional environments, supporting systems are increasingly gaining equal status. As a machine tool manufacturer, the United Grinding Group offers Digital Solutions (a suite of digital products) that not only make work easier for customers, but also save time and money.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-06-30

Nidec Machine Tool to Launch New Cutting Tool Factory in India

Nidec Machine Tool Corporation (“Nidec Machine Tool” or the “Company”), a group company of Nidec Corporation, today announced that it will construct a new factory for Nidec India Precision Tools Ltd. (“NMTI”), the Company’s cutting tool manufacturer and seller in Ranipet of India’s Tamil Nadu State, to start production on Saturday, July 1. With its production capacity 1.5 times the Company’s current manufacturing capability, the new factory will produce hob, pinion, and other cutting tools. After its launch, the factory will be able to quickly supply the Company’s customers in India with its products and meet their needs in response to the growing demand for autos, construction, and farming machinery.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-06-29

Platinum Tooling Names New Regional Sales Manager

Platinum Tooling, the exclusive importer of Heimatec live tools and angle heads plus other global brands of precision machine tool accessories, is pleased to announce the appointment of Frank Twomey as the company’s Regional Sales Manager. In his new role, he will oversee all activities in eighteen states located in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Southeast Regions of the United States. Company President, Preben Hansen, made the announcement at the company’s headquarters in Prospect Heights, Illinois. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-06-21

Nidec Machine Tool America to Exhibit New Machine at Motion + Power Expo in Detroit

Nidec Machine Tool America (NMTA), a division of Nidec Machine Tool Corporation of Japan, will exhibit the newly developed CF26A gear chamfering machine at the Motion + Power Expo, October 17–19, 2023. The machine is capable of fully automatic full tooth-defined chamfering of gears up to 260mm in diameter. In addition, the companion ChamferX tools will be available for show attendees to review.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-06-21

In-Place Machining Company (IPM) Streamlines Operations with Newly Expanded Blue Ash, Ohio Facility

In-Place Machining Company (IPM) is pleased to announce the addition of Exact Metrology at the company’s newly expanded IPM Ohio industrial facility, located at 6665 Creek Road in Blue Ash, Ohio. Centralizing the Ohio divisions of IPM, OASIS Alignment Services, and Exact Metrology will allow for improved collaboration and a more integrated approach to industrial solutions in this key region.    

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-06-20

JTEKT Announces Technology Days Event

JTEKT Technology Days, September 14 and 15, will showcase the company’s passion for advanced manufacturing solutions at the company headquarters in Arlington Heights, IL. Visitors will enjoy unprecedented access to the products, technologies, and dedicated people that drive JTEKT’s global operation—while enjoying the company’s hospitality throughout.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-06-20

Mazak's Dan Janka Brings a Lifetime of Manufacturing Experience to AMT Chairman Position

With experience in the manufacturing industry dating back to the age of 13, Mazak President Dan Janka once again has accepted the position of chairman of the board of The Association of Manufacturing Technology (AMT). Janka, an AMT member since 2005, last served as chairman in 2010. He retired from the board in 2013, but remained an active committee member and attended the association’s forecasting conferences.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-06-20

EMAG Announces New CEO

Dr. Heinz-Jürgen Prokop handed over the CEO position to Markus Clement on April 1, 2023.

VIDEO | 2023-06-16

Spiral Bevel Gears with Chiron

The Chiron FZ16 5-axis machine offers speed and precision for spiral bevel production.

VIDEO | 2023-06-16

DVS Technology Group and WMZ Offer V300

The modular system of the V300 allows configurations for multi-technology complete machining of splined shafts from the smallest to very large quantities. DVS Technology Group and WMZ offer unique solutions for metal machining.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-06-15

Anthony Riportella Promoted to Inside Sales Manager at Bourn & Koch

Bourn & Koch, a leading provider of American-made machine tools, proudly announces the promotion of Anthony Riportella to the position of Inside Sales Manager. In his new role, Riportella will oversee the inside sales team and support the company's numerous American-made machine tool brands, including Bullard, Blanchard, DeVlieg, and Fellows machine tools.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-06-02

Ross Wegryn-Jones Joins Bourn & Koch

Bourn & Koch, Inc. of Rockford, IL, is pleased to report that Ross Wegryn-Jones has recently joined the company as our National Sales Manager. Ross will be responsible for the sales of gear manufacturing machines, precision grinding machines, and specialty machine tools for unique manufacturing applications. This includes Bourn & Koch horizontal gear hobbers; Fellows gear shapers; Blanchard rotary surface grinders, and Bourn & Koch’s new MT3 vertical grinding machine. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-06-02

Grand Opening: YCM Alliance Michigan Technical Center

YCM Technology (USA), Inc. announces the grand opening of its newest Technical Center in Sterling Heights, MI. The high-tech facility is designed to showcase and demonstrate various complementary machining solutions available through the YCM Alliance for die/mold machining, general parts machining, and ultra-high-speed machining. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-05-30

Ceratizit Executive Selected to Speak at Siemens Realize LIVE

Ceratizit’s Executive Director of Technology and Solutions, Mark Blosser, has been selected to present at Siemens Realize LIVE U.S. conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, June 12–15, 2023. The conference is Siemens’ flagship event focusing on advances and best practices in digital transformation.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-05-30

DMG MORI USA's Chicago Innovation Days 2023

At this year's traditional Chicago Innovation Days 2023, hosted at DMG MORI USA's headquarters in Hoffman Estates from April 11–14, Machining Transformation (MX) was the omnipresent highlight, including Technology Integration, Automation solutions, Digital Transformation (DX), and Green Transformation (GX). 

PRODUCT NEWS | 2023-05-24

Two-in-One: CNC Precision Grind Both Worms and Gears

Manufacturing high-accuracy worm gears and screws alongside precision spur and helical gears has traditionally required the use of two quite different CNC grinding machines. Thanks to PTG Holroyd’s newly launched HG350-WG worm and gear grinding center, however, just one machine can now complete both tasks.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-05-23

Nidec Machine Tool America appoints Todd Hughes as West Coast Sales Manager

Todd Hughes is now the Regional Sales Manager for Nidec Machine Tool America (NMTA). He is responsible for gear machine tool sales in California, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Arizona, and British Columbia. In a first for NMTA, Mr. Hughes will also promote and help customers with the full complement of gear-cutting tools, such as hobs, shaper cutters, skiving tools, shave tools, and tool services such as sharpening and coating.  

FEATURE ARTICLES | 2023-05-22

Internal Gearing, Deburring, Honing and the Advancement of Robotic Cells

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.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2023-05-10

Three Configurations: Affolter Gear Hobbing Machine AF160 Offers Versatility

When developing the AF160, maximum versatility was the key goal of the Engineering Department of the Swiss family enterprise Affolter Group, a world technology leader in high-precision gear hobbing solutions. Vincent Affolter, Managing Director of the Affolter Group, explains: “The AF160 is designed for high precision manufacturers that need flexibility and efficiency. With its eight axes, sophisticated automation solutions, and an innovative quick-change system, the machine provides exactly that.”

PRODUCT NEWS | 2023-05-10

Mazak Showcases Ez Affordable Productivity at WMTS 2023

The Kentucky-built Mazak Ez Series comes to Canada for the Western Manufacturing Technology Show in Edmonton. In booth 308, Mazak will feature its QT-Ez 12MY Multi-Tasking Turning Center and VC-Ez 20 Vertical Machining Center, both from the series of machines that put Mazak quality and reliability within reach for virtually any shop with productive, space-saving efficiency at an affordable price.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2023-05-10

United Grinding Adds Seven New Products to Lineup

United Grinding North America announced today the expansion of their extensive range of grinding and measuring equipment with seven new products being unveiled by three of the company's brands. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-04-27

Klingelnberg to open its doors again at this year's "Nacht der Unternehmen" event in Hückeswagen

Machine manufacturer Klingelnberg is opening its doors and inviting all interested candidates to this year's "Nacht der Unternehmen" [A Night of Companies] open house. The "Nacht der Unternehmen" will bring employers and target audiences together on 12 May 2023, from 3:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. The event will be held at the company's headquarters on Peterstrasse in Hückeswagen and on Gustav-Adolf-Klingelnberg-Strasse in Winterhagen (Hückeswagen). 

VIDEO | 2023-04-10

DMG Linear Pallet Pool for Multi-Machine Automation

This DMG Mori video looks at a linear pallet pool for multi machine automation with up to 10 machines, 5 setup stations and up to 99 pallets. Ideal automation for multiple machines and short pallet changing time due to twin fork shuttle technology.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-04-07

GF Divisions Announce the Grand Opening of Mexico Facility

GF Machining Solutions (GFMS) and GF Piping Systems (GFPS) broke ground on the Apodaca, Mexico, joint headquarters late in 2019. Construction on the 75,000 square-foot facility is now complete, and company leaders are hosting a grand opening celebration. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-03-31

Christian Rhiel Named Managing Director at Pittler T&S

Christian Rhiel started in 2007 as area sales manager for turning machines for Europe and Russia and became sales manager in 2013. Due to these decades of experience in sales management, he has a feel for the needs of his customers. He has a clear understanding of the markets and knows how to expand the company and achieve its goals. With his colleagues, he will drive the company's further development and future direction.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-03-30

GMTA's Walter Friedrich Appoints Michael Rose as Successor

After 32 years as president of GMTA (German Machine Tools of America), formerly American Wera, Walter Friedrich is stepping down, having appointed Michael Rose to be his successor.

VIDEO | 2023-03-29

Gear Hobbing and Power Skiving

Gear hobbing and power skiving processes can be used on the Gleason 100PS, including additional processes like brushing and/or turning operations. Due to the unique flexibility of the 100PS, all gears of a typical e-bike transmission can be produced on a single machine.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-03-23

TIMTOS 2023 Concludes With Great Success

TIMTOS 2023 concluded successfully today, attracting over 45,000 on-site visitors from home and abroad, including nearly 6,000 international visitors from more than 100 countries. Among them, delegations were from Turkey, Vietnam, Indonesia, Spain, and Algeria. The top five countries with the highest turnout were Japan, Malaysia, India, South Korea, and Thailand. The online exhibition will continue to run until April 6 and has already reached 7,000 visitors from nearly 15 countries. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-03-23

GF Machining Solutions Medical Center of Competence Grand Opening

Attend the grand opening of the GF Machining Solutions Medical Center of Competence taking place April 19 from 8:30 am–5:00 pm (lunch provided) at the company’s Lincolnshire, Ill., location.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-03-23

INDEX Launches Newly Developed Training Program for Junior Technicians

INDEX has announced the launch of the INDEX Technician Development Program (ITDP), a new, eight-month formal training program for junior technicians. Developed in response to the ongoing skilled labor shortage, the ITDP incorporates both classroom and hands-on instruction, including two months spent at the company’s global headquarters in Germany.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-03-22

Forest City Gear Attends Training Retreat Hosted by DMG MORI

Two Forest City Gear employees, CNC Supervisor Mike Miller and CNC Lead/Programmer Josh Gates, recently attended a four-day training retreat in Pfronten, Germany hosted by DMG MORI. The event featured various seminars and opportunities for guests to experience firsthand DMG’s newest equipment and technologies, as well as networking and a taste of German culture.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2023-03-08

All-Directional Y-Axis Turning

Sandvik Coromant, a cutting tool and tooling system specialist, has introduced a new method for turning complicated shapes and pockets with a single tool. Y-axis turning offers benefits such as reduced cycle time, improved component surface quality and more stable machining.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-03-02

Robert Turk Named President of Precision Drive Systems

Precision Drive Systems (PDS), a global solution provider of precision motor spindles, expert engineering and support, and repair services headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., has announced today that Robert Turk has been promoted to the role of the company’s President.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-03-01

SAACKE Announces New Managing Director Team

SAACKE Precision Tools and Grinding Machines, a family business started in 1892, has announced a Mr. Georg Saacke as president to lead a new management team.

FEATURE ARTICLES | 2023-02-13

2023 State of the Gear Industry

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.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-02-09

State of the Gear Industry Perspectives: Kapp Technologies

State of the Gear Industry Perspectives takes an in-depth look at the challenges and opportunities in gear manufacturing today and in the future. Our sixth installment online is an interview with Shane Hollingsworth, vice president of sales, Kapp Technologies.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-02-08

Keeping Up with Manufacturing Changes

The rise of electrification is happening more widely and suddenly than anyone expected, both for automobiles and for other types of electric vehicles (EVs). The global EV landscape is also more competitive than the automotive markets of previous decades, as more manufacturers—large and small—compete for space. How can manufacturers stay ahead of the competition while also overcoming the increasing challenges posed by difficult-to-machine materials, like high-strength steel? A new all-directional tooling method, combined with the next-generation CoroTurn Prime B-type insert from Sandvik Coromant, holds the answer.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-02-07

Wenzel and Nidec Machine Tool America Announce Open House

Gear Up For Precision will take place April 1213, 2023. Both Wenzel and Nidec Machine Tool America, located across from each other in Wixom, Mich., will be open to visitors with displays, technical discussions, presentations, and demonstrations.

EVENT | 2023-02-07

Gear Up for Precision

Gear Up for Precision will take place April 12-13, 2023. Both Wenzel and Nidec Machine Tool America, located across from each other in Wixom, Mich., will be open to visitors with displays, technical discussions, presentations, and demonstrations.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-02-06

State of the Gear Industry Perspectives: Helios Gear Products

State of the Gear Industry Perspectives takes an in-depth look at the challenges and opportunities in gear manufacturing today and in the future. Our fifth installment online is an interview with Adam Gimpert, president, Helios Gear Products.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-02-06

PMT Premier Machine Tools Limited Acquired by Seco Tools

As of February 1st, 2023, the Irish company PMT Premier Machine Tools Ltd (PMT), a supplier of machining solutions for the medical industry, will become part of the products and services offered by Seco. Seco will increase its presence in the medical segment with this acquisition by offering integrated manufacturing solutions.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-02-02

State of the Gear Industry Perspectives: Nidec Machine Tool America

State of the Gear Industry Perspectives takes an in-depth look at the challenges and opportunities in gear manufacturing today and in the future. Our fourth installment online is an interview with Scott Knoy, vice president of sales at Nidec Machine Tool America. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-02-02

Nidec Acquires PAMA and Its Affiliates

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-01-31

State of the Gear Industry Perspectives: Liebherr

State of the Gear Industry Perspectives takes an in-depth look at the challenges and opportunities in gear manufacturing today and in the future. Our third installment online is an interview with Peter Wiedemann, managing director, Liebherr-Verzahntechnik GmbH and Scott Yoders, vice president sales, Liebherr Gear Technology, Inc. 


INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-01-31

Klingelnberg Honors 32 Employees for Company Loyalty

In 2022, machine manufacturer Klingelnberg again honored its employees with longstanding service to the company. This year’s honorees included 16 colleagues celebrating 40 years of service and 14 employees looking back on 25 years with the company. Two employees are even marking a full 50 years of service.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-01-30

State of the Gear Industry Perspectives: Klingelnberg

State of the Gear Industry Perspectives takes an in-depth look at the challenges and opportunities in gear manufacturing today and in the future. Our second installment online is an interview with Christof Gorgels, vice president, innovation and technology at Klingelnberg. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-01-30

United Grinding North America Expands Distribution Network in Mexico and US

United Grinding North America announced today the expansion of their distribution network with the addition of Intermaq, a leader in the machine tool industry in Mexico. Intermaq will represent the full line of equipment offered by United Grinding  North America and will be instrumental in expanding the footprint of the precision CNC grinding market in Mexico. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-01-27

State of the Gear Industry Perspectives: Gleason Corporation

State of the Gear Industry Perspectives takes an in-depth look at the challenges and opportunities in gear manufacturing today and in the future. Our first installment online is an interview with Udo Stolz, vice president of sales and marketing at Gleason Corporation.

EVENT | 2023-01-20

2023 Liebherr Skiving Day

With expert presentations, live demonstrations and the latest digitalization solutions, the 2023 Liebherr Skiving Day is once again the focal point when it comes to all things gear skiving.

VIDEO | 2023-01-18

Forest City Gear Taps Helios Gear for Custom Cutting Tools

The Helios team delivered custom gear cutting tools to Forest City Gear in Roscoe, IL. See what Forest City Gear had to say about the process.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2023-01-16

Nidec Machine Tool at IMTEX 2023

Nidec Machine Tool Corporation (“Nidec Machine Tool” or the “Company”) announced today that it will exhibit its products at IMTEX 2023 (International Machine Tool & Manufacturing Technology Exhibition), which will be held at India’s Bengaluru International Exhibition Centre from January 19 – 25, for the first time as a member of the Nidec Group.

EVENT | 2023-01-11

CIMT 2023

Since founding in 1989, the China International Machine Tool Show (CIMT) held in every odd year has been successfully held 17 sessions so far. CIMT is the most prestigious, largest scale and most influential professional machine tool exhibition in China, regarded by the global machine tool industry as with the same popularity of EMO in Europe, IMTS in the United States, and JIMTOF in Japan. 

PRODUCT NEWS | 2023-01-05

JTEKT Offers New HMC Series

JTEKT Toyoda Americas Corporation has recently introduced its FH5000 series of three high-speed horizontal machining centers (HMC), including the FH5000S HMC with 800X800X880 mm (x, y, z) strokes, 900mm workpiece diameter, and 1100mm workpiece height capacity. The FH5000 series machines include a 500mm table capable of handling 1000 kg loads. 

PRODUCT NEWS | 2023-01-05

New CERATIZIT Tool Boosts Value, Performance for Vehicle Water Plug Boring

As a newly developed custom solution, a combination tool for heavy goods vehicle (HGV) freeze plug/water plug boring from CERATIZIT dramatically reduces cost and increases performance when producing the holes in cylinder blocks and heads. Such results are possible because the tool roughs, chamfers and reams/fine finishes holes in a single operation – even in grey cast iron with EN-GJV450 vermicular graphite.

VIDEO | 2022-12-14

WFL Operational Data Acquisition System

With the myWFL operational data acquisition system, you can maintain an overview around the clock and exploit the optimization potential for the smart factory. The software not only has a user-transparent display, but also improves machine utilization. All data in the production environment is collected and analyzed to achieve higher productivity. Shorter production times and a more effective design of the Smart Factory processes thus go hand in hand.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-12-13

Mazak Adds New SYNCREX Plant to Manufacturing Campus

To support the production of yet another new Kentucky-designed and built line of machine tools, Mazak has expanded its Florence manufacturing campus with the addition of a new SYNCREX Assembly Plant. The 27,000-square-foot state-of-the-art building combines engineering, production and applications support for the company’s recently launched SYNCREX Series of Swiss-style machine tools designed specifically for precision high production of small parts. 

VIDEO | 2022-11-16

Liebherr Machine Training Center

This brief video looks at the Machine Training Center (MTC) at the Liebherr Academy in Kempten.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-11-08

PUMA DNT Series Releases New Turning Center

DN Solutions introduces the new PUMA DNT 2100 and 2600. The DNT Series will replace the PUMA GT 2100 and 2600 models. The PUMA DNT Series is equipped with a powerful spindle, a redesigned turret body, and a live tool drive that guarantee powerful and precise machining and exceptional productivity. The design of the new machines focuses on convenient operation and easy maintenance.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2022-10-12

Liebherr Expands Portfolio for Gear Shaping of Double Helical Gears

A newly developed measuring probe now allows Liebherr-Verzahntechnik GmbH the possibility of precise corrective measurement in the gear shaping machine. The measuring probe sits directly on the tool spindle and is therefore in the same coordinate system as the pinion type cutter itself. This reduces inaccuracies which might arise due to a tool change or turning a workpiece and leads to considerably higher quality and process reliability.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2022-10-12

WFL Millturn Develops Robot Automation Systems with FRAI Robotic Technologies

Automation tasks are becoming ever more challenging. Using intelligent software in combination with the relevant automation solutions not only enables workpieces to be loaded and unloaded but also means that machine tools can be set up fully automatically through automatic replacement of tools and clamping devices. FRAI strives to be an innovative automation partner and is therefore developing highly flexible robot systems to respond to this trend. Concepts such as the mobileCELL are a complete first and enable a wide range of expansion stages, making them as future-proof and competitive as possible.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2022-10-12

Nagel and Gehring Partner for Honing, Superfinishing and Electromobility Innovations

Nagel and Gehring recently shared innovative technologies during AMB 2022 including new standards in efficient honing, maximum flexibility in the superfinishing of flat, concave, and spherical surfaces, and efficient internal and external honing of workpieces.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-10-12

Liebherr Offers Machine Training Center in Kempten

The Machine Training Center (MTC) of Liebherr-Verzahntechnik GmbH in Kempten offers bright training rooms equipped with the latest technology the world of gear making has to offer including an LC 280 gear cutting machine with ChamferCut device, an LGG 280 gear grinding machine and a WGT measuring machine. 

EVENT | 2022-10-07

IMTEX 2023

IMTEX is a flagship event for the Indian metal cutting industry. It is South Asia's apex exhibition showcasing the latest trends as well as technological refinements from India and other global players. The event attracts visitors from a wide spectrum of manufacturing and ancillary industries including key decision and policy makers as well as industry captains who are keen to source latest technologies and manufacturing solutions for their product lines.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2022-08-31

Jorgensen Launches Three New Systems to Optimize the Machining Process

Jorgensen Conveyor and Filtration Solutions announces the introduction of three new systems that will reduce labor and improve performance throughout the entire machining process.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-08-30

ANCA Launches the MX7 Ultra Machine Range of Cutting Tools at IMTS 2022

The new ANCA MX7 ULTRA can manufacture large volumes of precision endmills and other cutting tools. The minute size of a micron is beyond the human eye, but by moving from micrometers to nanometers, ANCA will offer the highest accuracy and quality in a cutting tool in the market. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-08-25

Nidec and Wenzel Announce Technical Partnership for IMTS 2022

IMTS 2022 will host a variety of technologies that will set the tone for manufacturing innovation in the years to come. At the forefront is the integration of data for process control, providing outstanding solutions to manufacturers. Wenzel America and Nidec’s collaboration started with the mutual drive for serving their customer with excellence through data management. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-08-23

Oelheld Offers Technical Expertise for Machining Applications at IMTS 2022

Oelheld US will be located in Booth #237475 in the North Hall. Oelheld technical experts will be on hand to discuss grinding, erosion, precision machining, and filtration, among other topics.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-08-22

WFL Millturn Offers Complete Machining at AMB 2022

At AMB 2022, WFL Millturn Technologies will be presenting the new M20 MILLTURN complete machining center for the first time. Alongside gear skiving technology, there is clear trend toward automation and the integration of sensors. The latest solutions from WFL range from smart software to screw programming through to intelligent tools and clamping devices.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-08-19

Haas Schleifmaschinen Focuses on High Performance at IMTS 2022

Forming tools are expensive, often made from carbide and tool steel. Carbide grinding is often the first choice today because customer requirements have increased and continue to increase in terms of complexity, dimensional accuracy and reproducibility. Apart from that, production must also be significantly more economical.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-08-17

Sandvik Coromant Wins Best Plant Award

Sandvik Coromant, has earned the 2022 IndustryWeek Best Plants Award for its Westminster, South Carolina, production site. The award is given to North American manufacturing plants that lead their industries in outstanding operational excellence, customer service and employee engagement.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-08-17

Klingelnberg Highlights Gearbox Technology at AMB 2022

System-supplier Klingelnberg will be back at AMB (Booth C41, Hall 5), where it will be highlighting solutions for smooth-running gearboxes. The exhibit will feature the Höfler Cylindrical Gear Grinding Machine Speed Viper, the Klingelnberg Precision Measuring Center P 40 and the newly developed Höfler Cylindrical Gear Roll Testing Machine R 300. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-08-16

WFL Offers Latest Multifunctional Machine Technology at IMTS 2022

IMTS visitors can experience live machining with the WFL M50 MILLTURN/3000 mm. The multifunctional turning-boring-milling center is designed for complete machining of complex chuck and shaft parts up to 670 mm swing over bed. Turning, milling, drilling, hobbing, shaping, gun drilling as well as ID machining can be performed under any angle of the tool. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-08-16

Beaumont Machine Reacquired by Founders

Beaumont Machine is a builder of Electrical Discharge Machines (EDM) for the aerospace, power gen and electronics production industries. Founded by Ed and Tanya Beaumont over 30 years ago, the company was recently repurchased, after the owners had sold the business in early 2013.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2022-08-09

EMAG Presents E-Mobility and Digital Solutions at IMTS 2022

EMAG will highlight productive, and at the same time, flexible manufacturing solutions for electromobility at IMTS. Among other things, the focus is on the vertical pick-up lathes of the VL series, which EMAG now delivers IoT-Ready.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-08-09

Beyond Closed Loop but Lean

When it comes to an early identification of noise problems in the drivetrain one has to take data analytics and its integration in the manufacturing process into account. The big vision here, in particular, is preventive quality. By evaluating sensor data of the machining process, it promises to predict whether a gear is ok or not ok. 

PRODUCT NEWS | 2022-08-05

Röhm Introduces Duro-M Lathe Chuck

The variable machining of turned parts has never been easier. This is made possible with Duro-M, the new geared scroll chuck, innovative lens geometry and optimized power transmission by Röhm.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-08-05

GROB Announces Machining Video Series

GROB Systems has announced a new YouTube Video Series called “Machine Minutes with GROB.” New technical tutorial and informational videos will be released regularly and will focus on three primary topics including Machine Design/ Building, Machine Applications, and Machine Maintenance and Inspection. The videos will generally range from two to eight minutes in length.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-08-04

Sandvik Coromant Holds Automotive Transmission Machining Event at New Training Center

When Sandvik Coromant opened its new Center Mebane facility last year in Mebane, NC, near Raleigh the vision was to use it as a hub for training, R&D testing, customer projects and, most of all, an opportunity for comprehensive customer and partner engagement.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-08-03

Widia Expands Turning Portfolio

Widia has added an AL Geometry to its ISO turning portfolio, strengthening its broad offering of affordable tooling solutions for small to medium sized machine shops, machining aluminum and non-ferrous materials. The AL Geometry insert is offered in two grades for increased machining versatility: an uncoated microfine carbide WU10HT grade and the PVD AlTiN coated grade, WU05PT. Each grade is available in all popular styles, including C, D, R, T, and V inserts to increase customer tooling options.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2022-08-02

MTB Adds High-Speed Chamfer Deburring Machine for Precision Gear Production

Machine Tool Builders Inc. (MTB) has added a high-speed, high-precision Chamfering and Deburring Machine to its family of new gear production machines. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-08-02

Rego-Fix Celebrates 50th Anniversary of the Original ER Collet

This year marks the 50th anniversary of a revolutionary invention that changed the way today’s manufacturers hold metalworking cutting tools. What has been an industry standard for decades now, the Rego-Fix ER collet is the most widely used clamping system in the world and still produced at the company’s Tenniken, Switzerland, plant.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-07-29

MC Machinery Systems Announces Promotions

MC Machinery Systems recently announced the promotions of Joe Cisneroz, Dave Kloos and Doug Conroy as well as the addition of Alexander Wright. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-07-28

Big Daishowa Highlights Four Workholding Tips

Big Daishowa specializes in modular workholding that provides flexibility, efficiency and functionality. UNILOCK zero-point workholding provides value through versatile solutions that are simple to integrate into existing machinery and setups. Here, the company examines four tips for choosing the right workholding device.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-07-26

MC Machinery Introduces Machining Technology at IMTS 2022

MC Machinery will showcase its latest EDM and precision milling technology, including wire and sinker EDMs, machining centers and automation during IMTS 2022.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-07-25

Kapp Niles Offers Machine Technology at IMTS 2022

Kapp Niles will highlight a variety of machine tool technologies at IMTS 2022 for areas like mobility, automation, energy, and more.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-07-21

Helios Gear Products Debuts Gear Hobbing Technology at IMTS 2022

Helios Gear Products will debut two state-of-the-art gear manufacturing solutions at the International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago, September 12–17, 2022.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-07-19

Blaser Swisslube Offers Metalworking Fluids at IMTS 2022

Blaser Swisslube returns to IMTS 2022 with a line-up of new metalworking fluids and a team of experts with diverse industry and applications experience. Visit Blaser at IMTS to learn how metalworking fluids, often thought of as a commodity, can be leveraged as a strategic tool in the manufacturing process. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-07-18

DN Solutions Opens New Technical Support Office

DN Solutions (formerly Doosan Machine Tools) recently announced the opening of a Technical Support Office in Troy, Michigan. The new location will provide process improvements and technical solutions to both dealers and customers. 

PRODUCT NEWS | 2022-07-18

Guill Offers Internal Spline Tool for Aerospace Applications

Guill Tool, a growing supplier of components to the global aerospace industry, has announced the production of a new internal spline tool made of anodized carbon steel. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-07-15

Liebherr Touts Latest Gear Technology at IMTS 2022

Liebherr Gear Technology will be displaying a variety of technologies at Booth #236914 (North Hall) during IMTS 2022. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-07-11

Star Cutter Increases Commitment to Alpena Community College Center for Manufacturing Excellence

Star Cutter Company has announced that it will be continuing its support of Alpena Community College’s manufacturing programs through increased monetary and equipment donations to the college. The donations will be supplied over a two-year period of time, helping to bring state-of-the art manufacturing equipment, such as grinding machines and optical comparators, to the center for hands-on training opportunities.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-07-08

Mazak SmoothEz CNC Allows for Easy Programming

The MAZATROL SmoothEz CNC from Mazak has a graphical, intuitive programming mode that minimizes the use and understanding of G-codes. Users answer conversationally displayed questions about the workpiece, and the control constructs the program automatically. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-07-05

Star Cutter to Highlight NXT Tool Grinder at IMTS 2022

Star Cutter Company will be displaying its newest generation automated NXT 5-axis tool grinder in Booth #237013 at IMTS 2022 featuring detailed graphics that enable visitors to take a self-guided tour of the machine, which will be shadow grinding during the show. The display system will feature the 28 kW spindle option and four-station wheel change capability. It will be equipped with a robot loader and flat blade/insert clamping fixture for live demonstration of automated production. Videos to showcase tooling for form cutters, boring bars and medical hip rasps will also be on display.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2022-07-01

Big Daishowa Unveils EWA Automatic Boring Head

The Big Kaiser EWA Automatic Fine Boring System from Big Daishowa performs closed-loop boring operations without a human operator. This breakthrough eliminates the need to stop the spindle to manually adjust the boring tool, which results in considerable time savings. Also, eliminating human interaction reduces cost, improves accuracy, and minimizes scrap. The adjustment range of this fine boring head allows for the handling of multiple bore sizes with the same tool and ensures a repeatable boring process. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-07-01

Sandvik Coromant Offers Productivity Improvement Program

Sandvik Coromant offers its CoroPlus Productivity Improvement Program to provide in-depth analysis of the production cell.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-06-30

United Grinding to Feature Cylindrical Grinder at IMTS 2022

 At IMTS 2022, United Grinding North America will be featuring the STUDER S131r cylindrical ID-radius grinding machine for I.D. grinding operations where maximum precision is paramount.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-06-29

Index Establishes Service to Rebuild Tool Holders in North America

Effective June 1, 2022, Index has established a dedicated service department to rebuild tool holders at its North American headquarters in Noblesville, Indiana. Previously, the company processed all such rebuilds at its parent company in Germany. By investing in bringing this capability to the United States, Index expects to cut lead times for rebuilds by 50% - 70%.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-06-24

Nidec to Exhibit Gearmaking Machines at IMTS 2022

Nidec Machine Tool (Wixom, Mich.), responding to the needs of the industry, is debuting the new GE15HS gear hobbing machine at IMTS 2022 in Booth #237036. Emphasizing high speed, precision and efficiency, the new machine produces gears for electric and hybrid cars, as well as for robotic and automation applications.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-06-22

Index Launches Next Generation of G220 Turn-Mill Center

Index has announced the release of next generation of its G220 turn-mill center. Incorporating the design principles introduced via the larger G320, G420 and G520 machines, the new G220 provides high flexibility to produce complex, small-to-medium-sized parts in a single setup.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-06-21

Gleason Corporation Announces the Passing of James S. Gleason

It is with great sadness Gleason Corporation announces the passing of James S. Gleason, a Gleason board member and former chairman and CEO of the company who died on June 17th at the age of 88 years old.  Jim, a great grandson of the company’s founder William Gleason, contributed to the company in various roles, continuing to serve as a director on the board up until his death. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-06-13

Wintriss Offers OEE/Data Collection Software at IMTS 2022

Wintriss Controls Group has announced it will be demonstrating new, advanced features in its ShopFloorConnect OEE and Data Collection Software at IMTS Booth #135073 located in the East Building, Level 3, in McCormick Place, Chicago IL from Sept 12- 17, 2022.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-06-13

Universal Robots USA Offers E-Book on Cobots

Collaborative robots can increase output and improve quality in nearly any production environment. UR cobots can be deployed quickly, with fast ROI, typically within 12 months. Universal Robots USA has released an e-book on how cobots can assist on the shop floor in the following areas: 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-06-03

Mazak Highlights Manufacturing Solutions at IMTS 2022

At IMTS 2022 in Booth #338300, Mazak will show manufacturers how they can move their manufacturing operations forward with the company's latest innovations. Five pavilions will showcase solutions for job shops, advanced machining and high-production workflows.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-05-31

EMCO Expands Machining Capabilities in Italy

EMCO caters for customers from industries which are as versatile as the company's range of products. Traditional small and medium-sized companies have been an integral part of EMCO's customer base for many years.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2022-05-26

Metal Cutting Robots

Kadia has been designing deburring robot cells based on 6-axis industrial robots for many years. In the meantime, a new trend is now emerging, solutions with an even higher value-added component, i.e., with general machining processes such as milling, drilling or thread cutting. The robot is thus no longer just part of a deburring machine.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-05-26

GROB Looks to Build Skilled Workforce

GROB Systems, Inc. has announced it will host a 2022 Apprenticeship Class orientation and signing day on June 4th, 2022, from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. at the company’s U.S. headquarters, 1070 Navajo Drive, Bluffton, Ohio.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2022-05-26

GF Machining Solutions iWire Adapts to EDM Cutting Conditions

The new iWire function from GF Machining Solutions automatically identifies and adapts wire speed to changing erosion height conditions during the wire EDM process. This capability eliminates wire breakage while reducing overall wire consumption per job, in some instances by as much as 29 percent.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-05-25

Marposs Acquires Grinding Machine Measuring Technology from Jenoptik

Marposs has announced the acquisition of Jenoptik’s (Jena, Germany) non-optical process measuring technology business for grinding machines, formerly known as Movomatic.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-05-24

Chiron Presents Machining Innovations for the Future

The Chiron Group Open House in Tuttlingen, Germany welcomed more than 1,200 expert visitors from around the world May 11-13, offering new ideas and to improve their manufacturing practice – in the Chiron spirit of “Performance meets Precision.”

PRODUCT NEWS | 2022-05-24

Ipsen USA Provides Vacuum Furnace to Italian Commercial Heat Treater

Ipsen recently installed the second Turbo2Treater vacuum furnace at Temprasud, a commercial heat treater in Fresagrandinaria, Italy. 

FEATURE ARTICLES | 2022-05-19

The Numbers Game

Tool-X is a nanofluid that changes the characteristics of existing metalworking fluids by ‘manipulating’ speeds, feeds and metal removal rates using nanotechnology. The science behind Tool-X can potentially change metal cutting dynamics, improve surface finishes and extend tool life. The backstory of this technology is just as fascinating as its production results.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-05-12

Rego-Fix Offers New and Expanded Product Lines at IMTS 2022

At IMTS 2022 in Booth #431822, Rego-Fix will showcase innovations that extend the company's Swiss precision beyond toolholding. Featured technologies include the 3D-EdgeMaster measuring device and MasterBar test arbors – two new product entries for setup and test measurement.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-05-10

DMG MORI Technology Center Opens in Boston

DMG MORI’s new Technology Center in the heart of Somerville, in Northeast USA, will be a hub for research and development of new digitization solutions and processes for customers worldwide. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-05-06

Ransohoff Offers LeanDrum Parts Washer

The Ransohoff LeanDrum platform provides a low cost, energy efficient, reliable solution for your high-volume cleaning application.

VIDEO | 2022-05-06

Kapp Niles ZP 20 Set-up

Watch an installation of a ZP 20 gear profile grinding machine from Kapp Niles. 

PRODUCT NEWS | 2022-05-05

Helios Gear Introduces Deburring Machine

The Helios TM 250-CNC machine from Tecnomacchine brings together two fundamental strategies that empower manufacturers to deburr gears more productively.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2022-05-03

Jorgensen Total Chip Processing Boosts Recycle Value

As a result of its recent partnership with S.F.H., Jorgensen Conveyor and Filtration Solutions now serves manufacturers as a single source for total metalworking chip and coolant processing systems. With standalone or fully integrated systems that transport, shred, wring and briquette chips and sludge, manufacturers can reduce chip volumes by as much as 90% and significantly increase their chip recycling value. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-05-03

WFL Technology Meeting Highlights Machining Innovations

The WFL Technology Meeting takes place June 21-23, 2022. Visitors can look forward to expert discussions on the latest industry trends and developments. Highlights during the event include machine demonstrations, measurement technologies, automation solutions and more. 

EVENT | 2022-05-03

WFL Technology Meeting 2022

The WFL Technology Meeting takes place June 21-23, 2022. Visitors can look forward to expert discussions on the latest industry trends and developments. Highlights during the event include machine demonstrations, measurement technologies, automation solutions and more. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-05-02

Haas Multigrind Offers Machine Technology at GrindingHub

The Haas Booth C50 Hall 10 at GrindingHub will include the Multigrind Radical, Multimation and the Multigrind CB XL series. In addition, the Multigrind CU, the Multigrind CA and the Multigrind CB will be featured during the show.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-04-25

Kuka Robotics Plays Key Role in University of Michigan Research Grant

As part of a $2 million National Science Foundation Grant, robots from Kuka Robotics are helping the University of Michigan (U of M) advance research that could result in robots working side-by-side with humans on building construction sites. The research involves three KUKA KR Quantec robots along with the company’s robot sensor interface (RSI) software, all of which will allow human workers to use interactive task learning technology to teach the robots to perform construction tasks. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-04-22

Sandvik Coromant Examines Shift to Electric Vehicles

The transition to EVs will lower transport emissions, and adoption can be accelerated by increasing their efficiency. EVs that take advantage of aluminum components can travel further per charge, helping to overcome range anxiety. Automotive manufacturers who select machining tools optimized for aluminum will be able to produce high-quality aluminum EV components ― helping to support the shift to greener travel.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2022-04-22

Seco Milling Cutters Reduce Tooling Inventory Costs

Manufacturers who look for versatility and precision in machining can pair up Seco Turbo 16 square shoulder milling cutters and Helical Turbo 16 milling cutters to reduce tooling inventories and costs. Both series offer high material removal rates in steel, stainless steel, cast iron, non-ferrous metals, superalloys and titanium. 

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-04-21

Mazak and Sandvik Host Aerospace Event

Mazak’s new INTEGREX i-H series platform with SmoothAi CNC and the VARIAXIS i-700T with turning capability will be on-hand at the Experience Tech Aerospace Event co-hosted by Mazak at Sandvik Coromant Center in Mebane, NC (May 11-12, 2022).

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-04-19

Kapp Niles KX 300 P Offers Machining Flexibility

The Kapp Niles KX 300 P gear center offers machining flexibility due to various machining processes. The machine features direct drives in both the tool and workpiece spindles.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-04-19

Big Daishowa Announces Vice President Sales

Big Daishowa Inc. announces Michael Herman has been promoted to vice president sales. In this role Herman oversees the Big Daishowa sales team and supports the company’s distribution network and machine tool builders throughout North America.

EVENT | 2022-04-19

2022 US Grinding Days Seminar

US Grinding Days Seminar (3M and Liebherr) is a two-day program designed to provide attendees with industry insights into the latest gear grinding methods, technology, and related topics.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-04-15

Oelheld Offers Grinding Oil Performance Benefits

Many see the fluids as an unnecessary evil to the grinding process, failing to realize that selecting the right grinding fluid can lead to significant improvements in cycle time, surface quality, finishes, secondary operations, such as tool coatings. Oelheld has put together a short article on grinding oil considerations.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2022-03-22

Walter Debuts Tooling Machine at GrindingHub 2022

Walter will introduce the latest addition to their machine lineup at the GrindingHub 2022 exhibition: the compact HELITRONIC G 200 tool grinding machine.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2022-03-18

Liebherr Revamps Digital Solutions

With the LHWebPlatform, Liebherr offers a modular system of interfaces, data profiles and web apps for the configuration of tailor-made digitization solutions.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2022-03-14

Jorgensen Introduces FlexFiltration Line

Jorgensen Conveyor and Filtration Solutions has introduced its new FlexFiltration line that also includes the company’s new Flex G Series of modular filtration systems. The new cost-effective systems feature pre-engineered modules that ensure fast, easy and flexible filtration system configurations for practically any filtering application.

EVENT | 2022-03-07

International Conference on Gear Production 2022

 Current challenges and solutions are presented and discussed, strongly emphasizing new potentials in productivity and/or the flexibility of gear manufacturing processes. Do not miss an event outlining new trends for the gear producing industry of tomorrow at the International Conference on Gear Production 2022. 

PRODUCT NEWS | 2022-02-23

Product News

The complete Product News section from the January/February 2022 issue of Gear Technology, with new technology from Marposs, Solar Atmospheres, Mahr, Kennametal, Kapp Niles, Southern Gear, SMW Autoblok, WFL Millturn, Doosan Robotics and LK Metrology.

FEATURE ARTICLES | 2022-02-21

A World of Smart Processing & Digital Advancements

It’s that time of year again! Pandemic fears, supply chain issues, economic growth sprinkled in with some economic uncertainty. Every year, we take an in-depth look at the State of the Gear Industry and every year provides an interesting and colorful array of challenges, surprises and new innovations. Gear Technology spoke with Prasad Kizhakel, Chief Sales Officer at the Klingelnberg Group, Udo Stolz, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Gleason Corporation, and Shane Hollingsworth, Vice President Sales at Kapp Technologies to assess what the next five years in gear manufacturing may look like from the machine tool providers

EVENT | 2022-02-19

IMTS 2024

The International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) is the largest manufacturing technology show in the Western Hemisphere. The IMTS conference brings the industry together to discuss new opportunities and network with the manufacturing community. 
EVENT | 2022-02-19

AMB 2024

The metalworking fair (Stuttgart, Germany) promises developments for metal-cutting and metal-removing, machine tools, precision tools, measuring systems and quality assurance, robots, workpiece and tool handling, industrial software & engineering, components, assemblies and accessories.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2021-12-15

FANUC Offers Mobile Apps for CNC Product and Maintenance Support

FANUC America has released a suite of new mobile apps for quicker delivery of vital information. The CNC Comparison, the CNC Functions Ca...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2021-10-21

Mitsubishi Electric Introduces Software Solutions for CNC Machines

The future of manufacturing is ‘smart’. The factories of tomorrow will use data-driven insights to create predictive cyber-ph...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2021-10-11

United Grinding Partners with Titans of CNC for Grinding Education

United Grinding has partnered with Titans of CNC, the well-known global manufacturing education provider, to support specialized educatio...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2021-09-27

FANUC Offers Retrofitting Program to Fight Against Cyberattacks

FANUC America introduces an upgrade solution for legacy CNC machines running on operating systems older than Windows 10. The Panel i Repl...
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2021-09-01

MPIF Examines State of the Powder Metal Industry

Thanks to material development and additive manufacturing opportunities, it’s important for the gear and power transmission industries to monitor the trends, technologies and future forecasts in the powder metal market.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2021-08-25

CNC Broach Tool Offers Spline Broaching Inserts in Seven to Ten Days

Many machine shops vend out the broaching process to specialty broaching houses when there are splines required in the part they are manu...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2021-06-25

Xometry Offers Complete Guide to CNC Machining

Computer numerical control (CNC) machining was invented more than 50 years ago, and since then, its high capacity for precision and autom...
PRODUCT NEWS | 2021-06-01

Product News

Gear-related new technology from Affolter Group, Liebherr, PTG Holroyd, BMW Motorrad and more.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2021-05-27

Helios Gear Examines Preventative Maintenance to Reduce Machine Downtime

Gear manufacturers of all types and sizes must consider preventative maintenance as fundamental to their operations. Manufacturers too of...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2021-05-14

Advantages of Chamfering

State-of-the-Art Chamfer Cutting Technologies for Cylindrical Gears
PRODUCT NEWS | 2021-05-01

Product News

Gear-related new technology from Liquidtool Manager, Marposs, EDM Intelligent Solutions, Helios Gear Products, Kapp Niles Metrology and more.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2021-04-27

Helios Gear Announces New CNC Gear Deburring Machines

Helios CNC gear chamfer-deburring machines increase profitability for job shops and high-mix manufacturing. “Gear manufacturer...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2021-03-19

FANUC CNC and Robotics Integration Simplifies Operations

FANUC America introduces the next step in complete robotics and CNCs integration for more efficient operations. FANUC CNCs now have the a...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2021-02-19

EMAG Group Acquires Samputensili Machine Tools and Samputensili CLC

The acquisition of Samputensili Machine Tools and Samputensili CLC by the EMAG Group - including the 87 employees across two sites near B...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2021-01-27

New Tools, Same Challenges

An online forum I occasionally visit recently posted a photo of a vintage drafting board and joked about younger people no...

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2021-01-06

Methods Machine Tools Introduces JobShop Cell PRO

Methods Machine Tools, Inc. has introduced the JobShop Cell PRO, a new standard automation solution featuring the RoboDrill D21SiBadv Ver...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2020-12-28

Don't Forget the Follow-Up!

One of the cardinal rules of design engineering is that you will never overcome physics. It is an applied science so misunderstanding or ignoring m...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2020-12-16

Some Help From Your Friends

Making great products is a team effort. It annoys me when the host of a certain house remodeling show claims credit for how wonderful her project t...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2020-11-11

The Terror of an Empty Sheet

Today’s title does not refer to writer’s block. After 660 contributions to the magazine and blog, I still have a few things to cover ahead of my pl...
PRODUCT NEWS | 2020-11-01

Rebuilding a Legacy

Bourn & Koch provides retrofit Fellows 10-4 machine for gear shaping.
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2020-09-16

Learning the Ropes

Ever wonder about the origin of common phrases? As the son of a sailor, I have always enjoyed maritime history and nautical fiction, although some ...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2020-08-26

Finding Good Candidates

Once you commit to developing the talented team members your business needs, how do you decide who to invest in? The “washout rate” at professional...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2020-08-21

Helios Introduces Hera 200 CNC Gear Hobbing Machine

Helios Gear Products exclusively offers the Helios Hera 200 CNC gear hobbing machine. This machine, manufactured by YG Tech, provides gea...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2020-08-01

IMTS Future Tech

The Digital Manufacturing Revolution Evolves in 2020 IMTS will offer two comprehensive digital programs, IMTS Network and IMTS Sp...

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2020-07-24

Help Wanted

Northwest Pennsylvania’s Oil Region has a long history in manufacturing. Many of the widgets that made oil extraction and processing possible were ...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2020-07-23

WFL Gives Machine Tools a Second Life

Decades of use on a WFL Millturn can lead to machine and equipment wear and loss of relative performance. Regular upgrades and services s...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2020-06-30

FANUC Offers Free Trial Version of CNC Guide

FANUC America is offering a free trial version of CNC Guide – FANUC’s PC-based virtualization platform for control design, tr...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2020-06-29

Helios Introduces TM 1000-CNC Gear Deburring and Chamfering Machine

Helios Gear Products has announced the latest technology improvement to its Tecnomacchine (“TM”) series of gear deburring and...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2020-06-15

Fanuc America Introduces 5-Axis Simulation to CNC Training

Fanuc America is expanding its CNC training offerings to include 5-axis simulation to further develop the next-gen manufacturing workforc...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2020-06-10

How Do We Fix This?

No political commentary today; just trying to get your attention! Although the headline is “on topic” for me. I am in my 50th year in th...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2020-05-20

Ask the Expert: 5/20/20 Edition

From time to time I’ll be doing some brief Ask the Expert questions and answers. These questions will be on topics that might be very familiar ...
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2020-05-01

The All-in-One Application Advantage

A Look at Complex, High-Performance Five-Axis Machining Solutions.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2020-04-16

Siemens Offers Sinumerik 828D CNC Through Fast Package Program

To offer a fast solution to US-based machine tool builders, system integrators and retrofitters, Siemens is stocking typical system packa...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2020-04-06

OrderFox Opens Up Digital CNC Marketplace Platform

The coronavirus shutdown is an extreme situation for the entire economy and is hitting the CNC industry hard. Although there is huge unce...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2020-03-11

Finding Future Superstars

Fans of American football have moved on to the next phase of their pre-draft preparation: digesting the advice of hundreds of experts on which play...
PUBLISHER'S PAGE | 2020-03-01

Keeping Things Moving

Over the past month, everything about our world has changed. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought most aspects of our lives to a grinding halt. We can’t go out to eat. We can’t travel. We can’t even go to church. A lot of businesses are struggling. But at the same time, there are a lot of people who are busier than ever. In some cases, frighteningly so.
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2020-02-19

Known Unknowns

In my last posting I mentioned the need for humility and skepticism. Before anyone think this is heading off into political commentary, let me expl...
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2020-01-01

Improving Cost Efficiency in Heat Treatment

The future gives the gear market plenty to think about in areas like automation, additive manufacturing and machine learning.
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2020-01-01

Bevel Gear Generators Get Better with Age

An economical modernization program gives Designatronics' tried-and-true Gleason No. 102 Coniflex generators a new lease on life for fast, reliable production of smaller precision straight bevel gears.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2019-12-18

Solar Adds Machining Capacity with CNC Lathe

To support rapid growth within their mechanical testing department, Solar Atmospheres of Western Pennsylvania has recently invested in a ...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2019-12-16

Fives Opens Center of Competency for Controls Engineering

At a grand opening ceremony, Fives DyAG Corp. (Smart AutomationSolutions Division) celebrated the inauguration of its new center of compe...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2019-11-12

Mitutoyo Announces Partnership with Titans of CNC

Mitutoyo America Corporation is pleased to announce a sponsorship agreement with Titans of CNC, a free project-based education platform t...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2019-09-24

Robot Fighting Time?

We watch lots of reality shows on cable television. Home remodeling shows, veterinary medicine shows, game warden shows, and car rebuilding shows a...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2019-09-12

Where Did All the Dealmakers Go?

An old business associate called the other day with a training request. To the best of my knowledge, he’s among the last “manufacturer’s representa...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2019-08-08

Mitutoyo Introduces New Shop Floor CNC Machine

Mitutoyo America Corporation is pleased to announce the release of the MiSTAR 555 CNC Shop Floor Coordinate Measuring Machine to its CMM ...
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2019-08-01

Show Stoppers

When you go to MPT Expo, make sure to visit the exhibitors in our special advertising section!
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2019-07-30

CMTS 2019: Index and Mitcham Machine Tools

At CMTS 2019, Index and Mitcham Machine Tools will be demonstrating how to increase output per operator via integrated automation and sin...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2019-07-29

Helios Introduces Hera 30 CNC Gear Hobbing Machines

The Helios Hera 30 offers gear manufacturers a next-generation CNC hobbing solution for fine- and ultra-fine-pitch gears. Exclusively sup...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2019-07-25

Gear Origins: Reinventing the Family Business

Sometimes the old family recipe needs updating… My husband’...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2019-07-16

Watching the Chips Fly

It was a real treat to spend a day at a gear shop this week. After all these years, I still enjoy watching a round blank get transformed into a gea...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2019-06-25

64+ Years of Gears—Geoff Ashcroft

1955. Fresh out of high school, (actually grammar school), 16 years old, unqualified academically and financially to continue full time education. ...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2019-06-24

Methods Machine Tools Announces Fanuc Robodrill EcoPlus

Methods Machine Tools, Inc., has announced the introduction of the new Fanuc RoboDrill EcoPlus, offering a larger 21 tool capacity and in...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2019-06-18

Claude Gosselin: Gears — Why Not?

When I graduated as a mechanical engineer in 1978, I landed a job in the “cold section” at Pratt & Whitney Canada (PWC) in Montreal. In those d...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2019-06-12

TCI Provides Blanks for CNC Skills Championship

TCI Precision Metals will provide custom Machine-Ready Blanks to the National Institute for Metalworking Skills (NIMS), in support of t...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2019-06-11

Heidenhain Opens CNC Controls Training Center in Chicago

Heidenhain has recently opened its TNC-CNC Academy. This expanded CNC controls training center in the Chicago area is available for users...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2019-06-11

Rob Swiss — The Accidental Engineer

Another young man discovers you need not be an expert machinist to succeed as a gear engineer. Spoiler alert: never tangle with a grinding wheel; they are undefeated in all time.
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2019-06-04

And may you have the joy of passing something on…

One of the reoccurring themes in our “origin stories” project is the willingness of people to school us in the sometimes confusing world of gears. ...
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2019-06-01

Identifying Equipment Failure

How machine tool maintenance has evolved in recent years in gear manufacturing.
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2019-05-24

Finding the Limits

Jim Richard’s account of his journey from youthful experimenter to designer of cutting edge gear processing equipment illustrates the amazing thing...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2019-05-16

Rocket Scientists are Gear People Too!

Dr. Handschuh’s origin story reminds us that the future...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2019-04-25

Applying the Fundamentals

Yefim Kotlyar’s origin story is a great lesson to anyone entering the o...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2019-04-24

Yefim Kotlyar — My Story

Yefim Kotlyar is a wonderful example of how gears unite the world. His background is much different than mine, yet we share a deep appreciation...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2019-04-16

Joe Arvin — My Story

Today’s origin story is by one of the true “good guys” in our trade. I first met Joe in 1989 when I was job hunting. He could tell I was in a b...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2019-03-14

Helios Gear Products Introduces Hera 90 CNC Gear Hobbing Machine

Helios Gear Products (formerly Koepfer America) now exclusively offers the Helios Hera 90 CNC gear hobbing machine from YG Tech for the N...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2019-03-05

Drake Manufacturing Offers Preventive Maintenance Program

A machine tool investment is intended to boost productivity but also requires maintenance to ensure that it continues working at an optim...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2019-02-28

Gone but Not Forgotten

Continuing our discussion of veteran machine tools, it occurs to me that many of our younger readers may not be aware that the United States was on...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2019-02-26

Old Soldiers

Almost every week, it seems, we read of the passing of ...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2019-02-21

Be Ready to Change Roles

One of the common threads in the origin stories we have posted is the frequency with which the person had to change roles. Specialization is for in...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2019-01-21

Helios Gear Products Represents Yunil Machine Tools in North America

Helios Gear Products, LLC (formerly Koepfer America, LLC) proudly announces its new long-term representation agreement with YG Tech Co., ...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2019-01-18

Getting into the Gear Trade: Chris Trochelman

Here is the first of our guest blogs on the topic of how you entered the gear trade. Chris Trochelman (pictured above, fa...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2019-01-10

The Journey Continues

An apprentice ...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2019-01-08

Luck of the Draw

Forty-eight years ago, I was fini...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2019-01-03

How Did You Get in Here?

Happy New Year! In just a few weeks we will begin our SIXTH year of this blog. While it has been great fun posting about the gear trade with you, w...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2019-01-01

Industry News

The complete Industry News section from the January/February 2019 issue of Gear Technology.
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2019-01-01

The Growth of Australian Regenerative Load Testing

Historically, gearbox original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and repair organizations have tended to offer their customers no-load, full speed (spin) tests as a standard performance test. If a load test was specified, the supplier would probably offer a locked torque back-to-back simulated load test, which requires a large investment in tooling to connect shafts of the test and slave gearboxes.
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2018-12-20

Don't Go Chasing Superstars

There is a great deal of buzz these days around the shortage of skilled workers for our manufacturing operations. Almost as much as there is concer...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2018-12-18

Methods Machine Tools Appoints General Manager for Memphis Technology Center

Methods Machine Tools, Inc., North America's foremost supplier of leading-edge precision machine tools and automation, has announced ...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2018-11-15

Beautiful on the Inside

Higher Quality Internal Gears

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2018-11-01

Institutional Memory

There is an old joke that a consultant is someone who borrows your watch in order to tell you what time it is. Unfortunately, there is an element o...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2018-10-30

New Things in an Old Box

To conclude our loo...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2018-10-18

How to Upgrade a Classic

If you are a f...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2018-10-16

Is it Worth Upgrading?

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2018-10-02

Necessity as the Mother of Invention

When you offer rebuilding service...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2018-09-27

Acceptable Fixes

You do not always have to say “no” when confronted with non-conforming parts. Here are a few “fixes” I have been comfortable authorizing:

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2018-08-15

IMTS 2018: A Field Guide

Chicago Preps for the Next Manufacturing Technology Extravaganza Matthew Jaster, Senior Editor
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2018-08-08

Methods Machine Tools Names Director of Financial Services

Methods Machine Tools, Inc., North America's foremost supplier of leading-edge precision machine tools and automation, has announced ...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2018-07-20

Bourn & Koch Promotes Joe Goral to Business Unit Manager for Grinding Machine Tools

Bourn & Koch, Inc. is pleased to announce that Joe Goral Sr. has accepted a new position within the company as business unit manage...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2018-06-12

Can We Use This Instead?

Right up there with the dreaded “blank sheet of paper” is the inevitable question of “Can we use this instead?” It came as a real shock to me the f...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2018-06-07

Methods Machine Tools Celebrates 60th Anniversary

Methods Machine Tools, Inc. is celebrating its 60th anniversary. Founded in November of 1958, with three employees and a few refurbishe...
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 2018-06-01

Human Machine Interface (HMI) in Gear Manufacturing

"Documentation is not a Substitute for an Intuitive Interface." The author explores the development of modern controls for a CNC gear grinding machine.
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2018-05-18

Parametric Design

One of the scariest things a gear designer can face is a blank sheet of paper. This is why most of our products are “derivative” rather than “revol...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2018-04-30

EMAG Gets Smart with Mobile Analytics

Machine data has never been easier to collect, distribute and analyze. Monitoring production lines, evaluating tools and surveying tool conditions ...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2018-02-12

IIoT Spotlight: The Job Shop

As IIoT solutions become more readily available throughout the manufacturing sector, challenges continue when you start looking specifically at the...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2018-01-31

IIoT Spotlight: A Look at Honeywell Connected Plant

One of the most relevant topics in manufacturing right now is predicting process conditions and equipment failures for continuous improvement on th...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2018-01-04

Marposs Electrical Gauge Actuators Provides Increased Control and Reduced Maintenance time for E-Fenar and Blú Systems

Marposs has enhanced its gauging solutions for grinding machines with new electrical gauge actuators. As compared to former hydraulic and...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2017-12-21

NUM Flexium+ CNC Platform Forms Base for Star Cutter's New NTG 6RL

NUM's latest-generation CNC systems are helping the US manufacturer Star Cutter Company to maintain its position as a world leader in...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2017-12-12

Engineering Safety (Part One)

Watching the movie Deepwater Horizon got me thinking about current attitudes on workplace safety. (Full disclosure — I am a bit of a cr...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2017-11-30

Slater Tools Indexable Punch Broach Tooling Offers Simple Setup to Machine Numerous Shapes on Presses and CNC Machines

Slater Tools announces its range of indexable punch broaches and holders to machine shapes in workpieces where rotary broaching may not b...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2017-11-29

Mitutoyo Quick Image CNC 2D Vision Measuring System Introduces New Models with Moving Stage

Mitutoyo America Corporation announced the release of the Quick Image CNC (QI-C), the latest addition in the Quick Image Series of 2D vis...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2017-11-07

Jenoptik Industrial Metrology Hommel-Etamic Wavemove Measuring Station Features Eight-Axis CNC Measurement Technology

The Jenoptik Industrial Metrology division offers a fully automated measuring station which can be operated directly by staff on the prod...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2017-11-07

Discouraging Change

One of the neat things about the Gear Expo is seeing people you once worked with. Sometimes though, they remember your interactions in greater deta...
ASK THE EXPERT | 2017-11-01

Friction Coefficient of Differently Treated Steel Surfaces

A reader asks about ion-nitride finished shafts and the proper friction coefficient to be used for calculations.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2017-11-01

Industry News

Gear Technology hosts dinner for technical contributors to the gear industry during this year's AGMA Fall Technical Meeting and Gear Expo in Columbus, OH. Plus other news from around the industry.
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2017-10-27

Storage Problems

One of my favorite science fiction books is A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller, Jr., originally published in 1960. This post-ap...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2017-10-25

Gear Expo Day 1

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2017-10-12

Thinking Big

My local newspaper’s lead story today concerned the explosive demolition of a highway bridge in nearby Tionesta, PA. As luck would have it, our mos...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2017-10-10

Appreciating the Shiny Stuff

I lament the rise of the “Service Economy.” This past Friday was National Manufacturing Day; I did not know that until my editor brought it to my a...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2017-09-05

Planning for Disaster

The massive flood damage in Houston will take years and billions of dollars to repair. Even with plenty of warning, there was no way to evacuate mi...
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2017-09-01

Gear Expo 2017 and ASM Heat Treat 2017 Booth Previews

The latest technology on display in Columbus, OH. October 24-26.
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2017-08-08

Taking on the Impossible

Those multi-trillion-dollar figures thrown around for infrastructure repair make progress seem impossible without huge tax increases and a long com...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2017-06-15

Relocation Time

Today I moved for the seventh time in my career. It is the first time on my tab though so I am probably paying more attention to the process than i...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2017-06-13

Mastercam 2018 Focuses on Efficiency and Speed

Mastercam 2018 was recently introduced at EASTEC where attendees were impressed with the tools the software has available to get parts off...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2017-06-09

A Lesson Learned and Acted On

I have been getting lots of windshield time this year between business travel, house hunting, relocation, and even a few days of vacation. Our fabu...
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2017-06-01

Anatomy of a Rebuild

Nuttall Gear taps Machine Tool Builders for shop floor upgrades.
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2017-05-19

Exploring New Methods

I have been following developments on gear making in general-purpose CNC machines with great interest. The advent of affordable gear grinding seems...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2017-05-11

Here There Be Dragons

On the AGMA Helical Gear Rating Committee we frequently deal with how to warn users away from potentially dangerous designs. Some years ago our won...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2017-04-13

Fundamentals of Maintenance

Modern cars and trucks are wonderfully reliable and durable. As much as I love old cars I cannot cleanse my memory of the heartbreaking behavior th...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2017-04-11

Why Things Break

I used to tease our maintenance staff that there were only two reasons a machine went down: it went down because we worked on it or because we did ...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2017-04-06

Holroyd Precision Absolute Care Maintenance Program Offers CNC Upgrade Packages and Machine Refurbishment Services for Holroyd Machines

As part of its ‘Absolute Care' machine tool maintenance program, Holroyd Precision is offering a range of CNC upgrade packages ...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2017-03-21

Worm Gears: Higher Energy Efficiency and Less Strain on Resources

Introduction The concepts of sustainability and energy efficiency are gaining importance in power transmission engineering. Mor...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2017-03-09

Ipsen CompuCore Offers Competitive Option for Controls Retrofits for Vacuum Furnaces

Ipsen is introducing a new, competitively priced option for controls retrofits in the form of CompuCore. Available for installation on mo...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2017-03-06

Siemens Announces Limited-Time Offer for Users of Machine Tools with Sinumerik CNCs

Siemens has announced a limited-time offer, effective until May 31, 2017. Under this program, users of any machine tool with Sinumerik CN...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2017-03-02

The First Steps are the Hardest

Apprenticeships are frequently mentioned as the key to rebuilding America’s manufacturing sector. The people who usually say this often have limite...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2017-02-22

ANCA Machine Tools Promotes Keith Grillot to Sales Manager for U.S. and Canada

ANCA Machine Tools (AMT) has named Keith Grillot sales manager for its U.S. and Canadian markets, according to Russell Riddiford, ANCA pr...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2017-02-14

Faster is Not Always Better

That old “Overhead” article reminded me of what a shock it was when we first moved into cellular manufacturing. After years of investigating ways t...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2017-01-31

History Lessons

An eye exam got me wondering about how things were designed and developed before the computer age. The office I visit has all the latest medical eq...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2017-01-19

Gears That Time Forgot

My consulting practice covers a very wide range of products — from 4-inch circular pitch mill stands to 180-NDP handheld medical devices — I see th...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2016-12-20

Mitutoyo CNC Cylindricity Measuring System Boasts High Rotational Accuracy

Mitutoyo has announced the release of the RA-6000CNC, a custom-built CNC roundness/cylindricity measuring system with best-in-class accur...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2016-12-15

Repair, Replace, or Rebuild?

      I enjoy watching car auctions on cable television. Some of my enjoyment comes from the commen...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2016-12-13

Job Satisfaction

    Every once in a while you need a reminder of why you enjoy your work. This week I got to witness final testing of a...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2016-11-15

Friends in High Places

U.S.-based motorsports have had a lot to cheer about in Formula One this season with the debut of the first American team in thirty years. Haas F1,...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2016-11-10

Change Begins at Home

From reports I have gotten, 2016 is proving to be a challenging year for the gear industry. Traditional markets such as mineral extraction and gas/...
EVENTS | 2016-11-01

Calendar

Calendar of events
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2016-10-18

Two Problems, Two Machines, Two Solutions

Delta’s Investment in New Mitsubishi Equipment Adds Capacity, Reduces Cycle Time Dwight Smith, Vice President, Mitsubishi Hea...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2016-09-29

One Step at a Time

My first drafting class involved a lot of pencil sharpening. It was a boring exercise that the students found somewhat insulting. There were pencil...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2016-09-13

Reinventing the Factory

McCormick Place will be transformed into a wonderland of machinery and tooling this weekend for the 2016 version of the International Machine Tool ...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2016-09-01

IMTS 2016: German Machine Tools of America (GMTA) (N-6924)

Rasoma Machining Centers Now available from German Machine Tools of America (GMTA), a full line of Rasoma machining centers, includi...
PRODUCT NEWS | 2016-09-01

Product News

News on the latest products in the industry.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 2016-09-01

A Proposed Pre-Finish Cylindrical Gear Quality Standard

This proposed standard would not make any recommendations regarding the required quality for any application. The intent is to establish standard pre-finish quality classes for typical finishing operations, which only include the inspection elements that are important to properly evaluate pre-finish gear quality as it applies to the finishing operation. It would be the responsibility of the manufacturing/process engineer, quality engineer, or other responsible individual to establish the required pre-finish quality class for their application.
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2016-09-01

Contingency Planning

I got caught up in a messy but foreseeable travel delay coming home from my first trip to China. Foreseeable because airplanes are machines and mac...
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2016-08-01

IMTS 2016 Booth Previews

Comprehensive descriptions of what you will find in the booths of many leading gear industry suppliers at IMTS 2016.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2016-08-01

Hardinge Talent 42 and 51 CNC Turning Centers Present Numerous Options and Features

Hardinge Inc. has announced the release of their newest family of CNC Turning Centers, the Talent 42 and 51. The Hardinge Talent Series ...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2016-07-20

Covering All Angles

Klingelnberg Hosts 6th WZL Gear Conference in the USA 2016  Matthew Jaster, Senior Editor ...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2016-07-01

Mitutoyo Quick Vision Active CNC Vision Measurement System Offers Interchangeable Objective Zoom Lenses

Mitutoyo America Corporation has announced the addition of the Quick Vision Active series to the line-up of vision measurement systems. T...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2016-06-28

The Importance of Record Keeping

    Very rarely does a gearbox designer have the opportunity to see his or her products at work many years later. Recently I was as...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2016-06-23

Revisiting the Bad Old Days

  Unless you are involved with rebuilding old equipment, it may be entirely possible to never see a tooth flank with “progressive pitting.”...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2016-06-21

Missing the Geek Squad

  One of the things I miss most about full-time work is the presence of knowledgeable, in-house technical support for my comput...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2016-06-08

Methods Machine Tools, Inc. Announces Jerry Rex as New COO

Methods Machine Tools, Inc. announced the appointment of Jerry Rex as Chief Operating Officer of all Methods Machine Tools operations. Th...
PRODUCT NEWS | 2016-06-01

Product News

News about the Latest Products
PUBLISHER'S PAGE | 2016-06-01

Apologies

I'd like to apologize to the dedicated people working on revisions to the AGMA 925 standard and the Technical Report ISO 15144-1, both of which deal with the issue of micropitting. In the March/April issue of Gear Technology, we published an opinion piece in our Voices column that harshly criticized the methods for predicting micropitting outlined in ISO 15144-1.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2016-05-09

Bourn & Koch Legacy Machine Tools Can be Remanufactured, Retrofitted or Repaired

Over the last four decades, through numerous acquisitions Bourn & Koch, Inc. has become the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) for...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2016-05-02

Fives Machining Systems Diagnostic Communication System Added to Cincinnati and Giddings & Lewis Machine Tools

Fives Machining Systems is introducing a new remote diagnostics capability that allows machine operators to connect with Fives Cinci...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2016-04-26

No Fantasy Draft

Chicago will once again host the National Football League draft for former college players. Millions of fans will tune in to see where their favori...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2016-04-19

Ransohoff WasteWizard Features Siemens Controls and Expandable Modules

Ransohoff has introduced the next generation of its WasteWizard solution recycling system, which now features advanced Siemens controls w...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2016-04-07

Slow Times Don’t Last

    A number of people have contacted me recently, seeking ideas for new markets. If I knew where the work was hiding, I would go g...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2016-04-06

Siemens Sinumerik CNCs Upgraded to 4-Axis, Doubles Output

The expanded contour machining cycle for Sinumerik CNCs now facilitates 4-axis turning on lathes. Two turning tools, opposite one another...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2016-03-31

Delta College Receives CNC Equipment Entrustments

Delta College recently received several large entrustments of equipment from leading manufacturers, allowing them to upgrade their CNC fa...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2016-03-11

GMTA Offers Rasoma Machine Tools in North America

German Machine Tools of America (GMTA) now offers a full line of Rasoma machining centers, including vertical turning centers, four-axis ...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2016-03-03

When Do We See the Gears?

In 1971, the American gear business was far different from today. I am unaware of any modern company with a formal gear cutter’s apprenticeship; at...
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2016-03-01

Plastic Gearing Continues Converting the Unconverted

Plastic gears are everywhere today - throughout your car, at the oceans' lowest depths, in deep space. The question, when is a metal gear a candidate for plastic conversion, can be addressed in three words, i.e. what's the application?
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2016-02-23

Reviving Old Ideas

My last blog may have sounded like I didn’t think there was anything really new to be found in the gear trade. Actually I think there are numerous ...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2016-02-18

Something to Look Forward to

With Super Bowl 50 behind us, the sporting public can turn its attention to basketball and hockey while baseball teams start spring training. Those...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2016-02-09

Discovering Gears

Recently, an attorney told me that his eleven-year-old daughter had “discovered” gears in a science class and was excitedly learning all she could ...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2016-01-28

Room for Improvement

Previous blogs here have celebrated the great advances made in gear industry design capabilities and machine tools. As the “paper of record” for th...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2016-01-21

Nostalgia Time

I am less of an airplane fan than most engineers, but the news reports of Air France scheduling special “last flights” for its retiring Boeing 747 ...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2016-01-14

Better Tools, Better Gears?

  Previous blogs have discussed how fortunate we are to live in an age with the very best in gear making technology. Modern gear grinding m...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2016-01-12

German Machine Tools of America Incorporate Hard Scudding Process

The scudding industry took another step forward recently with a new process known as Hard Scudding. The conventional Scudding process wor...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2015-11-11

Koepfer America K-Powered CNC Gear Hobbing Machine Provides Next Step in Repowering Old Models

Koepfer America recently completed the next step in its K-Repowered CNC re-control program with the first K160 Repowered CNC Gear Hobbing...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2015-11-03

Index New CNC Multi-Spindle Lathe MS16 Plus Has a Total of 27 NC Axes

Designed to supplant cam-controlled multi-spindle lathes up to 22 mm bar diameter, the new Index MS16 Plus of the Index MultiLine series ...
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2015-11-01

Buyers Guide

The 2015 Gear Technology Buyers 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.
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2015-10-06

One World Now

My Saturday morning routine now includes watching a bit of “futball” from the English Premier League. The next day an American football game was br...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2015-09-17

Questions Should Not Be Disruptive

Continuing my rant on disruptive employees: a few posts ago I mentioned the ill will I engendered early in a new job by questioning the large perce...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2015-09-03

When Good Employees Screw Up

A friend of mine is the inspection department for a custom machine shop. He is also the process engineer and, occasionally, a machine operator. Rec...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2015-09-01

Industry News

News from the Gear Industry
PRODUCT NEWS | 2015-09-01

Product News

News about New Products
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2015-08-03

Heiko Machine Tools Chosen to Sell Cesar Galdabini Products

Heiko Machine Tools (Canton, MI) recently announced that it has been chosen by Cesar Galdabini SPA (Milan, Italy) as the sales and market...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2015-07-30

New Ways to Make Old Parts

My last post discussed reviewing the ratings and designs of “legacy products,” those venerable parts and gearboxes still being ordered twenty, thir...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2015-07-28

Brainstorming to Better Products

Many gear companies are not in a position to develop new products but most of them could make their current products better. Business schools may p...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2015-07-14

Absolute Machine Tools Now Selling Tongtai MT Series Lathes

Tongtai recently announced its newest MT Series Lathes that have been developed for improving cycle times and turning processes for the a...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2015-07-06

Mitutoyo LEGEX 4 CNC Machine Provides High-Accuracy Measurements

Mitutoyo America Corporation recently released the latest LEGEX CNC coordinate measuring machine (CMM). The LEGEX 4 delivers accuracy in ...
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 2015-07-01

I Like Big Gears and I Cannot Lie!

Many years ago, when asked how the five-meter gear was checked, the quality manager responded, “When they’re that big, they’re never bad!” That may have been the attitude and practice in the past, but it no longer serves the manufacturer nor the customer. Requirements have been evolving steadily, requiring gears to perform better and last longer.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2015-06-12

NCSIMUL CAM Streamlines CNC Programming

Spring Technologies, vendor of software that optimizes the use of NC Machines, recently announced the worldwide launch of NCSIMUL CAM. Th...
PUBLISHER'S PAGE | 2015-06-01

Good Morning, Class

Since we began publishing in 1984, Gear Technology's mission has been to educate our readers. For 31 years, we've shown you the basics of gear manufacturing as well as the cutting edge. We take our educational mission quite seriously, and we go through steps that most publishers don't have time for or wouldn't consider.
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2015-05-28

Formula 1 Gearbox Designs

As mentioned in my last blog, Formula 1 gearboxes are now highly integrated into the overall car design. The days of a “spec” transmission from a t...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2015-05-12

Business of Sports, Cont.

Picking up from last week on W. Edwards Deming… We’re constantly hearing sports terms and metaphors used in business c...
ADDENDUM | 2015-05-01

Henry Maudslay

Here is some history that bears repeating - or at least re-reading. So take a few minutes to give it up for a long-gone Brit named Henry Maudslay (August 22, 1771 - February 14, 1831) - also known as "A Founding Father of Machine Tool Technology." You might also consider him an early leader in inspection, as he also invented the first bench micrometer capable of measuring to one ten-thousandth of an inch.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2015-04-10

Meghan Summers-West Named President of CNC Software

Meghan Summers-West was recently appointed president of CNC Software, Inc., the developer of Mastercam CAD/CAM programming...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2015-04-07

Horsepower Race

[starbox]As the Tool Time host used to say, “The answer is more power.” My little lathe/mill combo has a whopping .75 horsepower and I’ve managed t...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2015-03-06

Index to Demonstrate Modular Eight-spindle Automatic CNC Turning Machine at PMTS 2015

Index will demonstrate its MS22C-8, a modular eight-spindle automatic CNC turning machine, producing brass connector parts at PMTS 2015, ...
EVENTS | 2015-03-01

Calendar

The complete technical calendar from the March/April 2015 issue of Gear Technology.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2015-02-13

German Machine Tools of America Releases the Präwema SynchroFine 205 HS

Now available from German Machine Tools of America (GMTA), the Präwema SynchroFine 205 HS gear honing machine features direct-driven...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2015-01-07

Easy CNC App Now Available for Android Devices

Siemen's Easy CNC app is now available for Android devices. Easy CNC contains all the current training manuals for Siemens Sinumerik ...
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2015-01-01

Getting in Gear with the Chain of Innovations

At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, so-called mechanics were tasked with devising the precise methods that would make mass production possible. The result was the first generation of machine tools, which in turn required improved tooling and production methods.
EVENTS | 2015-01-01

Calendar

Calendar of Events
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2014-12-04

Overcoming Adversity

[starbox] My last blog concerned project management and the problems of staying on schedule. I thought it only fair to pass on some techniques I...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2014-11-13

A Good Waste of Time

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2014-11-07

The Importance of Perseverance

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2014-10-29

History Lessons

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2014-10-21

Fall Technical Meeting Report

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2014-09-23

E is for Effort

[starbox] The second step in my performance evaluation procedure looks at the effort a team member puts into his or her job. From our first day ...
PUBLISHER'S PAGE | 2014-09-01

Cracking the WIP

Over the past few months I've talked with several different gear manufacturers who are in the process of upgrading their gear making equipment with modern CNC machine tools. Each of these manufacturers has come to the realization that in order to stay competitive, he needs to streamline operations and become more efficient...
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2014-09-01

Gear Manufacturer Benefits from CAM Initiatives and Advanced Manufacturing Technology

Multiple CAM initiatives at Snyder Industries are improving safety, quality and productivity for parts ranging from 50 to 5,000 lbs.
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2014-08-28

Specialization is for Insects

[starbox] The sports world was abuzz recently over a girl pitching her Little League team into the World Championship Tournament. For some this ...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2014-08-26

Disneyland for Engineers

[starbox] After living in the Chicago area for 10 years I have made peace with the congestion, high prices, long commute tim...

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2014-08-12

Unforeseen Consequences

[starbox] For something that causes so much trouble for so many people, you would think there would be lots of consideration given to the unforese...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2014-07-17

Reader Outreach

One of the objectives of this — or any — blog is to encourage two-way communication with its readers. Which reminds that Gear Tech...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2014-07-06

PTG Revises Maintenance and Support Services

U.K.-based Precision Technologies Group (PTG) has totally revised its range of machine tool maintenance and support services, to provide ...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2014-06-05

Is the 10,000 Hour “Rule” a Myth?

Malcomb Gladwell popularized the notion that 10,000 hours of repetition could make you a virtuoso in his 2008 book, Outliers: The ...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2014-05-27

The Arsenal of Democracy

[starbox] The Memorial Day holiday means different things to different people. To some it is the official start of summer, although the erratic ...
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2014-05-01

Moving Parts

Machine tools boost speed and throughput with automation technology.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2014-05-01

Sercos Highlights Automation Solutions for Machine Tools

Sercos International, supplier of the Sercos automation bus, registered high interest in Sercos-capable products at Hannover Fair...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2014-04-24

Working Dinosaurs

[starbox] Reflecting upon “transformative technology,” I remember the sadness I felt at the Cincinnati Gear Company auction when a group of pris...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2014-04-17

More Adventures in Modifying Machines

[starbox] In my last posting I wrote about some of the projects I have been involved with to squeeze a bigger part in an existing machine. Most ...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2014-04-15

If the Shoe Doesn’t Fit …

[starbox] Blogging about emerging 3-D printing technology reminded me of occasions when it was necessary to “stretch the envelope” to get things...
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2014-03-03

Time Flies When You Are Making Gears

[starbox] On Saturday I began my 44th year in the gear industry. I remember way too many details of my first day as a drafting apprentice at the...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2014-03-01

GT Extras

GT Videos featuring R&P Metrology, the latest from our Twitter and LinkedIn feeds and an introduction to gearboxfailure.com
GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2014-01-31

Barn Find Gearboxes

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2013-12-19

CNC Technology Expands with Sinumerik from Siemens

Industrial corporations are facing deep-rooted changes in the world of manufacturing. These changes are taking place alongs...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2013-12-10

NUM Offers CNC Solution for Gear Production

NUM has announced a high performance CNC solution for gear production machines that fully automates threaded wheel grinding. Incorporatin...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2013-11-01

Industry News

The complete Industry News section from the November/December 2013 issue of Gear Technology.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2013-10-30

Ipsen Offers Furnace Maintenance Best Practices

The recent tightening of process regulations, such as Nadcap and AMS 2750E, have been in the spotlight for a few months now. Customers lo...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2013-10-11

GMTA Hires Manger of Controls Engineering and Programming

Effective October 1, Maik Schminke was named manager of controls engineering and programming at the Ann Arbor facility of GMTA. According...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2013-09-06

Okuma Introduces Maintenance App

Okuma America Corporation has released a new app that displays scheduled maintenance and inspection reminders. Depending on the particula...
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2013-09-01

New Technology Roll Call

Interviews with exhibitors at ASM's Heat Treat 2013 exposition, which is co-located with Gear Expo.
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2013-09-01

How to Inspect a Gearbox

Although a comprehensive on-site gearbox inspection is desirable in many situations, there may be constraints that limit the extent of the inspection such as cost, time, accessibility and qualified personnel. This article describes the equipment and techniques necessary to perform an on-site gearbox inspection.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 2013-09-01

New-Formula Acetylene Cool for Heat Treatment

Acetylene with DMF solvent enables benefits of low-pressure vacuum carburizing.
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2013-08-01

Gear Expo 2013 - An Oscar-Worthy Indy Production

We are well into an odd-number year, so it must be just about time for another Gear Expo. Indeed, the big show -- Gear Expo 2013 -- kicks off in Indianapolis at 9:00 a.m. Tuesday, September 17, wrapping up Thursday the 19th at 4:00 p.m. And whether you are exhibiting or attending, the bottom line is you are going -- a good thing for you, your company and the tightly knit U.S. gear industry.
ASK THE EXPERT | 2013-08-01

Girth Gear Inspection - Pre- and Post-Manufacture

What are the ins-and-outs of quality inspection of girth gears, from both a manufacturer and buyer perspective? Our experts respond.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2013-07-24

Methods Machine Tools Appoints Concept as Midwest Distributor

Methods Machine Tools, Inc. has appointed Concept Machine Tool (Minneapolis, MN & Delafield, WI) as distributor in the Midwest U.S. c...
PUBLISHER'S PAGE | 2013-06-01

Boom or Bust - Are You in the Right Markets

Over the past few months we've talked with a lot of gear manufacturers. Many of them tell us business is strong, while others are struggling with reduced demand. The difference between them isn't so much in the quality of their manufacturing operations, but rather trends in the end markets they serve.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2013-05-10

Machine Tools Matter at EMO

From September 16 to September 21, 2013, this year’s EMO Hannover will be opening its doors.  At the wor...
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2013-05-01

If You Rebuild It, They Will Buy It

It’s been said that the best ideas are often someone else's. But with rebuilt, retrofitted, re-controlled or remanufactured machine tools, buyer beware and hold onto your wallet. Sourcing re-work vendors and their services can require just as much homework, if not necessarily dollars, as with just-off-the-showroom-floor machines.
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2013-05-01

Delivering Big Gears Fast

When a customer needed gears delivered in three weeks, here’s how Brevini Wind got it done.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2013-03-25

ANCA to Demonstrate CNC Tool and Cutter Grinder

The new, affordable ANCA MX5 CNC tool and cutter grinder will be demonstrated at EASTEC Booth 1152. Designed with the volume end-mill pro...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2013-03-19

Renishaw System Tests Accuracy of Machine Tools

The new Renishaw XR20-W calibration system measures the angular position of rotary axes to within ±1 arc second, wirelessly, for t...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2013-02-18

Heidenhain Releases CNC Training Tools

Heidenhain Corporation has released a unique online interactive training tool for CNC instruction called Heidenhain Interactive Training ...
PRODUCT NEWS | 2013-01-01

Product News

The complete Product News section from the January/February 2013 issue of Gear Technology.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2012-11-01

Industry News

The complete Industry News section from the November/December 2012 issue of Gear Technology.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2012-10-18

Methods Machine Tools Introduces FEELER FT Turning Centers

Methods Machine Tools, Inc., a supplier of innovative precision machine tools, automation and accessories, has introduced FEELER FT-Serie...
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 2012-10-01

Differential Gears

What are the manufacturing methods used to make bevel gears used in automotive differentials?
PRODUCT NEWS | 2012-09-01

Sicmat Utilizes NUM CNC Systems

A high-performance, 11-axis CNC system from NUM has enabled machine tool manufacturer Sicmat to create a gear honing machine that sets a new industry standard for post-hardening fine finishing.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 2012-03-01

Ask the Expert - Bevel Gear Mounting

I am currently writing a design procedure for the correct method for setting up bevel gears in a gearbox for optimum performance...
EVENTS | 2011-10-01

EMO Hannover - More than Machine Tools

Some gear-related highlights from the recent EMO show in Hannover, Germany.
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2011-09-01

Next Stop Cincinnati

What's not to like about a more focused, user-friendly Gear Expo? Booth Previews.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2011-08-01

Industry News

The complete Industry News section from the August 2011 issue of Gear Technology.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 2011-01-01

Spiral Bevel Gears: Tribology Aspects in Angular Transmission Systems, Part IV

This article is part four of an eight-part series on the tribology aspects of angular gear drives. Each article will be presented first and exclusively by Gear Technology, but the entire series will be included in Dr. Stadtfeld’s upcoming book on the subject, which is scheduled for release in 2011.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2010-07-01

Industry News

The complete Industry News section from the July 2010 issue of Gear Technology.
PRODUCT NEWS | 2010-05-01

KISSsoft Update Integrates Parasolid CAD Core

The machine element package by KISSsoft for the design and optimization of components like gears, shafts, bearings and others is now available in the new version 04/2010.
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2010-05-01

Your Tax Dollars at Work: U.S. Commerce Department, Your Boots on the Ground Overseas

Easily one of the central issues affecting U.S. manufacturing is what one might call the exports deficit—the inability of American companies to sell products to, for instance, Asian markets, developing countries and other ports of call—due to what they perceive to be unfair trade agreements and or policies.
PRODUCT NEWS | 2010-03-01

Product News

The complete Product News section from the March/April 2010 issue of Gear Technology.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 2010-03-01

High-Temperature Testing of Stanyl Plastic Gears: A Comparison with Tensile Fatigue Data

This paper shows an experimental study on the fatigue lifetime of high-heat polyamide (Stanyl) gears running in oil at 140°C. Based on previous works (Refs. 1–2), an analysis is made correcting for tooth bending and calculating actual root stresses. A comparison with tensile bar fatigue data for the same materials at 140°C shows that a good correlation exists between gear fatigue data and tensile bar fatigue data. This insight provides a solid basis for gear designers to design plastic gears using actual material data.
PRODUCT NEWS | 2009-08-01

Product News

The complete Product News section from the August 2009 issue of Gear Technology.
ADDENDUM | 2009-07-01

You Want It When

What do glam and avant garde rock star Brian Eno, AGMA and Seattle Gear Works have in common? Admittedly, not much. But there is a connection of sorts.
ADDENDUM | 2009-03-01

Honk if You Love Gears

The Addendum Team announces plans for the Gear Vanity Plate Hall of Fame.
EVENTS | 2009-01-01

Events

The complete Events section from the January/February 2009 issue of Gear Technology.
EVENTS | 2008-11-01

Events

The complete Events section from the November/December 2008 issue of Gear Technology
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2008-09-01

Industry News

The complete Industry News section from the September/October 2008 issue of Gear Technology.
VOICES | 2008-07-01

Entrepreneurialism and Survival in the Global Market

Joe Arvin of Arrow Gear gives his insight on what it takes to succeed in today's gear industry.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2008-05-01

Industry News

The complete Industry News section from the May 2008 issue of Gear Technology.
VOICES | 2007-09-01

Uncovering Core Competencies

How can a company grow its business or plan for growth when its niche area only accesses the smaller part of the pie?
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 2007-09-01

The New Freedoms: Bevel Blades

Today, because of reduced cost of coatings and quicker turnaround times, the idea of all-around coating on three-face-sharpened blades is again economically viable, allowing manufacturers greater freedoms in cutting blade parameters, including three-face-sharpened and even four-face-sharpened blades.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2007-08-07

Koepfer America Launches Large Capacity CNC Hob Sharpening Machine

Koepfer America developed the new KFS250 CNC hob sharpening machine, which is  based on its KFS100 series.  The KFS250 series h...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2007-02-06

Cincinnati Machine Introduces CNC Tape Layer Technology

Cincinnati Machine's new CHARGER Series of machines were designed to improve upon the technology and productivity of CNC composite ta...
PUBLISHER'S PAGE | 2007-01-01

What Do You Think

Publisher Michael Goldstein wants to know what you think about the 2007 redesign of Gear Technology magazine
PRODUCT NEWS | 2006-09-01

Product News

The complete Product News section from September/October 2006.
PRODUCT NEWS | 2006-07-01

Product News

The complete Product News section from the July/August 2006 issue.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2006-04-20

Mastercam’s Latest CNC Software Enhanced to Provide Multi-Axis Toolpaths

The new Maintenance Release 2 (MR2) software from Mastercam introduces new capabilities including multi-axis toolpaths and Mastercam X a...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2006-04-11

Weiler’s New Brochure Details In-Machine CNC Deburring on Flat Surfaces

Weiler Corp.’s newest brochure details its in-machine CNC deburring of flat surfaces and highlights the company’s Nylox disc br...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2006-02-14

Service Network Expands Representation Network

Service Network announced that Precision Machine Tools Inc. as their exclusive representative for the Northeast region. Their princip...
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 2006-01-01

Investigation of the Noise and Vibration of Planetary Gear Drives

With the aim of reducing the operating noise and vibration of planetary gear sets used in automatic transmissions, a meshing phase difference was applied to the planet gears that mesh with the sun and ring gears.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 2005-09-01

A Split Happened on the Way to Reliable, Higher-Volume Gear Grinding

Bevel gear manufacturers live in one of two camps: the face hobbing/lapping camp, and the face milling/grinding camp.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2005-09-01

Industry News

The complete Industry News section from the September/October 2005 issue of Gear Technology.
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2005-09-01

The Unofficial Guide to Gear Expo 2005

Booth Listings for Gear Expo 2005 in Detroit.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2005-04-13

Ikona Gear Appoints Nicola Simon to Board of Directors

Ikona Gear announced the appointment of Nicola Simon to its board of directors. Simon is currently the platform leader for Ballard Pow...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2005-03-26

First 7-Speed Gearbox has a Shift Plate of DuPont Zytel

A shift plate made of DuPont Zytel nylon carries the fully integrated gear change control system of DaimlerChrysler’s 7G-Tronic seve...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2005-02-17

VFS Sells Furnace to Bio-Vac

Vacuum Furnace Corp. sold a vacuum furnace to Bio-Vac Corp. for their Southfield, MI orthopedic coatings plant. The new horizontal two-ba...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2005-01-19

Hexagon Metrology Debuts CNC Measuring Arm at Fabtech

Hexagon Metrology introduced a new CNC articulated measuring arm at Fabtech that president and CEO William Gruber calls ?our version of a...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2004-01-04

New Managers at M&M Precision

Mark Cowan and John Zahora joined M&M Precision Systems Corp. of Willoughby, OH, in different management positions. According to the ...
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2004-01-01

New Potentials in Carbide Hobbing

To meet the future goals of higher productivity and lower production costs, the cutting speeds and feeds in modern gear hobbing applications have to increase further. In several cases, coated carbide tools have replaced the commonly used high speed steel (HSS) tools.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2003-12-21

Equity Firm Acquires Majority of VCST

Fox Paine & Co.,a San Francisco-based private equity firm, has acquired a majority stake in VCST Industrial Products N.V., a Belgium-base...
INDUSTRY NEWS | 2003-12-14

Absolute Machine Tools Adds New Product Line

Absolute Machine Tools has entered into an exclusive marketing agreement with Lih Chang Machinery Co., Ltd. of Taiwan to carry its Argo S...
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 2003-09-01

Direct Gear Design: Bending Stress Minimization

Bending stress evaluation in modern gear design is generally based on the more-than-one-hundred-year-old Lewis equation.
PRODUCT NEWS | 2003-05-01

Product News

Complete Product News for May/June 2003.
ADDENDUM | 2002-09-01

Gears of Rockwell Hardness

Nobody's sure what went on in Bolsa Chica, CA, when gear-shaped stones were used there 8,700 years ago, but a popular belief is that at least some activity revolved around manufacturing.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 2002-05-01

Carbide Hobbing Case Study

Bodine Electric Co. of Chicago, IL., has a 97-year history of fine-and medium-pitch gear manufacturing. Like anywhere else, traditions, old systems, and structures can be beneficial, but they can also become paradigms and obstacles to further improvements. We were producing a high quality product, but our goal was to become more cost effective. Carbide hobbing is seen as a technological innovation capable of enabling a dramatic, rather than an incremental, enhancement to productivity and cost savings.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 2002-01-01

Net-Shape Forged Gears - The State of the Art

Traditionally, high-quality gears are cut to shape from forged blanks. Great accuracy can be obtained through shaving and grinding of tooth forms, enhancing the power capacity, life and quietness of geared power transmissions. In the 1950s, a process was developed for forging gears with teeth that requires little or no metal to be removed to achieve final geometry. The initial process development was undertaken in Germany for the manufacture of bevel gears for automobile differentials and was stimulated by the lack of available gear cutting equipment at that time. Later attention has turned to the forging of spur and helical gears, which are more difficult to form due to the radial disposition of their teeth compared with bevel gears. The main driver of these developments, in common with most component manufacturing, is cost. Forming gears rather than cutting them results in increased yield from raw material and also can increase productivity. Forging gears is therefore of greater advantage for large batch quantities, such as required by the automotive industry.
FEATURE ARTICLES | 2000-05-01

Geoffrey Parrish, Carburizing: Microstructures and Properties, 2nd ed., ASM, 1999, 247 pages.

Geoffrey Parrish has updated and expanded his previous book: The Influence of Microstructure on the Properties of Case-Carburized Components. It now contains at least twice the material. References and bibliography include 449 citations.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 2000-03-01

Reducing Production Costs in Cylindrical Gear Hobbing and Shaping

Increased productivity in roughing operations for gear cutting depends mainly on lower production costs in the hobbing process. In addition, certain gears can be manufactured by shaping, which also needs to be taken into account in the search for a more cost-effective form of production.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 1999-01-01

ISO 6336-5: Strength and Quality of Materials

This is the fourth and final article in a series exploring the new ISO 6336 gear rating standard and its methods of calculation. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author as an individual. They do not represent the opinions of any organization of which he is a member.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 1999-01-01

Selection of the Optimal Parameters of the Rack-Tool to Ensure the Maximum Gear Tooth Profile Accuracy

An analysis of possibilities for the selection of tool geometry parameters was made in order to reduce tooth profile errors during the grinding of gears by different methods. The selection of parameters was based on the analysis of he grid diagram of a gear and a rack. Some formulas and graphs are presented for the selection of the pressure angle, module and addendum of the rack-tool. The results from the grinding experimental gears confirm the theoretical analysis.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 1998-07-01

Industry News

Industry News for July/August 1998.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 1998-05-01

Hobs & Form Relived Cutters: Common Sharpening Problems

Fig. 1 shows the effects of positive and negative rake on finished gear teeth. Incorrect positive rake (A) increase the depth and decreases the pressure angle on the hob tooth. The resulting gear tooth is thick at the top and thin at the bottom. Incorrect negative rake (B) decreases the depth and increases the pressure angle. This results in a cutting drag and makes the gear tooth thin at the top and thick at the bottom.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 1998-03-01

Programmable Separation of Runout From Profile and Lead Inspection Data for Gear Teeth With Arbitrary Modifications

A programmable algorithm is developed to separate out the effect of eccentricity (radial runout) from elemental gear inspection date, namely, profile and lead data. This algorithm can be coded in gear inspection software to detect the existence, the magnitude and the orientation of the eccentricity without making a separate runout check. A real example shows this algorithm produces good results.
FEATURE ARTICLES | 1998-03-01

New Guideless CNC Shaper for Helical Gears

Product announcements so often trumpet minor, incremental advances with works like "revolutionary" and "unique" that even the best thesaurus can fail to offer a fresh alternative to alert the reader when something really innovative and important is introduced. In the case of Mitsubishi's new CNC gear shaper, the ST25CNC, both terms apply.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 1998-01-01

Influence of Gear Design on Gearbox Radiated Noise

A major source of helicopter cabin noise (which has been measured at over 100 decibels sound pressure level) is the gearbox. Reduction of this noise is a NASA and U.S. Army goal. A requirement for the Army/NASA Advanced Rotorcraft Transmission project was a 10 dB noise reduction compared to current designs.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 1997-11-01

Gear Shaving Basics - Part I

Gear shaving is a free-cutting gear finishing operation which removes small amounts of metal from the working surfaces of gear teeth. Its purpose is to correct errors in index, helix angle, tooth profile and eccentricity. The process also improves tooth surface finish and eliminates by means of crowned tooth forms the danger of tooth end load concentrations in service.
FEATURE ARTICLES | 1997-09-01

Special Machine Manufacturer Brings Gear Making In-House

When you have a multi-million-dollar transfer line sitting on the shop floor waiting for gears that might take up to two months to get, you have a costly bottleneck.
FEATURE ARTICLES | 1997-05-01

New Book For Gear Purchaseres & Specifiers

This book is written for those among us, with or without a technical background, who have an occasional need to use, purchase or specify gears. The author assumes an audience that is not made up of experienced gear designers, but of people who do need to have a basic understanding of the criteria used by the designer. The subjects covered include not only the gears themselves, but their manufacturing methods, the systems that contain them and the terms used to describe them.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 1997-05-01

Eddy Current Examination of Gear Systems

Nondestructive examination (NDE) of ferrous and nonferrous materials has long proved an effective maintenance and anomaly characterization tool for many industries. Recent research has expanded its applicability to include the inspection of large, open gear drives. Difficulties inherent in other NDE methods make them time-consuming and labor-intensive. They also present the user with the environmental problem of the disposal of used oil. The eddy current method addresses these problems.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 1997-05-01

CNC Gear Grinding Methods

Grinding in one form or another has been used for more than 50 years to correct distortions in gears caused by the high temperatures and quenching techniques associated with hardening. Grinding improves the lead, involute and spacing characteristics. This makes the gear capable of carrying the high loads and running at the high pitch line velocities required by today's most demanding applications. Gears that must meet or exceed the accuracy requirements specified by AGMA Quality 10-11 or DIN Class 6-7 must be ground or hard finished after hear treatment.
EVENTS | 1997-03-01

Technical Calendar

Complete Technical Calendar for March/April 1997.
FEATURE ARTICLES | 1996-11-01

New Gear Developments at IMTS

The International Manufacturing Technology Show provided one of the biggest ever marketplaces for buying and selling gear-making equipment, with 121601 attenders, making it the largest IMTS ever. The show took place September 4-11 at McCormick Place in Chicago, IL.
FEATURE ARTICLES | 1996-05-01

EDM Specialty Gears

The capabilities and limitations of manufacturing gears by conventional means are well-known and thoroughly documented. In the search to enhance or otherwise improve the gear-making process, manufacturing methods have extended beyond chip-cutting - hobbing, broaching, shaping, shaving, grinding, etc. and their inherent limitations based on cutting selection and speed, feed rates, chip thickness per tooth, cutting pressure, cutter deflection, chatter, surface finish, material hardness, machine rigidity, tooling, setup and other items.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 1996-03-01

The Effect of Metallurgy on the Performance of Carburized Gears

Gears are designed to be manufactured, processed and used without failure throughout the design life of the gear. One of INFAC's objectives (*see p.24) is to help manufacture of gears to optimize performance and life. One way to achieve this is to identify failure mechanisms and then devise strategies to overcome them by modifying the manufacturing parameters.
ADDENDUM | 1996-03-01

The Gears of Avon & Other Tragedies

As part of the Addendum Team's never-ending quest to improve the overall cultural tone of the gear industry, we bring you the following: April 23 is the 432nd birthday of William Shakespeare.
FEATURE ARTICLES | 1996-01-01

The SERCOS Interface Standard

Today motion control systems are migrating from analog to digital technology at an ever increasing rate because digital technology at an ever-increasing rate because digital drives provide performance equal to or exceeding that of analog drives, plus information to run your machine more effectively and manage your quality program and your business. Most of this data is simply not available from analog drives.
PRODUCT NEWS | 1996-01-01

Product News

Welcome to our Product News page. Here we feature new products to the gear and gear products markets.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 1995-07-01

New Concepts in CNC Gear Shaping

In today's economy, when purchasing a new state-of-the-art gear shaper means a significant capital investment, common sense alone dictates that you develop strategies to get the most for your money. One of the best ways to do this is to take advantage of the sophistication of the machine to make it more than just a single-purpose tool.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 1995-07-01

Dry Gear Hobbing

Question: We are contemplating purchasing a hobbing machine with dry hobbing capabilities. What do we need to know about the special system requirements for this technology?
FEATURE ARTICLES | 1995-05-01

CNC Software Savvy

Question: When we purchase our first CNC gear hobbing machine, what questions should we ask about the software? What do we need to know to correctly specify the system requirements?
FEATURE ARTICLES | 1995-05-01

Developing a Total Productive Maintenance System

There's a reason they call it catastrophic gear failure: For example, if the line goes down at a large aluminum rolling mill because a gear set goes bad, the cost can run up to a whopping $200,000 a week. Even in smaller operations, the numbers alone (not to mention all the other problems) can be a plant manager's worst nightmare.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 1995-03-01

Industry News

Acquisitions, Contracts, and ISO 9000 Certification
FEATURE ARTICLES | 1995-03-01

What to Look For Before You Leap

Question: We are interested in purchasing our first gear hobbing machine. What questions should we ask the manufacturer, and what do we need to know in order to correctly specify the CNC hardware and software system requirements?
FEATURE ARTICLES | 1995-01-01

CNC Gear Manufacturing - Where Are We Now

These days it's hard to get through breakfast without reading or hearing another story about how the computer is changing the way we live, sleep, eat, breathe, make things and do business. The message is that everything is computerized now, or, if it isn't, it will be by next Tuesday at the latest, Well, maybe.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 1995-01-01

CNC Basics

NC and CNC machines are at the heart of manufacturing today. They are the state-of-the-art equipment everybody has (or is soon going to get) that promise to lower costs, increase production and turn manufacturers into competitive powerhouses. Like many other high tech devices (such as microwaves and VCRs), lots of people have and use them - even successfully - without really knowing much about how they operate. But upgrading to CNC costs a lot of money, so it's crucial to separate the hype from the reality.
FEATURE ARTICLES | 1994-11-01

Computers and Automation Lead IMTS Innovations

Robots, computers and other signs of high technology abounded at IMTS 94, supporting the claim by many that this was one of the best shows ever. Many of the machines on display had so many robotic attachments and computer gizmos that they looked more like they belonged in some science fiction movie than on the floor of a machine shop.
EVENTS | 1994-11-01

Calendar

Complete calendar for November/December 1994.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 1994-09-01

Our Experts Discuss Electronic Gearboxes, Plus Backlash and What to Do about it

Question: In the January/February issue of your magazine, we came across the term "electronic gearbox." We have seen this term used elsewhere as well. We understand that this EGB eliminates the change gear in the transmission line, but not how exactly this is done. Could you explain in more detail?
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 1994-05-01

Designing Hardened & Ground Spur Gears to Operate With Minimum Noise

When designing hardened and ground spur gears to operate with minimum noise, what are the parameters to be considered? should tip and/or root relief be applied to both wheel and pinion or only to one member? When pinions are enlarged and he wheel reduced, should tip relief be applied? What are the effects on strength, wear and noise? For given ratios with enlarged pinions and reduced wheels, how can the gear set sized be checked or adjusted to ensure that the best combination has been achieved?
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 1994-01-01

Generation of Helical Gears with New Surface Topology by Application of CNC Machines

Analysis of helical involute gears by tooth contact analysis shows that such gears are very sensitive to angular misalignment leading to edge contact and the potential for high vibration. A new topology of tooth surfaces of helical gears that enables a favorable bearing contact and a reduced level of vibration is described. Methods for grinding helical gears with the new topology are proposed. A TCA program simulating the meshing and contact of helical gears with the new topology has been developed. Numerical examples that illustrate the proposed ideas are discussed.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 1994-01-01

Innovative CNC Gear Shaping

The Shaping Process - A Quick Review of the Working Principle. In the shaping process, cutter and workpiece represent a drive with parallel axes rotating in mesh (generating motion) according to the number of teeth in both cutter and workpiece (Fig. 1), while the cutter reciprocates for the metal removal action (cutting motion).
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 1993-07-01

CNC Bevel Gear Generators and Flared Cup Gear Grinding

New freedom of motion available with CNC generators make possible improving tooth contact on bevel and hypoid gears. Mechanical machines by their nature are inflexible and require a special mechanism for every desired motion. These mechanisms are generally exotic and expensive. As a result, it was not until the introduction of CNC generators that engineers started exploring motion possibilities and their effect on tooth contact.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 1993-07-01

Gear Tip Chamfer and Gear Noise; Surface Measurement of Spiral Bevel Gear Teeth

Could the tip chamfer that manufacturing people usually use on the tips of gear teeth be the cause of vibration in the gear set? The set in question is spur, of 2.25 DP, with 20 degrees pressure angle. The pinion has 14 teeth and the mating gear, 63 teeth. The pinion turns at 535 rpm maximum. Could a chamfer a little over 1/64" cause a vibration problem?
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 1993-03-01

Frozen Gears

Durability is the most important criterion used to define the quality of a gear. The freezing of metals has been acknowledged for almost thirty years as an effective method for increasing durability, or "wear life," and decreasing residual stress in tool steels. The recent field of deep cryogenics (below -300 degrees F) has brought us high temperature superconductors, the superconducting super collider, cryo-biology, and magnotehydrodynamic drive systems. It has also brought many additional durability benefits to metals.
PUBLISHER'S PAGE | 1993-03-01

Little Things Mean A Lot

"God is in the details," says the philosopher. What he meant was that on the scale of the universe, it's not just the galaxies, the planets, the mountain ranges, or the major rivers that are important. So are the subatomic particles and the genes. It's the little things that make all the difference.
FEATURE ARTICLES | 1992-11-01

1992 Marks Important Gear Design Milestone: Lewis Bending Strenth Equations Now 100 Years old

Columbus' first voyage to the Americas is not the only anniversary worthy of celebration this year. In 1892, on October 15, Wilfred Lewis gave an address to the Engineer's Club of Philadelphia, whose significance, while not as great as that of Columbus' voyage, had important results for the gearing community. In this address, Lewis first publicly outlined his formula for computing bending stress in gear teeth, a formula still in use today.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 1992-11-01

Tooth Contact Shift in Loaded Spiral Bevel Gears

An analytical method is presented to predict the shifts of the contact ellipses on spiral bevel gear teeth under load. The contact ellipse shift is the motion of the point to its location under load. The shifts are due to the elastic motions of the gear and pinion supporting shafts and bearings. The calculations include the elastic deflections of the gear shafts and the deflections of the four shaft bearings. The method assumes that the surface curvature of each tooth is constant near the unloaded pitch point. Results from these calculations will help designers reduce transmission weight without seriously reducing transmission performance.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 1992-09-01

CNC Technology and the System-Independent Manufacture of Spiral Bevel Gears

CNC technology offers new opportunities for the manufacture of bevel gears. While traditionally the purchase of a specific machine at the same time determined a particular production system, CNC technology permits the processing of bevel gears using a wide variety of methods. The ideological dispute between "tapered tooth or parallel depth tooth" and "single indexing or continuous indexing" no longer leads to an irreversible fundamental decision. The systems have instead become penetrable, and with existing CNC machines, it is possible to select this or that system according to factual considerations at a later date.
MANAGEMENT MATTERS | 1992-05-01

Cost-Cutting ABCs

Cost cutting. It's the aerobics of the 90s for businesses large and small. More than just the latest buzzword or 90-second flash-in-the-panacea, it's a survival technique. Companies that aren't trimming the fat now may not be around in five years to regret that they didn't.
PUBLISHER'S PAGE | 1992-03-01

Investment Tax Credits - A Good Idea Whose Time Has Come

Of timing is crucial in the successful implementation of good ideas, then now is the time to reinstate a good idea that fell into disfavor in the mid-1980s. Now is the time to include the investment tax credit as part of whatever inevitable tax structure tinkering is going to take place during this election year.
INDUSTRY NEWS | 1992-03-01

Our Experts Discuss Hobbing Ridges, Crooked Gear Teeth, and Crown Shaving

Question: When cutting worm gears with multiple lead stock hobs we find the surface is "ridged". What can be done to eliminate this appearance or is to unavoidable?
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 1991-11-01

Recent Developments in Gear Metrology

Metrology is a vital component of gear manufacturing. Recent changes in this area, due in large part to the advent of computers, are highlighted in this article by comparison with more traditional methods.
PUBLISHER'S PAGE | 1990-11-01

Looking To The Future - Part II

Beginning with our next issue, some of the promised changes in format for Gear Technology will begin showing up in these pages. As part of our commitment to provide you with important information about the gear and gear products industry, we are expanding our coverage. In addition to continuing to publish some of the best results of gear research and development throughout the world, we will be adding special columns covering vital aspects of the gearing business.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 1990-07-01

Efficient Methods for the Synthesis of Compound Planetary Differential Gear Trains for Multiple Speed Ratio Generation

This article presents an efficient and direct method for the synthesis of compound planetary differential gear trains for the generation of specified multiple speed ratios. It is a train-value method that utilizes the train values of the integrated train components of the systems to form design equations which are solved for the tooth numbers of the gears, the number of mating gear sets and the number of external contacts in the system. Application examples, including vehicle differential transmission units, rear-end differentials with unit and fractional speed ratios, multi-input functions generators and robot wrist joints are given.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 1987-05-01

Rotary Gear Honing

Rotary gear honing is a hard gear finishing process that was developed to improve the sound characteristics of hardened gears by: Removing nicks and burrs; improving surface finish; and making minor corrections in tooth irregularities caused by heat-treat distortion.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 1987-03-01

Economics of CNC Gear Hobbing

NC and CNC metal cutting machines are among the most popular machine tools in the business today, There is also a strong trend toward using flexible machining centers and flexible manufacturing systems. The same trend is apparent in gear cutting. Currently the trend toward CNC tools has increased, and sophisticated controls and peripheral equipment for gear cutting machines are now available; however, the investment in a CNC gear machine has to be justified on the basis of economic facts as well as technical advantages.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 1986-11-01

Kinematic Analysis of Robotic Bevel-Gear Trains

In robot configurations it is desirable to be able to obtain an arbitrary orientation of the output element or end-effector. This implies a minimum of two independent rotations about two (generally perpendicular) intersecting axes. If, in addition, the out element performs a mechanical task such as in manufacturing or assembly (e.g., drilling, turning, boring, etc.) it may be necessary for the end-effector to rotate about its axis. If such a motion is to be realized with gearing, this necessitates a three-degree-of-freedom, three-dimensional gear train, which provides a mechanical drive of gyroscopic complexity; i.e., a drive with independently controlled inputs about three axes corresponding to azimuth, nutation, and spin.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 1986-03-01

CNC Gear Shaping

Two major processes used for cutting gears, hobbing and shaping. This article describes advanced machine design and cutter materials for gear shaping.
VOICES | 1985-11-01

Industry Forum

One of the current research activities here at California State University at Fullerton is systematization of existing knowledge of design of planetary gear trains.
TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 1985-09-01

New Techniques for Aligning and Maintaining Large Ring Gears

This paper presents two new techniques for aligning and maintaining large ring gears. One technique uses lubricant temperature analysis, and the other uses stop action photography.
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