Gear Solutions Online

How consistent is your safety program? Do you hold training and brainstorming meetings that focus on safety? Do you change your signage regularly, and do you conduct periodic inspections? Do you ha...

In 1921 the Czech author Karel Kapek wrote a play on the subject of mechanization gone wild titled “R.U.R.,” which stood for “Rossum’s Universal Robots.” The term robo...

Volumes have been written by experts in the field of inventory control, with many tagged as being “high level,” which means that the subject is only addressed on a managerial level. Lit...

GS: Tell us about the company and the product lines you represent. EW: CENTRIC International has been in business for about three years, and we’re the North American distributors for the Jash...

Strategic planning matters, as does market diversification, and the emphasis that Colonial Tool Group has placed on both in recent years is helping it thrive while many of its competitors are strug...

Recent articles in Gear Solutions have discussed epicyclic gearing, but often in the context of experienced engineers. As more and more of these engineers reach retirement age younger engineers mus...

This article is the first of a mult-part series intended to inform, guide, and assist the gear manufacturing industry in selecting or identifying the most efficient and practical workholding soluti...

Low pressure carburizing (LPC) in vacuum furnaces has many applications in industrial technologies where high quality, reliability, and repeatability are required. High quality work is achieved usi...

Here’s the scenario: the company is developing a new application for helical internal gears. The first trials are going well, but after heat treat studies it is determined that the lead needs...

It seems that Mercedes-Benz design engineers never stop searching for ways to improve performance, passenger safety, and comfort. The recent availability of new lightweight, smooth, and highly-comp...

The gear market is looking for increased gear performance, reduction in gearbox package size, and longer gear life. Industry drivers that support these needs include: • More consistent quality...

Cold forming involute splines, serrations, oil grooves, snap-ring grooves, threads, and various other features using spline rolling machinery provides many advantages and benefits over conventional...

GS: You’ve been with the company for five years now, how did you come to join it?”JR: I was originally trained as an engineer, and I was working with a company in an unrelated field tha...

Do you put safety first in your workplace? Are you a safety conscious person… and I mean really safety conscious? I don’t know anyone who’s not in favor of safety, but I know ver...

Oil cleanliness is essential for gear unit reliability. To achieve this cleanliness in force-feed lubrication systems filters should be the last piece of equipment prior to the lubricant entering t...

The contact on single enveloping worm gear drives is the line contact. The changing form of the worm across the face of the gear makes it impossible to derive a simple mathematical expression for t...

The theory and practice of gear design is rich with examples of successful and sometimes outstanding combinations of various mathematical, manufacturing, and methodological approaches to the choice...

Functional gear testing could be defined as a series of tests that simulate the intended function of the product in an effort to determine whether an assembly operates within a specified performanc...

There is a common misconception in the industry that new equipment is more reliable than machinery in operation. In reality, the machines that have been in operation for a year or more and are a pa...

According to Ken Pape—who is president of the Parts Finishing Group, of which Michigan Hone & Drill is a member—whenever a part rotates on a shaft or a piston slides inside a bore t...

I recently was going through some old paperwork I’ve accumulated over the years and found a newsletter published in May 1974 by my old employer, the Barber Colman Co. The article that interes...

The gear unit designer pays careful attention to the housing, gears, bearings, and lubrication, but quite frequently the seals and filters are an afterthought. Technical writings and many standards...

GS: Tell us about your background that led you to become “The Heat Treat Doctor.”DH: I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in metallurgy from the University of Illinois, and then I...

The goals and objectives of this investigation focused on highly distortion-prone gearing (%%Figure-No.1%%) to determine if dimensional improvements could be realized by applying low pressure vacuu...

Years ago, at the turn of the last century, a Chicago-based company that manufactured sheep-shearing machines, hand clippers, and flexible drive shafts developed a small device for melting and heat...

Heat treatment is an indispensable step in the manufacture of steel products, as mechanical properties such as hardness, static, and dynamic strength and toughness are selectively controlled by del...

Bearings are a vital component in rotating industrial equipment, and they often represent a significant capital investment. To maintain that investment and avoid costly downtime it is important to ...

It has been quite a while since I discussed signs in this column, and there have been changes and updates since that time. You definitely want your signage to promote your image, but you also want ...

Powder metal technology is older than that of cast iron. Although the use of powder metals has been in existence since 3,000 B.C., and utilized by both the Egyptians and Incas, it is only in the 20...

GS: Your father passed away recently (see pg. 10), and when we profiled Carnes-Miller Gear in the first issue of the magazine five years ago I recall you mentioning that he still came to work every...

1: IntroductionMetal cutting puts extreme demands on the tool and tool material through conditions of high forces, high contact pressures, high temperatures, and intense chemical attack by difficul...

The high performance required from aerospace gears places stringent requirements upon the metallurgical quality, geometry, and surface finish of mating parts. In an effort to meet their mission req...

Wind turbine manufacturers have a vital interest in carrying out gearbox calculations on their own, and for multiple reasons: • Influence on the design proposed by the gearbox supplier • ...

You can tell a lot about a company by how well it retains employees. Using that metric, Vancouver Gear Works has an outstanding record, with employees whose tenure spans more than four decades, and...

Consider the following scenario: A manufacturing engineer has been working on a new project, bids have been received, evaluated, negotiated, and the supplier tentatively selected by the engineer an...

On August 12, 1902, Professor Thurston patented “a method for carrying out the process of coating one metal with another.” A further advance was made with Schoop’s thermal spray p...

Should we wave, salute, or maybe just ignore making any formal gesture when greeting customers, friends, and our fellow workers? If you listen to the pundits worried about a possible flu pandemic, ...

GS: You joined Ajax in February of this year. Has it been a challenging transition?JM: The hardest part involved deciding whether to leave a job that I loved with Clifford-Jacobs Forging Co. for a ...

It was an offer that Tom Lang found hard to refuse, so he didn’t. Having owned one third of Toolink Engineering, Inc., in the mid-nineties, he’d sold his shares in 2006. Then, in early ...

For a primer on the differences between cast and forged gears, who better to turn to than the Forging Industry Association? Read on to learn more.The combination of today’s clean steel meltin...

What do the gears that end up in trains, wind generators, speed reducers, marine transmissions, off-road equipment, and printing presses have in common? They must run quietly, carry heavy loads, ha...

1 Abstract Wind turbine manufacturers have a vital interest in carrying out gearbox calculations on their own, and for multiple reasons: • Influence on the design proposed by the gearbox suppl...