Gear Solutions Online

GS: How do you decide where to hold Gear Expo? KM: AGMA has a Trade Show Advisory Council that's composed of exhibitorsãlarge and small gear manufacturers and suppliers. The council and I wo...

When Matt Lane tells the story of how he came to be owner of Modern Gearing, his voice takes on a certain incredulous tone... and it's no wonder. "I'm basically a toolmaker by trade, and I wa...

In 1976, Vincenzo de' Stefani was presented with an interesting opportunity. Founder and owner of a company in Padova, Italy, that manufactured large gearing for marine applications, he was approa...

Today, as I was having lunch, the television was on a station showing a half-hour newscast. During the course of this newscast there were three different advertisements for law firms promoting inj...

GS: Frenco is known worldwide as a premium manufacturer of spline and gear inspection equipment. Could you tell us a little about the company's history? NW: Frenco was founded in 1978 by Rudolf Oc...

Growing up, Jeff Barnes spent his days neck-deep in machinery. He and his father were into racing--circle tracks, with modified cars--and after working on the engines, frames, and bodies in their ...

It used to be that if you needed to grind gears, your decision was limited to a slow-form grinder that was better suited for small lots, but not regarded as competitive for larger production runs ...

Since the last MAAG gear-shaping machine was built and delivered in 1990, it's safe to say that the many outstanding advantages and capabilities that these machines provide are known and appreciat...

S.M. "Jack" Marathe--the president of Universal Technical Systems, Inc.--isn't exactly modest when he talks about the power and usefulness of his company's Integrated Gear Software (IGS)...

Worm designs and manufacturing methods have changed very little over the past half century. Finishing a worm in soft material and then hardening it offers huge savings to worm manufacturers, but h...

What is safety? According to my Funk & Wagnall's, safety is "freedom from danger or injury." Wouldn't it be great if we could achieve this in our workplace? In reality, it seems that...

GS: Could you tell me a little about your background and how you came into this industry? CB: As a teenager, I worked summers at a company called Tool Tech Corporation (TTC), which was a small mac...

So you've spent the day at Gear Expo, meeting with old friends and making some new ones, and you're ready to get out on the town and see what else Columbus has to offer. Plenty, as it turns out, w...

If Rich Piselli were to write a book on running a successful business, it would probably be titled Trust, with chapters such as "Keep Your Word," and "Stay Focused," and "...

When David E. Ross and his associates incorporated Fairfield Manufacturing Company as an offshoot of their existing company in November of 1919, what they couldn't foresee was that their little ve...

As with all manufacturing processes, the focus remains on piece cost and workpiece quality. Piece cost is primarily composed of the combined components of raw materials, the initial tool cost, too...

"It's the little things that matter." How many times have we all heard this and chuckled to ourselves, thinking of an incident that occurred with friends, family, or even at work, that s...

GS: Could you tell me about the company's beginnings? DS: Perry Technology Corporation, which was originally known as the T.M. Perry Company, was founded by Thomas M. Perry, who was a physicist by...

On the showroom floor of the Mitsubishi Gear Technology Center in Wixom, Michigan, is what could be seen as the very embodiment of its purpose and philosophy. Known as the GT06R, it's a three-stat...

Surface-hardened materials are widely used in manufacturing gears, and carburizing, and sometimes nitriding, is normally used as a hardening treatment, which results in the reduction of macro-pitt...

Cost pressures, qualitative increases, and tribological and size-limiting demands are just four of the factors that have clearly characterized the production of transmission components, especially...

I would like to expand on my comment in the last column concerning cleanliness of the work area. You may not think of this as a safety issue, but I find that a clean, organized work area is one of...

GS: I understand that you're the sole U.S. distributor for Dragon Precision Tools. How did that come about? GA: My first exposure to Dragon was in 1989. I was working for a company called Clevela...

It was 1952 when a small-town blacksmith by the name of Calvin Lawler was drafted into the Korean War effort. He had just completed basic training when he signed up for a three-month course at an ...

Speed, efficiency, competition, accuracy... all words that fuel the fires of modern-day manufacturing. They are the "why" behind our daily tasks, as well as the reasons for invention and...

Gear designers around the world are seeking to increase their use of hardened gears to squeeze optimum performance out of smaller, quieter transmissions and gearboxes. After all, highly accurate h...