Join us the first Wednesday of the month for a new webinar series that will highlight relevant speakers in the emerging technology space. Our first webinar is April 7, where we host Jon Powvens, Director of Cybersecurity at MxD. Jon will present, Let’s Understand how to comply with CMMC. This webinar will discuss the new cybersecurity rules for all those handling controlled unclassified information (CUI). These rules, Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) went into effect in November 2020 for all new contracts. Learn how you can make sure your company complies with the new certification. These webinars are free for AGMA members.

Learn how to develop and understand customer gear drive application specifications and target performance expectations. Review, calculate and select basic gear terminology variables and design parameters which define tooth bending and contact rating safety factors on two real life examples. Learn how to fit new gear designs and ratios into existing center distance.  Use commercially available software to calculate and optimize gear set power density. Discuss time and cost of more than 20 other gear drive component functions and drive development steps through prototypes to shipment of compliant assembled production drives. There will be an opportunity to discuss gear design challenges which may be unique to participant industries.

Evaluation of loaded tooth contact and development of tooth modifications using commercially available software to improve Khb and optimize power density. Two real life gearing examples will be presented in the course, one will have a cantilever mounted pinion, the other a shaft pinion straddled non-symmetrically by bearings. Both examples demonstrate component deflections under load which significantly reduce tooth mesh contact which is then corrected with developed helix and profile modifications.

Center for American Progress
There are two major challenges facing U.S. manufacturing. The first is building competitiveness with global manufacturers, especially for U.S. small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and the second is overcoming strategic risks to health care, national defense and other areas of the global supply chain.

IOT for All
Manufacturers adopt smart technologies to improve efficiencies within their factories, to reimagine product development and to fast-track to a smarter future. Shifting toward digital technologies comes with a long list of positives for manufacturing companies. To put it simply: smart factories drastically increase quality, output and consistency. And that’s just a few of the immediate benefits.

Drone Life
Vertical Aerospace’s Urban Air Mobility solution may be the Rolls-Royce of passenger drones, a phrase synonymous with luxury engineering. Rolls-Royce has recently announced that their electrical power system will be integrated into Vertical Aerospace’s “piloted all-electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicle.” The aircraft will carry up to four passengers for 120 miles at cruise speeds of over 200mph, and is expected to certify in 2024. The companies expect the first flight of the Vertical Aerospace aircraft this year.

Aerospace Manufacturing
Taylor Alberstadt, Honeywell Aerospace’s senior director, business development electric & hybrid electric propulsion, reveals how the company is really driving the future of urban air mobility and unmanned aerial systems.

Manufacturing Global
Manufacturing Global speaks to STAEDTKER’s Christian Haupt on the value of automation in manufacturing and what the future looks like for the technology.

Times News Now
The IRM White Paper is a culmination of insights from leaders that define a path to reboot, reload and relaunch the Indian economy. As India tries to move from an agriculture-based economy to manufacturing, it is important to identify which areas should the country focus on in order to reap maximum benefits.

WREG News – Memphis
A California start-up company is proposing to build an electric vehicle assembly plant in Memphis.
Mullen Technologies submitted an application for a 15-year PILOT tax incentive worth $40.5 million to the Economic Development Growth Engine. The organization’s board will consider it at its March 17 meeting.

Gear Technology
Solar Atmospheres is pleased to announce the addition of Frank Trujillo as director of sales at Solar Atmospheres of California (SCA).

Press release
Sandvik Additive Manufacturing and part subsidiary BEAMIT established a strategic partnership with Immensa Additive Manufacturing Group – the leading AM solution provider in the MENA region.

Yahoo! Finance
Northvolt, the Swedish battery manufacturer which raised $1 billion in financing from investors led by Goldman Sachs and Volkswagen back in 2019, has signed a massive $14 billion battery order with VW for the next 10 years. Volkswagen will be getting the batteries for its huge push into electric vehicles, which will see the automaker reach production capacity of 1.5 million electric vehicles by 2025.

Engine Technology International
General Motors has signed a joint development agreement with SolidEnergy Systems (SES) to develop lithium metal batteries for use in its future EVs and released further details of the company’s next generation Ultium battery technology. At GM’s Global Technical Center, the newly developed lithium metal batteries have been subjected to 150,000 simulated test miles and feature a protected anode alongside high-performance and energy density, while being produced affordably.

3D Print.com
It was a big day at MELD when the firm obtained $1.5 million from the U.S. Navy for maintenance and repair operations. MELD 3D printing is similar to a friction stir 3D printing process—only, here, friction heats metal bar feedstock to below its melting point and new material is added. By skipping the melting and not performing any sintering, MELD parts have better properties that other processes can achieve.

World Economic Forum
Digital is no longer optional. Global disruptions and instabilities impose a pressing need and opportunity for quantitative and qualitative growth amidst shifts in supply, demand, and customer expectations for digital-first experiences. Companies must find pathways to extend value through novel customer experiences to remain competitive; indeed, scalable technology that supports business goals is a requirement to become an industry-leading digital organization. The Global Lighthouse Network welcomes 15 new lighthouses to an inspiring group of organizations that exhibit the essential characteristics of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. 

Progressive Farmer
It’s been a long year for manufacturing as companies ran hard to contain the effects of COVID-19 among their employees, on their factory floors and in their supply chains. But, as an industry, farm equipment manufactures are pulling off production and sales no one really expected would be possible just 12 months ago. Equipment manufacturers are finding, in the majority of months, rising year-over-years sales.

Mining.com
Geologists and materials scientists at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg discovered a new way of finding previously unknown deposits of rare earths, or rare earth metals, worldwide. In a paper published in the journal Geology, the researchers explain that contrary to what their name might suggest, sources of rare earth elements or rare earth metals are distributed fairly equally all over the world. However, there are only very few sources that are economically viable and they propose using a new indicator to identify such deposits.