Check out the whole line up of live gear-industry education at the Motion + Power Technology Expo, September 14-16 in St. Louis, MO. The classes that are being offered include: Why Bearings are damaged; Modern automated gear quality assessment technology; Design basics for spur and helical gears; Forging 101; Basics of Gearing; External spur and helical gear mesh contact analysis; and Materials selection and heat treatment of gears.

The goal of the AGMA Emerging Technology committees is to Identify, investigate and inform AGMA members of Emerging Technologies that may disrupt or significantly impact the power transmission industry. As we enter our fourth year of work in this space, join us for an overview of what we have accomplished and a roadmap of where we hope to go next.

In a little more than a month, the gear industry will gather for our signature trade show. This is a great way to network with industry professionals in a face-to-face manner. See your peers, catch the latest technology that everyone has been working on for the past 18-months, and network at a spectacular event at the Anheuser-Busch Biergarten!

Explore gear grinding processes, machine kinematics and set-up, pitfalls, failures and expectations related to finish ground gearing. Learn definitions of gearing component features, process steps from blanking, through heat treatment to finished part ready to ship. Study aspects of Quality Assurance, Inspection Documentation and corrective actions for measured non-conformances.  Understand pre-heat treat, heat treatment and post-heat treatment operations including the hows and whys to produce finished gears that conform and perform to end user expectations.

Learn and understand fundamentals of gear manufacturing. Acquire knowledge and understanding of gear nomenclature, hobbing and shaping of spur and helical gears, and splines. Learn and understand hobber and shaper machine set-up, as well as gear tooth element inspection. Understand the manufacturing process before gear tooth cutting, as well as post cutting processes. Apply concepts to further finishing processes, I.e. heat treat, gear tooth shaving and grinding and/or skiving. Gain knowledge to establish a solid foundation for all basic gear manufacturing.

MDM
U.S. manufacturing technology orders totaled $490 million in June, which was a 9% increase over May and a 42% increase over June 2020, according to the U.S. Manufacturing Orders report published Monday by AMT – The Association for Manufacturing Technology. For the first half of 2021, orders totaled $2.51 billion, a 49% increase over the first half of 2020 and the largest half-year period since 2018.

SME
Manufacturing boosted employment by 27,000 jobs in July, with durable goods doing the heavy lifting. Durable goods accounted for 20,000 jobs of last month’s gain, according to a breakdown by industry issued by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Forbes
America’s economy is on the cusp of a mega-boom and a protracted period of supercharged growth. Indicators show surging customer spending and demand for goods that the manufacturing sector is struggling to meet. Orders are going unanswered. Despite the strong consumer demand for manufactured goods, factories are reporting difficulties in finding skilled workers to build these products and meet the demand. It is a $1 trillion problem according to a recent study published by Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute.

Detroit Free Press
Auto supplier, Lear Corp. said that it plans to set up a seat manufacturing operation with “hundreds” of new jobs at the location of the former Cadillac Stamping Plant on Detroit’s east side. The Southfield-based supplier would presumably be a tenant in the new $48 million, 684,000-sq-ft manufacturing center that is planned for the site.

Aerospace Manufacturing and Design
Hampton, VA-based Advanced Aircraft Co. has lunched its hybrid advanced multirotor unmanned aircraft system (HAMR). AAC’s designs incorporate a multi-rotor configuration with a hybrid gas-electric propulsion system for extended endurance and multiple, simultaneous payload capabilities. The company was founded in 2017 by Bill Fredricks, a former NASA aerospace engineer and U.S. Marine Corps veteran.

Bloomberg
Electric vehicle adoption is accelerating thanks to improvements in battery density and cost, more charging points, and government policies that make driving dirty cars more difficult. Still, if any country is going to meet its net-zero emissions targets in the next 30 years, more needs to be done to clean up road transportation.

Bloomberg
A Quebec startup is pursuing one of the last vehicle categories to go electric, betting it can outpace industry giants in making greener jet skis and snowmobiles in the same way that Tesla Inc. beat major automakers to high-end electric cars. Taiga Motors Corp. plans to deliver its first orders later this year, open a bigger factory in 2022, and expand its product line. Like Tesla, the company sells directly to customers on its website and plans to install charging stations.

Aerospace Manufacturing
Aerospace company Hermeus has won a $60 million U.S. Air Force contract to flight test its first Mach 5 hypersonic aircraft. The aircraft, called Quarterhorse, will validate the company’s proprietary turbine-based combined cycle (TBCC) engine, based around the GE J85 turbojet engine, and is the first in a line of autonomous high-speed aircraft.

Grist
US Wind, a developer of offshore wind farms, announced plans to expand its in-development 22-turbine project off the coast of Maryland, adding up to 82 more turbines that will make the facility capable of powering half-a-million homes. In conjunction with the expansion, US Wind has also proposed constructing a new wind turbine manufacturing facility just outside Baltimore.

Gear Technology
The article "Single Tooth Bending Fatigue Testing at any R Ratio" appeared in the July 2021 issue of Gear Technology, featuring an evaluation of the bending fatigue performance (stress to life relationship) of different gear materials subject to various manufacturing processes and why subsequent post processing treatments are of significance to gear and transmission designers.

3D Printing Industry
Nanofabrica’s Tera 250 technology lifts the lid for designers and manufacturers in their quest to embrace the inherent advantage of AM, and enables them to exploit the ability that exists through 3D printing to build complex parts in small, medium, and high volumes in a timely and cost-effective fashion. Here, Avi Cohen, global EVP sales at Nanofabrica, discusses the disruptive nature of the company’s micro AM technology, and how it has navigated issues related to the global COVID pandemic.

Portland Press Herald
Importers are contending with a perfect storm of supply trouble — rising prices, overwhelmed ports, a shortage of ships, trains and trucks — that is expected to last into 2022.

AI Thority
Vecna Robotics, the autonomous mobile robot (AMR) and workflow orchestration company, announced a partnership with Alta Material Handling (Alta MH). The partnership enables Alta MH to bring the capabilities of Vecna Robotics’ high-capacity AMRs to its customers looking for highly versatile, safe and integrated pallet-handling solutions.

The combination of a world-wide pandemic and current and anticipated changes in technology have severely impacted both high-production gear manufacturers and shops producing limited runs of gears. Concerns include the availability of qualified personnel, proper allocation of capital investment, productivity requirements and market demand. While these are not unheard of under normal conditions, the present situation has caused a major disruption on virtually all fronts and many in the industry are deeply concerned about the future.

News Release
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced over $1 million in funding for Delaware County Community College through the state's Manufacturing Training-to-Career (MTTC) program to train over 300 individuals for high-demand occupations in welding, shipbuilding and manufacturing. The college has worked closely with regional employers to identify what training is most in demand to meet the industry’s rapidly growing need for skilled employees.

Renewables Now
Spain’s Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy SA and GRI Renewable Industries will get government financing to build or expand existing manufacturing facilities for offshore turbine components in Northern England’s Humber region. The grant will be awarded under the country’s Offshore Wind Manufacturing Investment Support scheme. The program will disburse some GBP 160 million to further develop the UK’s offshore wind capabilities.