AGMA members can register for the NFPA 2022 IEOC at the member rate for the event. Join us for timely presentations on key customer markets that will help you do your job better. Complete agenda for the event available on the website.

June 15 | 9:00AM
While still young, this year has already seen the launch of important new U.S. trade and tariff initiatives that will have a significant impact on U.S. based bearing and gear manufacturers and consumers. In this webinar, our panel of trade experts will explain these developments, how they will impact your business, and how you can be prepared to take advantage.

The AGMA Operating Ratio Report (ORR) is the benchmarking report for the gear industry. It is the annual profitability survey of AGMA members. Deadline has been extended to June 30. Please fill out your form and get it in so we can provide our membership with the most comprehensive report possible.

July 26-28 | Chicago, IL
This course provides the heat treat operator and operations team, the means to perform the heat treatment of steel gears in a manner that meets the AGMA and customer requirements in a safe and efficient manner. The course identifies the key requirements for proper processing. Sufficient metallurgical background is provided to allow the student to identify how this information relates to the required processing and properties of the gear.

August 3 | 1:00pm
Join us for our next FREE Emerging Tech webinar on August 3. Dr. Bhaskar Dutta, President & COO of DM3D Technology will discuss the multiple benefits of AM including by not limited to prototyping, cost effective short production runs, design freedom for manufacturing complex geometries, material and lead time reduction etc. The goal of the presentation is to bring awareness to the gear manufacturing industry about new capability development and advancement of metal AM. It is hoped that this presentation will stimulate thoughts among design engineers and gear manufacturers and encourage them to exploit new manufacturing techniques such as metal AM to benefit their industry.

SME
In 2021, Smart Manufacturing started asking the leaders who were transforming manufacturing what effect the coronavirus pandemic has had on their business. Not only do the stories continue to amaze,  some of the trickle down effects of COVID-19 emerge in their answers.

Automotive Powertrain Technology International
According to U.S. company Transient Plasma Systems, new research undertaken by specialist test and development provider FEV has confirmed that its plasma ignition system can significantly improve ICE efficiency. “Based on our testing, TPS ignition technology offers potential significant benefits toward improving combustion, engine efficiency and performance,” said Michael Franke, SVP of engine and hybrid powertrain systems, FEV.

Enterprise Talk
READY Robotics, pioneers in software-defined automation, today announced a strategic investment from NVIDIA, the leader in accelerated computing technology. “Manufacturing has been held back for decades by software silos between robot vendors. We’ve broken down those barriers with a standard interface that simplifies deployment for enterprises and dramatically increases the market opportunity for the automation industry,” said Ben Gibbs, CEO and Co-Founder, of READY Robotics.

Mining.com
Copper is under assault from various risks that threaten to undermine the prospects of the key metal needed to wean the world off of fossil fuels. Threats include “the possibility of lower GDP or industrial production triggered by geopolitical risks, high inflation becoming more embedded in the economy, or the effects of Covid-19 lasting longer than anticipated," CRU’s director of copper research and strategy said Monday at a mining conference in Toronto.

Supply Chain Brain
Ever evolving, robotics can now meet most any job in any situation, says Mike Futch, chief executive officer of Tompkins Robotics. Futch acknowledges that robotics has been around for several years, but things are different today than they were just six or seven years ago. The technology has matured, reliability has taken off, and price points have come down.

Industry Week
Multinational corporations are today faced with a changing world economy. Cracks have formed in their outsourcing model, and they are being forced to re-examine their supply chains. This article outlines the variety of causes for the rising cost of manufacturing overseas.

Today’s e-Mobility
JIDU, an intelligent electric vehicle company backed by Baidu and Geely, unveiled its first concept production robocar ROBO-01. Integrating the leading intelligent driving capability powered by Baidu and world-class intelligent driving configurations, joined by a cutting-edge futuristic design, ROBO-01 is set to revolutionize the automobile industry, leading the way to an intelligent car era driven by AI.

3D Printing Industry
Engineering software developer nTopology has introduced its third-generation latticing technology to allow users to unlock an even broader range of 3D printing applications. Designed to be easy and quick to use, the new lattice design tools aim to provide users with greater control over complex lattice structures. The release includes 37 blocks that have been in development for the past 22 months, each engineered to make it fster and more intuitive for new users to learn how to apply advanced latticing of DfAM techniques and to streamline the lattice generation process for existing users.

The AGMA Foundation awards scholarships to outstanding engineering students at the Associate/Technical, Undergraduate, and Graduate levels. The scholarship program was created to help fill the need for skilled employees in the gear industry. Deadline to apply is July 1, 2022.

New Atlas
Gas turbines are found in aircraft, trains, ships, generators, pumps, compressors and all sorts of other places. They can run on a variety of fuels, but some 90 percent of them currently run on natural gas, a fossil fuel that produces carbon dioxide when you burn it, while also escaping into the atmosphere everywhere you pull it out of the ground, to create greenhouse conditions some 80 times worse than CO2 over a 20-year time frame.

New Atlas
Dutch company Lightyear has unveiled what it claims is the world’s first production-ready solar car. The Lightyear 0 is a family sedan with 5 sq m (53.8 sq ft) of solar panels built in capable of generating up to 70 km (44 miles) of charge-free driving a day.

Microsoft
The Procter & Gamble Company and Microsoft Corp. announced a new multiyear collaboration that will leverage the Microsoft Cloud to help create the future of digital manufacturing at P&G. The two companies will co-innovate to accelerate and expand P&G’s digital manufacturing platform and leverage the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) to bring products to consumers faster, increase customer satisfaction, and improve productivity to reduce costs.

Today’s e-Mobility
Blue Bird Corporation, a provider in electric and low-emission school buses, received an order for eight electric school buses from Orange Unified School District (OUSD) in California. The school district will more than double the size of its current Blue Bird electric school bus fleet.

Industry Week
From designing facilities to improving decision-making, a look at some early but promising applications in the immersive virtual world.

Metal AM
During the recent Additive Manufacturers User Group (AMUG) conference, metal powder producer, Equispheres, Inc, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and automaker BMW, Munich, Germany, jointly presented a paper that explained how improvements in metal powders, used in Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB) Additive Manufacturing, can increase the productivity for automotive parts manufacturing.