AGMA Gear Industry News

President Obama on Friday signed a long-delayed tariff relief bill aimed at helping U.S. manufacturers save billions in costs.

AGMA is presenting a three-session webinar series, "Gearbox Field Inspections: Observations, Troubleshooting and Establishment of Maintenance Procedures." The webinars will each run 90 minutes and will begin at 1:00 PM Eastern time. Each part will focus on a different part of the process.

U.S. factory activity continued to expand in May but at a slower clip, pulled lower by declining exports and reduced production.

The purchasing-managers' flash index compiled by data provider Markit slipped to 50.5 in May from 50.8 in April. The result matched the average estimate of economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.

The much needed refurbishment of Budapest’s M3 metro line, which is now potentially a safety hazard for both passengers and the Budapest Transportation Company’s employees alike, is being postponed to November, due to confusion around what type of replacement buses will be used during the two year period when the subway line is out of commission. 

Nuts, Bolts & Thingamajigs Manufacturing Camps give boys and girls, between the ages of 12 and 16, the chance to see and learn how things are made. NBT is the foundation of The Fabricators & Manufacturers Association Intl., with a mission to "engage, nurture and excite individuals of all ages in the pursuit of careers in manufacturing." For the past 10 years, the Rockford, Ill.-based organization has offered scholarships and summer camps that directly connect kids with the manufacturing industry. 

Forbes

In this interview with Shapeways CEO Peter Weijmarshausen, he shares thoughts on how 3D printing is transforming manufacturing into a digital technology for the first time, moving us from an analog to a digital realm. This changes all the rules of the game. It changes who is in control, because analog manufacturing requires big companies to produce large quantities of the same good. 

Airbus subsidiary APWorks is using its 3D printing expertise to build what it calls "probably the world's lightest motorcycle," a lithe, bicycle-like all-electric machine weighing 35 kilograms (77 pounds) and held together with an intricate web of aluminum. Actually, it's more than aluminum: it's what APWorks calls "Scalmalloy," a custom aluminum alloy powder "with almost the specific strength of titanium" that the company uses to build incredible structures by fusing thin layers of the material together.

(Video) The Antonov An-225 recently made an appearance in Perth, Australia, presenting a rare opportunity to view the world's largest plane.

The U.S. labor market is already at what economists consider to be "full employment." So for manufacturers and other businesses struggling to find qualified workers, one recent trend could be particularly disturbing.

This seminar provides the gear design engineer with a broad understanding of the methods used to manufacture and inspect gears and how the resultant information can be applied and interpreted in the design process.

Bayer said on Monday said that it has offered to buy Monsanto for $62 billion in cash, potentially creating a giant agrochemicals company that would span genetically modified seeds and pesticides to antibiotics.

Electric car maker Tesla Motors is selling around $1.4 billion worth of stock to help bring its lower-cost Model 3 to market. Palo Alto, California-based Tesla offered 6.8 million shares last week. Its shares slid less than 1 percent to $210.60 in after-hours trading.

Deere & Co. (IW 500/37), the world’s largest agricultural equipment manufacturer, cut its fiscal full-year earnings outlook as lower commodity prices hurt farmers’ income and a glut of unsold machinery continues to pile up at dealerships.

Companies that reject the Internet of Things do so at their peril. But the learning curve of adopting the technology can also be steep. Companies that choose to write off the Internet of Things could face a similar fate to typewriter manufacturers like Smith Corona in the 1980s. While Smith Cronoma had developed a reputation of making advanced electric typewriters, it initially wrote off PCs as a niche product. The company ended up filing for bankruptcy in 1995.

U.S. manufacturers plan to boost spending on digital technology as they look to increase revenue and cut costs, consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers said in a report issued this week.

The global RFID market for industrial applications is expected to grow at a CAGR of 19.2 percent during the period 2016-2020. According to a new report from Research and Markets, which covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global RFID market for industrial applications for 2016-2020, a recent trend in the RFID market is the increased R&D spending by vendors.

Harvard Business Review

The widespread deployment of low-cost sensors and their connection to the internet has generated a great deal of excitement (and hype) about the future of manufacturing. The internet of things (IoT) and industrial internet in the United States, Industrie 4.0 in Germany, and 物联网 (wù lián wăng) in China are all centered on the application of big data and analytics to creating the next generation of manufacturing: using data to reduce costs through next generation sales and operations planning, dramatically improved productivity, supply chain and distribution optimization, and new types of after-sales services. In fact, IoT is at the peak of Gartner’s 2015 hype cycle, which suggests the next phase will be disillusionment, and it will be years before we see real productivity gains.