AGMA Gear Industry News

Hiring slowed substantially in March, President Trump's second full month in office. America only added 98,000 jobs, according to the Labor Department. It's a disappointment, given the U.S. added 219,000 jobs in February and averaged 187,000 new jobs a month last year. But economists are already calling it a one month "blip." It's common to see a weak month of hiring at some point during the winter. Most experts expect job growth to pick up again soon.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that manufacturing employment increased for the fourth straight month, with the sector adding 11,000 workers in March. This was an encouraging sign that the recent uptick in optimism in the sector has begun to translate into better job growth, especially when contrasted with the employment declines seen as recently as last autumn. Indeed, manufacturers lost 16,000 workers on net in 2016 as a whole, the first annual decline since the Great Recession. In contrast to that, manufacturing employment has averaged 16,750 per month since December.

As the momentum builds in Washington for reform — to make regulations smarter, simpler and streamlined — the NAM is out with a new study that demonstrates the urgent need for change. 

The future of automobile production is now. A $1.33 billion investment — the highest of any automaker in Kentucky and the second-largest in state history — will make Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc. the first plant in North America to begin producing vehicles using Toyota New Global Architecture. Named the "Most American Made" car by Cars.com and the number one selling car in America for the past 15 years, the Camry, from the 2018 model year, will become the first Toyota vehicle made in the U.S. to fully incorporate the new vehicle development and production technology. 

Discussions about manufacturing tend to get very contentious. Many economists and commentators believe that there’s nothing inherently special about making things and that efforts to restore U.S. manufacturing to its former glory reek of industrial policy, protectionism, mercantilism and antiquated thinking.

Gain a solid and fundamental understanding of gear geometry, types and arrangements, and design principles. Starting with the basic definitions of gears, conjugate motion, and the Laws of Gearing, learn the tools needed to understand the inter‐relation and coordinated motion operating within gear pairs and multi‐gear trains. Basic gear system design process and gear measurement and inspection techniques will also be explained. In addition, the fundamentals of understanding the step‐wise process of working through the iterative design process required to generate a gear pair will be reviewed. Learn the steps and issues involved in design refinement and some manufacturing considerations. An explanation of basic gear measurement techniques, how measurement equipment and test machines implement these techniques, and how to interpret the results from these basic measurements will also be covered.

Manufacturers might get some help with exporting if  US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross has his way. At the annual conference of the  Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) held in Washington last week week, he appeared via video, and expressed his view that the bank needs to help the country and its workers.

The worlds of information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) are converging and manufacturing professionals in both specializations must understand the significant complexities of building a connected enterprise. The next phase in the digitization of the manufacturing sector, also known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution or "Industry 4.0," will drive an increase in computational power, connectivity and data volume, all requiring low-power, wide-area networks.

Investors are showing Tesla some love. The American manufacturer of premium electric sedans and SUVs hasn't yet sold as many cars as the other Big Three manufacturers sell in a year, but its market cap is soaring and Tesla's crawling up behind market leader General Motors. Critics point out that this is all based on notions of what Tesla could pull off in the future. Time will tell if the firm from Paolo Alto can prove its worth.

This course focuses the supporting elements of a gearbox that allow gears and bearings to do their jobs most efficiently. Learn about seals, lubrication, lubricants, housings, breathers and other details that go into designing gearbox systems. 

These technologies all have staying power. They will affect the economy and our politics, improve medicine, or influence our culture. Some are unfolding now; others will take a decade or more to develop. But you should know about all of them right now.

Natilus, Inc., a California Bay Area-based startup company, is developing large, autonomous carbon fiber composite drones capable of moving freight across the Pacific Ocean at costs cheaper than conventional piloted cargo planes and faster than cargo ships.

Gear buyers, end users, manufacturers, and engineers from many industries come to network, build relationships, discover and apply innovative technology that sets up their businesses to grow market share and expand product lines. 

The Timken Company, a global leader in bearings and mechanical power transmission products, announced that it has acquired Torsion Control Products, Inc., a manufacturer of engineered torsional couplings used in the construction, agriculture and mining industries.

Aerospace company Continental Motors has doubled down on Mobile, announcing that it will spend more than $60 million dollars on a new facility at the Brookley Aeroplex.

Recently, it has been the private sector that has once again energized our ambitions for moving beyond our planet. A new breed of entrepreneurs, backed in many cases by government resources, is making space flight the stuff of which dreams — and a lucrative reality — are made. In the process, they are creating advanced manufacturing jobs as they develop production capabilities and supply chains. A 2014 Bureau of Labor Statistics report found that the U.S. space industrial base employed 2.6 million people and that employment at commercial companies had grown by 10.3 percent from 2009 to 2012.

An automated grinding, inspection and packaging cell churns out two fragile automotive parts per second with zero defects.

Will Caldwell was sure he wanted to be a mechanical engineer. The 20-year-old had spent his childhood in Madison, Wis., building models of spacecraft and futuristic vehicles with whatever he could find around the house. He started a mechanical engineering club at his high school. And when he enrolled in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Engineering three years ago, he hoped to someday design cars. But along the way, he realized that mechanical engineering skills alone would not get him where he wanted to go. His pals who recently graduated with mechanical engineering degrees had landed jobs that required them to program computers and robots, and to perform other tasks that were related more to the computerized world of the Internet of Things (IoT) than to traditional mechanical engineering.

Superalloys are a special type of metallic alloys with excellent mechanical performance and oxidation resistance at elevated temperatures, which make them suitable for structures and components undergoing high mechanical stresses at high temperatures. A better understanding of the behavior of these alloys and the development of computational models able to relate their actual performance (allowables) with the microstructure resulting from the processing route are needed by the industry to improve aircraft engine design (emissions reduction and improved efficiency).