AGMA Gear Industry News

BASF is expanding its cooperation with Materialise, a supplier of 3D printing technologies, working together within the framework of an open business model to improve materials and software for various 3D printing technologies. The companies are focusing on applications in the consumer goods, automotive and aviation industries and the partners intend to accelerate the development of innovative applications and new materials.

As head of commercial vehicle powertrains solutions for global advanced technology supplier Robert Bosch LLC, Ron Ritz needs to predict where the market is headed. Since moving into the commercial vehicle and off-road space in January, Ritz has witnessed how much of Bosch’s passenger car expertise is flowing into heavy trucks.

TechLink’s mission is to help businesses and entrepreneurs across America gain access to Department of Defense inventions which they can then develop into new products and services.Here are this week’s five featured inventions. 

The MIT’s Self Assembly Lab is inventing entirely new ways to create a new generation of objects, including Rapid Liquid Printing, where an object is printed inside a vat of gel, allowing designers to rapidly print flexible, complex shapes.

NAM chief Jay Timmons is hitting the road this week with a mission to uncover the true state of American manufacturing from the only voices that really matter.

The impact of trade wars on manufacturing cannot be overstated. Establishing a robust and responsive supply chain is an enormous task that requires specialized knowledge, hands on management of global vendors and often employs more people than the engineers that design the products in the first place; companies cannot simply turn on a dime and re-engineer their entire supply chain. 

One of the most noticeable differences between today’s factory floors and those of yesteryear is the evolution of machines as machine-as-a-service. With IIoT connectivity, machine-as-a-service fulfills the traditional capabilities of a factory floor machine while also contributing to larger business goals. 

Learn and define the concept of epicyclic gearing is including some basic history and the differences among simple planetary gear systems, compound planetary gear systems and star drive gear systems. Cover concepts on the arrangement of the individual components including the carrier, sun, planet, ring and star gears and the rigid requirements for the system to perform properly. Critical factors such as load sharing among the planet or star gears, sequential loading, equal planet/star spacing, relations among the numbers of teeth on each element, calculation of the maximum and optimum number of planet/star gears for a specific system will be covered. Provides an in-depth discussion of the methodology by which noise and vibration may be optimized for such systems and load sharing guidelines for planet load sharing.

A new study looks at the utilization of hybrid manufacturing in the United States, as well as the locations of additive manufacturing hubs and potential places for hubs to be constructed to complement traditional machine shops.

At the FANUC plant in Oshino, Japan, the robots build themselves, test themselves and inspect themselves. This complex is one of a kind. It’s one of the world’s first "lights-out factories" where 24/7 operation is a reality and intelligent robots create computerized offspring capable of machine learning and computer vision. But it proves just how far artificial intelligence (AI) has come in the manufacturing process.

For decades there have been five basic types of manufacturing processes. They are distinct. Great design engineers understand the nuances of these processes and tailor designs accordingly. Now, a 6th manufacturing process, 3D printing, has arrived. 

(VIDEO) Zoox is on the verge of transforming the entire transportation industry by creating self-driving robots that will become the ride-shares of the future.

Imagine getting a full night’s sleep during planting season while an unmanned tractor works the land. That scenario is no longer a dream, as driverless technology created by an Idaho company is now a reality. 

Most companies think they lead their Industry 4.0 competitors in AI and robotic technologies. A huge confidence gap exists between the number of companies that try digital manufacturing strategies and those that successfully apply them, a new McKinsey & Co. survey found. In the 2018 Manufacturing Global Expert Survey, 92 percent of respondents think they lead or are on par with competitors in Industry 4.0 manufacturing strategies.

It is important to realize that, while many robots are designed for automating tasks, there are others that are designed to augment human capabilities rather than automate tasks. Here are a few examples of how robotic technology is enhancing human operators rather than automating tasks.