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Perceive, Understand & Perform

AICA and Schaeffler demonstrate the role Physical AI can play in the manufacturing environment

Conversations on the role Physical AI will play on shop floors across manufacturing took place at every stop I made during the Automate Show in Chicago. Robots—in addition to literally doing the heavy lifting—are now being asked to independently learn from experiences and discover solutions without the assistance of human programmers. At the Universal Robots (Teradyne Robotics) booth, I was treated to some amazing force sensing applications that led to a discussion on a recent gearbox assembly use case between AICA (a partner of UR) and Schaeffler that tapped robots to assemble gearboxes.

Automation for Every Shop Size

A new CNC-based application puts cost-effective robot part handling and articulation directly on the machine tool’s control screen, eliminating the need for a separate robot pendant

METAL’s Manufacturing Workforce Network

A DoW-funded partnership brings online courses and hands-on bootcamps to Purdue’s foundry lab, training that feeds gear production

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Technical Articles

Smart Alloying Eliminates Manufacturing Steps in Automotive Gears

20NiMo9-7 alloy achieves up to 48 percent higher fatigue strength than conventional carburizing steels in the as-carburized condition, eliminating the need for shot peening and grinding in automotive gear applications.

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Design and Load Capacity of Crown Gears in Comparison to Bevel Gears

Through loaded tooth contact analysis of two applications, this paper demonstrates that crown gears can match bevel gear load capacity while offering meaningful advantages in weight reduction, axial-force-free pinion mounting, and assembly simplicity.

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Analytical Calculation of the Gear Body Stiffness of Face Gears

This paper presents a new analytical method using plate and disk mechanical models to calculate the gear body stiffness of face gear wheels, showing that stiffness decreases toward the outer radius—a behavior that conventional cylindrical gear approaches fail to capture.

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Design Principles of Bevel Gears: Rationale for Zero Sum Profile Shifts and Generating Gear Choices

This article demonstrates why bevel gears are designed with a zero sum of profile shifts—showing that independent shifts merely replicate what a modified pressure angle already achieves—and explains the practical benefits of using conical generating gears for tooth profile crowning.

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Design

The main objective of this study is to perform an experimental evaluation of the structural model of a five-planet first planetary stage from a modern 6MW wind turbine gearbox.

Grinding

From the outside, Gallmar Industries, nestled into an Oshkosh, WI, neighborhood, looks like any unassuming, medium-sized gear shop. Then take a plant tour with Gallmar’s VP of Operations Kenan Zolota—and prepare to be amazed. The facility stretches on like the Army’s warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, with everything from gear cutting to heat treat, gear grinding to inspection, all under one roof. Gallmar’s breadth of product line is in evidence too: defense-related transmission gears, 60-in. diameter internal gears for mining equipment, axle components for fire/ rescue trucks five feet in length, right down to a bin of brass ammunition casings that Zolota says are a special order.

Inspection

Complete inspection of gear surface finishes at the submicron level became a reality with the introduction of Gleason’s 300GMS nano, in 2022. The new system ushered in an exciting new era in gear inspection. For the first time, producers of EV transmission gears, and gears for other applications requiring very tight tolerances and low noise requirements, could quickly inspect surface finishes and perform extremely reliable noise analysis at submicron levels—benefits that were almost impossible to achieve just a few years ago.

Heat Treating

Gas carburizing has been around for a long time. One could argue that gas carburizing is the most common heat treating process. Heat treaters performing gas carburizing are often characterized by a dirty environment, hazy surroundings, and that “smell.” While the product quality may be acceptable, gas carburized parts do come with some challenges, like excessive intergranular oxidation (IGO) or intergranular attack (IGA), which is often ground off. Low-pressure carburizing (LPC) has proven to be a much cleaner and very capable alternative process. Most furnace companies have combined LPC with high pressure gas quenching, which moved carburizing from the dark back room to a relatively “clean room” environment. However, there is still a strong need for oil quenching, which is the common feature of the long used standard integral-quench (IQ) furnace.

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Videos

Helios Gear Helps American Precision Gear Achieve Quality and Productivity

At American Precision Gear, quality isn’t just a priority — it’s the foundation of everything they do. The shop specializes in high-precision miniature gears for aerospace, defense, and medical applications, where the strictest tolerances are non-negotiable. Helios Gear Products partnered with American Precision Gear to integrate the MZ 1000 D-Drive into their production.

Industry News

REM Surface Engineering is proud to celebrate the 20th work anniversary of its President and CEO, Justin Michaud. Over the past two decades, Michaud has been the driving force behind the company’s technological evolution, expansion into cutting-edge industrial sectors, and a significant broadening of its global footprint.

Product News

Nidec Machine Tool America will exhibit gear manufacturing and inspection technologies at IMTS 2026. Located in the North Building, Level 3, Booth #237054, the company will feature the newly released RoboCam inspection solution, the ZFA260 gear grinder, and the MSS300 Super Skiving machine.

Calendar

In the Surface Roughness, Texture and Tribology webinar series, Dr. Don Cohen will present excerpts from the short course of the same name. 

RPM Symposium 2026

Sep 22, 2026 - Sep 23, 2026

Furnaces North America (FNA) 2026

Oct 12, 2026 - Oct 14, 2026

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