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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.

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

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

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Technical Articles

Root Interference

This excerpt from Gear Technology Solutions explains how oversized cutter blade edge radii cause root interference in bevel gears, and how to select correct radii to avoid noise, flank damage, and tooth fracture.

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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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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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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

Mechanical power loss in gears is generated through sliding and rolling of the contact resulting in frictional work and elastic hysteresis generation of heat. This action is both a parasitic loss of energy from the drivetrain and a source of engineering costs to control system temperature to avoid heat-related failures of the gearbox components. Therefore, from both a cost and durability standpoint it is of great interest to minimize the frictional losses at the gear tooth contact interface.

Grinding

When you talk with Jared Lyford, director of operations at Forest City Gear and the newly appointed president of the Rock River Valley Tooling & Machining Association (RRVTMA), it becomes clear very quickly: workforce development isn’t a program for him. It’s a calling—and one shaped by lived experience.

Inspection

A combination of international regulations and consumer expectations is driving the demand for reduced noise on all drivetrain components. Further demand is driven by the growing trend towards EVs and HEVs, where noise from ICE is intermittent or no longer present, and the contribution of transmission noise to overall vehicle noise becomes dominant.

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

Sandvik Coromant first introduced manufacturing wellness in 2023 as a way to describe what a healthy, future-ready manufacturing business looks like. It defines the concept as “the state of resilient, thriving manufacturing companies that have a positive impact on people and societies.” 

Product News

Emuge-Franken USA is highlighting a comprehensive line of its UNJC, UNJF, and MJ Taps, Thread Mills and Gages for safety critical J-Thread type threading applications in industries such as aerospace, defense, transportation and more.

Calendar

CES 2027

Jan 6, 2027 - Jan 9, 2027

Attracting a diverse range of professionals, including executives, engineers, designers, and entrepreneurs, CES (Las Vegas) is an excellent opportunity to connect, collaborate, and grow your professional network. The broad range of exhibits and industries represented at the show can inspire innovative solutions. Industries include 3D printing, AR/VR/XR, AI, cloud computing/data, construction tech, cybersecurity, robotics, e-Mobility, AI, vehicle tech and more.

PowerGen 2027

Jan 18, 2027 - Jan 21, 2027

SPS Smart Production Solutions 2026

Nov 24, 2026 - Nov 26, 2026

CTI Symposium Berlin 2026

Dec 8, 2026 - Dec 9, 2026

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