Our experts tackle the topic of measuring involute masters, including both master gears and gear inspection artifacts.

A reader clarifies technology presented in the March/April 2011 issue.

Xspect Solutions Provides Wenzel Bridge-Type CMM Equipped with OpenDMIS Software for Basic Gear Measuring Capability with CMM Flexibility.

Good timing leads to partnership between Process Equipment and Schafer Gear.

Investment in Gleason GMM Series inspection equipment helps drive Milwaukee Gear's expansion into profitable new markets around the world—all hungry for high-precision custom gears and gear drives.

Klingelnberg measuring centers eliminate trial-and-error with modern analysis tools.

This article was originally published 20 years ago, in Gear Technology’s first issue. It describes a method of evaluating the smoothness, or lack of smoothness, of gear motion. This lack of smoothness of motion, known as “transmission error,” is responsible for excitation of gear noise and problems of gear accuracy and sometimes has a relationship to gear failure.

AGMA has started to replace its 2000-A88 standard for gear accuracy with a new series of documents based largely on ISO standards. The first of the replacement AGMA standards have been published with the remainder coming in about a year. After serving as a default accuracy specification for U.S. commerce in gear products for several decades, the material in AGMA 2000-A88 is now considered outdated and in need of comprehensive revision.

It used to be that gear manufacturers wanting to perform analytical gear inspection required at least three machines to do so: The lead measuring instrument, the tooth space comparator and the involute checking instrument. In the beginning, these machines were mechanically driven. Over the years, the manufacturers of analytical gear inspection equipment have combined these functions - and a host of others.