Who wants or needs technical details about gearing? Who cares about it? Three out of every four people who are reading this magazine make up at least 75% of those who have an interest in the subject. The members of AGMA, EUROTRANS, JGMA and JSIM have an interest. All the people attending the Gear Expo in Detroit have an interest. Clearly, however, the people with the most pressing interest in our industry are our customers, the end users of gear products. The unfortunate reality, though, is that in many cases, these customers don't even know that's what they want.
In 1877, Irish immigrant William Gleason, owner of a machine tool business in Rochester, NY, suffered a terrible blow. Gleason's son Tom died. The loss was not merely a personal one. Tom had been his father's assistant, and the senior Gleason had no one to fill the gap and help him carry on his business.
Joe Garfien came to America in 1928 to play soccer. He also learned to cut gears and build a business.
"When I came here [to America] I came in on a Friday, and I had to go work on Monday, so I found a job at Perfection Gear...and that's how I got started in gears."
AGMA has an excellent Training School for Gear Manufacturing. It's a great product providing a great service to the gear industry. Thus far we've educated 117 employees from 71 companies; students range from new hires with no experience to company presidents. Essentially every class since December, 1992, has been sold out.
The popular perception today is that technological advancement is an engine running almost out of control. New products and processes are developing faster than we can keep up with them, as anyone who has had a new computer system crash into obsolescence practically before it's out of the box can tell you. But that's not the case everywhere. Transmission technology, for example.
I support Clem Miller (Viewpoint May/June) in his skepticism of ISO 9000. The metrology of gears is important, but in the present state of the art, manufacture is more accurate than design.
I noted with interest the beginning of Gear Technology's three-part series on ISO 9000 certification. I also recently attended Brown & Sharpe's/Leitz gear metrology seminar. Both events caused me to smile and reflect.
Investigation of Gear Rattle Phenomena
The article by Messrs. Rust, Brandl and Thien was very interesting in its description of the problem and of some of the interactions which occur.
One of our readers in England has asked for our help in locating published technical data and information on the design, manufacture, and inspection of camshaft gears. Although millions of these gears have been made and are in constant use, we are not aware of any formal material having been published. We would be pleased to hear from anyone who had knowledge of such information.