In this article, gear buyers have been given an opportunity to discuss quality, value, customer service and how gear manufacturers can improve business practices.
It’s happened to most manufacturers at one point or another. A defective
product comes back from a customer in
need of repair. Perhaps a bearing or a
gear drive has failed, and the customer
simply needs a replacement. Upon further
examination, the company realizes it was never one of its products in the
first place, but a fabricated copy that
snuck into the market. The manufacturing
community has been dealing with
counterfeit products for decades, but
used machinery dealers and Internet
shoppers seem to continuously get hit
by scam artists.
Two high-volume gear production cells grace the shop floor at Delta Research Corporation in Livonia, Michigan. Thanks to lean manufacturing, these cells have never shipped a defective part to a customer since they were developed over three years ago.
Gear metrology is a revolving door of software packages and system upgrades. It has to be in order to keep up with the productivity and development
processes of the machines on the
manufacturing floor. Temperature
compensation, faster inspection times
and improved software packages are
just a few of the advancements currently in play as companies prepare for new opportunities in areas like alternative energy, automotive and aerospace/defense.