TOPICS CALENDAR BUYER'S GUIDE MPMA

Purchasing

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2026-09-16

Manufacturing Technology Orders Exceed $500M for 5th Consecutive Month

New orders of metalworking machinery, measured by the U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders Report published by AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology, totaled $605.8 million in July 2026. This was an 8.0% decrease from June 2026 and a 55.2% increase over July 2025. This is only the second time since USMTO began collecting data in 1998 that orders have exceeded half a billion dollars for five consecutive months. Through the first seven months of 2026, manufacturing technology orders totaled $4.03 billion, a 37.1% increase over orders placed through July 2025.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2026-04-16

GenNx360 Capital Partners Announces Horsburgh & Scott’s Acquisition of Franklin Machine & Gear

GenNx360 Capital Partners, a New York-based private equity firm focused on investing in middle-market industrial and business services companies, today announced that its portfolio company, Horsburgh & Scott, has acquired Franklin Machine & Gear, a provider of industrial gear and gearbox repair and replacement services.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2025-12-11

Forest City Gear Expands Inspection Capacity with New Kapp Niles Machine

Forest City Gear is proud to announce the addition of a Kapp Niles KNM 4X analytical measuring machine to its inspection department, further expanding ability to inspect high-precision gears, gear tools, and rotationally symmetric workpieces. Designed for small- to medium-sized components up to 450 mm in diameter and 500 kg, the KNM 4X brings a new level of speed, stability, and measurement confidence to Forest City Gear’s inspection process.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2025-09-26

Forest City Gear Celebrates Retirement of Ingrid West

Forest City Gear has announced the retirement of Ingrid West, purchasing and expediting coordinator, after 14 years of dedicated service.

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2020-12-16

Some Help From Your Friends

Making great products is a team effort. It annoys me when the host of a certain house remodeling show claims credit for how wonderful her project t...

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2019-05-21

My Origin Story: James Richards

James Richards’ entry int...

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2019-04-09

Ed Kaske — My Story

Ed Kaske was one of the first to respond to our request for origin stories. I apologize for the delay in getting this to print; we liked it so ...

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2019-03-05

Fitting the Pieces Together

It occurred to me recently that my request for “origin stories” may not have been inclusive enough. As an engineer, I tend to focus on the technica...

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2019-01-18

Getting into the Gear Trade: Chris Trochelman

Here is the first of our guest blogs on the topic of how you entered the gear trade. Chris Trochelman (pictured above, fa...

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2019-01-10

The Journey Continues

An apprentice ...

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2018-08-02

Gearbox Specs: Connecting to the System

Your specifica...

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2017-06-06

Leadership in the Ranks

As a history buff, certain dates stick in my mind and prompt reflection when they roll around. I first learned about D-Day when they showed The...

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2017-05-30

Leadership or Management?

My last post mentioned the big changes in the gear industry during my 47 year tenure, and the importance of visionary leadership. I have come to un...

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2017-01-12

The Essential Gear Book?

Continuing our discussion of gear training… What one book would you advise a newbie to purchase, read, and keep handy in the years ahe...

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2016-09-20

Book Reviewers Needed

Every gear engineer ends up with a shelf full of reference books. Depending upon your age and experience level these may be books you bought or boo...

PUBLISHER'S PAGE | 2016-06-01

Apologies

I'd like to apologize to the dedicated people working on revisions to the AGMA 925 standard and the Technical Report ISO 15144-1, both of which deal with the issue of micropitting. In the March/April issue of Gear Technology, we published an opinion piece in our Voices column that harshly criticized the methods for predicting micropitting outlined in ISO 15144-1.

FEATURE ARTICLES | 2016-03-01

Plastic Gearing Continues Converting the Unconverted

Plastic gears are everywhere today - throughout your car, at the oceans' lowest depths, in deep space. The question, when is a metal gear a candidate for plastic conversion, can be addressed in three words, i.e. what's the application?

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2015-11-19

The Importance of Prompt No Quotes

Before going on an extended blog series on my “points system” for evaluating business opportunities, I want to talk about the importance of issuing...

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2015-11-05

You Are Lost Without Records!

The guys who taught me to estimate all had great memories for part shapes, features — even part numbers. It takes years to develop that kind of tal...

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2015-09-10

A Century of Gears

The American Gear Manufacturers’ Association [AGMA] will celebrate its 100^th Anniversary in 2016. The party will begin with the Fall Tec...

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2015-08-13

Sprucing Up Content

Back in 1987 I wrote a book about gears aimed at the novice engineer or purchasing agent. An Introduction to Gear Design was originally a work assi...

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2015-04-21

Play Through, Old Friend

One of the consequences of growing older is saying good bye to friends you have made along the way. Word reached me this week that one of the best ...

EVENTS | 2015-03-01

Calendar

The complete technical calendar from the March/April 2015 issue of Gear Technology.

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2014-12-04

Overcoming Adversity

[starbox] My last blog concerned project management and the problems of staying on schedule. I thought it only fair to pass on some techniques I...

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2014-05-01

So How Much is This Going to Cost?

[starbox] Estimating is a necessary evil in every shop. Nobody wants to do it, but if it doesn’t get done there is no business. Fortunately, we ...

GEAR TALK WITH CHUCK | 2014-02-26

Internships: How Does the Employer Benefit?

[starbox] The first question my boss asked me when I suggested we start an intern program was “What’s in it for us?” Fortunately I had done my h...

TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 2013-10-01

Purchasing Gear Lubricants - Be Careful When Playing the Numbers Game

When it comes to purchasing gear lubricants, many people on both the sales and purchasing side decide to play the numbers game. The person with the most numbers, or the biggest numbers, or the lowest numbers, must have the best product - right? Wrong; gear oil selection is not a game, and numbers alone cannot determine the right product for an application.

FEATURE ARTICLES | 2013-09-01

New Technology Roll Call

Interviews with exhibitors at ASM's Heat Treat 2013 exposition, which is co-located with Gear Expo.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2010-09-01

Industry News

The complete Industry News section from the September/October 2010 issue of Gear Technology.

PRODUCT NEWS | 2008-09-01

Roto Flo's Servo-Actuated CNC to Debut at IMTS

Most anyone that has been in the gear industry—or any machining and tooling oriented business, for that matter—is probably at least somewhat familiar with the Roto-Flo workhorse line of hydraulic-actuated spline and thread rolling machines. After all, they’ve been at it for decade

TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 2008-08-01

Guidelines for Modern Bevel Gear Grinding

This paper acknowledges the wide variety of manufacturing processes--especially in grinding--utlized in the production of bevel gears...

TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 2007-03-01

Effects on Rolling Contact Fatigue Performance--Part II

This is part II of a two-part paper that presents the results of extensive test programs on the RCF strength of PM steels.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2005-09-01

Industry News

The complete Industry News section from the September/October 2005 issue of Gear Technology.

FEATURE ARTICLES | 2004-11-01

Understanding the Application: A Key to Economical Gearbox Purchases

On a highway, a compact pick-up truck struggles to tow a 30-foot boat up a steep grade. Inside the pick-up, the owner curses himself. He saved money leasing a smaller truck but sees now that he really needed a bigger, pricier vehicle, one suitable for this job.

INDUSTRY NEWS | 2003-12-19

Power Transmission Association Releases Purchasing Report

The Power Transmission Distributors Association's (PTDA) latest report claims that U.S. and Canadian end users consider the product q...

PUBLISHER'S PAGE | 1997-11-01

Good - Bye, Dad

I sat down to write this editorial about my father, Harold Goldstein, as he approached his 80th birthday in October. I had meant it to be a celebration of his nearly 65 years in the machine tool business. Unfortunately, on August 26, as I was working on it, my father passed away after a long battle with emphysema. This editorial has now become a memorial as well as a celebration.

ADDENDUM | 1997-03-01

Down By The Old Mill Stream

Back in the days when our great, great, great, etc., grandaddies were designing gears, one of the most common materials in use was wood. For fairly obvious reasons, we don't see too many wooden gears around anymore. But there are a few.

ADDENDUM | 1996-05-01

Gear Terms You Didn't Know About

The word gear, in various forms, has been in use since around A.D. 1200, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Last issue we brought you Shakespearean gears. Now we'd like to show you some of the uses Americans have given our favorite word (from the Random House Dictionary of American Slang).

INDUSTRY NEWS | 1995-09-01

Gear Inspection For The Long Haul

Question: We just received permission to purchase our first CNC gear inspection system. With capital approvals so hard to come by, especially for inspection equipment, I want to be sure to purchase a system I can count of for years to come. My past experience with purchasing CNC equipment has shown me that serviceability of the computer and the CNC controller portion of the system can be a problem in just a few years because of the obsolescence factor. What information do I need to look for when selecting a supplier to reduce the risk of obsolescence, as well as to reduce the long-term servicing costs in the computer and controls portion of the system?

INDUSTRY NEWS | 1995-07-01

Dry Gear Hobbing

Question: We are contemplating purchasing a hobbing machine with dry hobbing capabilities. What do we need to know about the special system requirements for this technology?

FEATURE ARTICLES | 1995-05-01

CNC Software Savvy

Question: When we purchase our first CNC gear hobbing machine, what questions should we ask about the software? What do we need to know to correctly specify the system requirements?

TECHNICAL ARTICLES | 1995-03-01

Heat Treating Equipment Selection

For heat treatment of tool and alloy steels, the end-user has a wide range of basic types of heat treating equipment to choose from. This article reviews them and details the criteria that must be considered in selecting equipment for a specific application. In making this choice, the most important criterion must be the quality of the tool or part after processing.

FEATURE ARTICLES | 1995-03-01

What to Look For Before You Leap

Question: We are interested in purchasing our first gear hobbing machine. What questions should we ask the manufacturer, and what do we need to know in order to correctly specify the CNC hardware and software system requirements?

PUBLISHER'S PAGE | 1990-03-01

Capital Gains, Societal Gains, or No Gains At All

Taxes may be one of the only two sure things in life, but that doesn't make them popular. Nobody is happy to pay them, and the bigger the amount due, the unhappier the taxpayer. Conversely, politicians know that coming out in favor of a tax cut is the equivalent of voting for apple pie and motherhood. It's a sure-fire success at the ballot box.