February 2015

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February 2015 (Complete Issue PDF)

Feature Articles

A Quasar Ride to Automate 2015
Bill Walton – a 7 foot tall anomaly from the annals of basketball history who wears tie-dye shirts, listens to the Grateful Dead and, according to his own outlandish proclamations, hasn’t taken an indoor shower in 35 years – is well-known for looking at average accomplishmentsand being overcome with extreme fits of emotion.

Innovative Design Solves AutomotiveParts Assembly Challenge
Weiss North America, Inc. of Willoughby, OH has designed and produced rotary tables and other components for the automation industry for more than 45 years. When approached by Alpha Integration, Inc. of Murfreesboro, TN, a manufacturer of turnkey automated assembly, vision and testing systems, to provide a reliable turnkey solution for their 6-foot-tall automotive parts assembly machine, Weiss ‘tiered-up’ an innovative chassis and indexing table system solution.

The 5 Golden Rules of Gear Buying
Let’s be clear about something up front here: Delta Gear does not make parts for lawnmowers. This is a fairly flippant point that falls under the timeless, clichéd designation of “goes without saying.” Yet, not all that long ago,Tony Werschky had to say it.

Technical Articles

Variable Speed Pump Drives For Industrial Machinery - System Considerations
The changing landscape of hydraulic drives is leading many fluid power specialists to quickly adapt to using variable speed pump drives. Optimum utilization of these drives requires, in many cases, additional system design considerations.

Desktop Engineering - How to Calculate Dynamic and Static Load Ratings
When comparing bearing suppliers, engineers are often left with few options other than to compare dynamic load ratings and corresponding life calculations. Of course, we can look at steel and manufacturing quality; but if we are comparing sources of similar quality, those items may not provide a large contrast. It often surprises people to learn that bearing capacities are calculated values, not tested values. Lately, however, a trend is emerging for bearing suppliers to increase their ratings for higher performance bearings that have premium features such as higher quality steel and specilaized heat treatment. Bearing companies are under intense competitive pressure to make every feature add to the dynamic capacity of their bearings because it is very well understood that an increase in capacity adds to the bottom line.

Gear Wear Calculation and Prediction
Wear is a very important topic for dry running plastic gears. Over the past few years, the authors have worked closely with a number of manufacturers of plastic gears to investigate the problems of gear wear in detail. Together they have developed a calculation method that can be used to predict where and when local wear will occur on a tooth flank. Their findings have also just been published in the final version of VDI 2736.

Gear Fault Diagnosis by Motor Current Analysis: Application to Industrial Cases
The use of motor current signature analysis (MCSA) for motor fault detection — such as a broken rotor bar — is now well established. However, detection of mechanical faults related to the driven system remains a more challenging task. Recently there has been a growing interest for detection of gear faults by MCSA. Advantages and drawbacks of these MCSA-type techniques are presented and discussed on a few industrial cases.

Departments

Maximizing Your Power Transmission (Engineering) (Publishers Page)
Engineers are often challenged with the seemingly impossible task of doing more with less. Customers want more power transmitted in a smaller space, they want more efficient designs, and, of course, they want to spend less money. So engineers are always looking for ways to squeeze the most out of their mechanical systems. They’re constantly working to maximize power density, increase energy efficiency and reduce costs to meet their customers’ needs.

Ask the Expert (Ask the Expert)
Questions by readers answered by Experts in the field.

Product News (Product News)
News from around the Industry

Calendar (Events)
Calendar of events coming up in the industry.

Industry News (Industry News)
News from around the Industry

The Science Fiction Addiction (Power Play)
It seems preposterous in the whimsical, wireless world of today, but in 1977 cinema’s greatest visioneers came together and decided the pinnacle of robotic technology in the future would be a motorized trash can.