August 2015
August 2015 (Complete Issue PDF)
Feature Articles
Braking the Cycle
Tucked away in the southwest
quadrant of the state of Georgia, amid stately pine stands, pecan farms and
cotton fields, sits Oak Crest
Lumber.
The Race for Efficiency
Over the past few decades, energy efficiency in motors has become an ever-increasing concern for OEMs and
manufacturers alike. With multiple
energy bills mandating higher efficiency across ever-broader spectrums of motors, including the most recent Small Motor Rule by the Department of Energy, efficiency has become an essential consideration when choosing a new motor.
Are You Not Entertained
Like Moses descending from Mount Sinai toting a couple of stone tablets, Kate Achelpohl, director of member communications at PMMI and herald
of all things Pack Expo, came
hither proclaiming the four
commandments of the forthcoming
show:
And the Winner Is
Excellence Awards Competition, sponsored by the Metal Powder Industries Federation, were
recently announced at the POWDERMET2015
International Conference on Powder Metallurgy & Particulate Materials. Receiving grand prizes
and awards of distinction, the winning parts are examples of
PMâ™s precision, performance, complexity, economy, innovation
and sustainability. The winning parts show how customers from around the world are taking advantage of PMâ™s
design advantages.
Technical Articles
A New Geometrically Adaptive Approach for Tooth Contact Analysis of Gear Drives
Tooth contact analysis (TCA) is an important tool directed to the determination of contact patterns, contact paths, and transmission errors in gear drives. In this work, a new general approach that is applicable to any kind of gear geometry is proposed.
The Importance of Thermal Protection for Torque Motors
When talking about high-end machining or manufacturing applications that include direct-drive technology, one of the key advantages of utilizing this particular transmission method is its endurance. Because of the very nature of direct-drive motors they are able to operate at peak performance levels indefinitely â” without any kind of wear or aging â” as long as the motor isnâ™t pushed past its capacity.
Unfortunately, because this isnâ™t a perfect world, unexpected things can happen which can cause the motor to overheat. Whether the heat source is due to a parameter being input incorrectly, or an unexpected external force causing more resistance than expected â” it is important to have certain forms of thermal protection in place. Since torque motors are built in such a way that they cannot be
repaired and yet maintain their efficiency, it is vital to prevent any overheating â” thus precluding the
need to purchase a new one.
Effects of Contact Ratios on Mesh Stiffness of Helical Gears for Lower Noise Design
In this paper, the influences of various gear parameters on the mesh stiffness are systematically investigated by using the finite element method. The comprehensive analysis shows that contact ratios are the key factors affecting the fluctuation value of mesh stiffness.
Departments
Everythings Related (Publishers Page)
Weâ™ve recently completed a major redesign of the powertransmission.
com website.
I know what youâ™re thinking. Big deal, right? Websites are redesigned every day. Itâ™s not really news. Youâ™re right, of course. Weâ™re in the news business, and when companies
send us press releases about their newly redesigned websites,
our first instinct as editors is to respond the same way.
So what. Big deal. Moving on.
Product News (Product News)
News about the latest Products from the Industry
Calendar (Events)
Calendar of upcoming events
Baby Steps in Wind Energy (Industry News)
The Department of Energy estimates that 4 million megawatts of potential
powerâ”four times the amount all U.S. power plants combined currently produceâ”exists in offshore wind energy. Construction of Americaâ™s first offshore wind turbines began in July. The wind farm, which is being constructed off the coast of Block Island, RI, will consist of five turbines. Together, they will produce 30 MW.
This Tattoo Machine is Off the Chain (Power Play)
Groan inducing, yes â” but truer than
the blue-soaked dermis layer of infamous ink fiend The Enigma (if youâ™re not familiar with the tattoo/sideshow icon, heâ™s basically an R-rated version of Papa Smurf who eats fire and twirls chainsaws). Though other altered individuals
obviously operate on a much
less extreme plane of body modification, there seems to be a definite link between the ink and the irregular.