We are certainly interested in innovation at Advanced Jiffy Machine. Innovations have driven our own business to produce gears faster and more efficiently. Here’s some recent innovations in the gear manufacturing industry that we are interested in.
Powder Metal Gears: Powder metal is poised to become a viable option for manufacturers seeking lower production costs and higher-precision gears. Manufacturing of powder metals has actually been around for a half a century, but it wasn’t always a viable option to produce gears that have the densities, material properties, and hardenability required for industries such as automotive (which need a higher quality gear). Today, new materials for powder forging of gears are available for use.
Precision Matters: One gear isn’t always exactly equal to another, especially if the equipment to measure them is not accurate. That can lead to issues with system and machine breakdowns which depend on these gears as part of the process. CNC analytical gear measurement systems have advanced to measure geometric features with respect to gear features, which allows gears to be manufactured with a much higher accuracy for many critical applications.
Workholding Gets Faster: Workholding is a process where a workpiece is held in place so that a machine can do the work on it. Today’s need for smaller batches of gears which may need to change on the next run to meet new consumer demands, has driven innovations in producing solutions to reduce workpiece changeover time. Gleason Gear Lab is working to develop a universal workholding system which cuts down workholding time.
Lean Manuacturing Improves the Gear Industy: Lean manufacturing and the Internet of Things (IoT) is improving the gear industry by the use of predictive maintenance systems which help to warn of equipment breakdowns before they happen. This saves time during the work process, because businesses can now anticipate downtime due to breaks before they happen by delivering information such as performance and efficiency to someone who can stop the process before the breakdowns occur.
Dry Hard-Gear Finishing: The grinding process can be the most sophisticated and expensive in the gear manufacturing process. Costs are so high not only because the machinery is expensive, but because of the need for a coolant (such as oils) in the process. However a new technology has been produced with the SG 160 from Samputensilli which allows dry grinding (without the use of oils).
These innovations are exciting because they lead to reduced costs, increased efficiency, and greater use of information to reduce downtime and improve safety.
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