To most people, gears are largely invisible. We know that they make things move and shape our everyday lives, but if you are not directly involved in the power transmission industry gears go largely ignored. Similarly, AGMA may be overlooked in your day to day life. You know that AGMA exists as the industry’s association with resources available if you need them, but if you’re not regularly involved with AGMA you probably don’t think about it much. Fortunately, once you get involved in AGMA you begin to see how much you’ve been missing.
Since the beginning nearly 100 years ago, AGMA has been known as the U.S. standards writing body for gearing. For more than 15 years it has also been a leader in the international standards development as secretariat (chairman) of ISO Technical Committee 60. The technical knowledge that AGMA’s members bring together to develop the industry’s standards will continue to be a driver for AGMA in the future.
But AGMA is not just a standards organization or only a technical organization. As AGMA’s membership has grown and changed over the last 95 years, the association has changed with it. AGMA’s membership now includes more than 426 corporate, consultant, and academic members in some 32 countries around the world. This month for the first time AGMA will hold an International Business Conference, bringing together more than 30 senior executives from medium to large national and international companies. The goal of the conference is to provide corporate leaders new tools for business growth, while creating opportunities for new strategic partnerships both in the United States and around the world.
AGMA has also changed with the needs of the industry. Fifteen years ago if you wanted gear education you had a few limited options from the association and from the industry at large. Today AGMA has more than a dozen courses available covering the full range of skill levels. From the Training School for Gear Manufacturing held at Daley College to our most advanced courses on gear design and gear failure, AGMA now offers courses for anyone from machine operators to seasoned professional engineers.
And as the pace of business changes, AGMA is adapting with it. Gear industry personnel can now learn on their own time, at their own location, and at their own pace with AGMA’s online learning programs. Three online programs are devoted to the fundamentals of gearing, hobbing and inspection. Our first online, video-based course on Detailed Gear Design taught by Ray Drago debuted last year, and this year we will be releasing our newest online course, the Gear Failure Analysis Seminar taught by Bob Errichello.
Education is only one of the ways that AGMA has changed to keep up with technology’s advances. We also have a robust Web site that features news from all of our member Web sites, plus a search engine of all our member products and services. Also, AGMA delivers member and industry news to your e-mail inbox with our two e-newsletters, the weekly AGMA NewsBrief and the bi-weekly Gear Industry Update. Even if you are not a member you can take advantage of these e-mail and Web offerings so that you stay abreast on the last developments in your industry. To subscribe just e-mail website@agma.org.
AGMA is the gear industry’s association, and it continues to adapt to the industry’s needs and the changing business landscape. If you’ve been overlooking us, I invite you to take a new look at AGMA’s fall schedule, which is packed with some of the best activities AGMA has to offer. In October you can take a class in Gear Manufacturing and Inspection, or on the business side attend the Marketing & Forecasting Conference. In November you can attend the largest Fall Technical Meeting in the history of AGMA and find the best technology the industry has to offer at Gear Expo. It’s a great time to get involved in AGMA and to get involved in shaping your industry.
Don’t let AGMA be invisible in your career. The association exists to help members be more competitive. Log on to our Web site, listed below, to sign up for a class, or show up for an event and make sure you are getting all the value you can from the industry’s trade association, AGMA.
AGMA Welcomes Its Newest Members
AGMA is happy to report that the association continues to grow and now has more than 425 companies in its membership representing the industry more than 30 countries. In the past six months more than 20 companies have joined AGMA. To find out more about these companies visit their Web sites, listed below. To find out more about AGMA and how membership can benefit your company visit www.agma.org or e-mail membership@agma.org.
American Holt Corporation
www.americanholt.com
American Holt is a privately held company based in Norwood, Massachusetts. Founded in 1995, the company’s roots lie in the envelope converting industry. Today American Holt operates in a variety of industries, saving many companies substantial amounts of money each year. They are a full service engineering company that focuses on the reverse engineering and manufacturing of aftermarket parts.
Bodine Electric Company
www.bodine-electric.com
Bodine Electric Company is a leading manufacturer of fractional horsepower gearmotors (less than 1HP / 746 watts), motors, and motor speed controls in North America. Bodine Electric offers over 1,000 standard products and thousands of custom designed gearmotors, motors, and speed controls. Known for their reliability, long life, and competitive prices, Bodine gearmotors are found in many demanding industrial and commercial applications.
Bomar LLC
www.bomarllc.com
Bowmar, serving the aerospace and defense industries for more than six decades, is a trusted recognized leader for build-to-print mechanical, electromechanical and electronic systems and subsystems, highly-reliability interface products, and precision gear assemblies. Bowmar’s highly skilled team of engineers, designers, assemblers, and other staff support the needs of some of the world’s leading industries, including Honeywell, General Dynamics, Rockwell Collins, GE Aviation, Lockheed Martin, Curtiss Wright, L3 Communications, and Hamilton Sundstrand.
Commtest, Inc.
www.commtest.com
Commtest grew out of the R&D department of a technology company. While Commtest has grown considerably, the culture of prototyping and innovation remains a core element of who they are. Their product lineup includes portable vibration data collectors, portable vibration analyzers, portable dedicated balancers, and permanent machinery surveillance systems, all sharing an intelligent user-friendly software interface.
EDP Renewabels North America-Horizon Wind Energy
www.horizonwind.com
Horizon Wind Energy LLC and its subsidiaries develop, construct, own, and operate wind farms throughout North America. Based in Houston, Texas, with 27 wind farms and over 15 offices across the United States, Horizon ranked third in the United States in terms of net installed capacity, and it has more than 1,900 turbines in operation and approximately 40 million hours of wind turbine operational history. With over 300 employees, Horizon’s highly qualified team has a proven capacity to execute projects and achieve goals.
EM Gear LLC
www.em-gear.net
EM Gear is the U.S. representative office of the Dae Seong Gear Manufacturing Company. They were established in Omaha, Nebraska, in May 2011. They are a wholesale distributor of various industrial gears and reducers for their parent company, Dae Seong Gear Manufacturing Company, which specializes in developing and manufacturing a complete range of standard special line industrial gears, reducers, and related equipment.
GE Global Research
www.geglobalresearch.com
GE Global Research is one of the world’s most diversified industrial research labs. Global Research has been the cornerstone of GE technology for more than 100 years, developing breakthrough innovations in areas such as medical imaging, energy generation technology, jet engines, and lighting. GE Global Research is headquartered in Niskayuna, New York, and has three other multidisciplinary facilities in Bangalore, India; Shanghai, China; and Munich, Germany.
Innotrans Systems India Pvt Ltd
www.innotrans.in
Innotrans Systems India Pvt. Ltd. specializes in the design and manufacturing of customized gear drives for various applications. They currently provide development of spares and reverse engineering of gear drives, prototype development, testing services for carrying out load running tests on automobile transmissions and transmission elements, and systems integration of customized gear drive systems.
Iwasa Tech Co. Ltd
www.iwasa-tech.com
Founded in 1919, Iwasa Tech proudly manufactures gears from Tokyo with excellence of quality and service. They believe their uniqueness is their strength and they are not just another gear supplier. They pride themselves on keeping current of world-leading advanced technology.
Konrad Gear
www.konradcorp.com
Konrad Corporation was incorporated by its founder, Ken Konrad, in 1967. Konrad Corporation developed a national reputation for quality machined products, competitive pricing, and service to an industry that was unaccustomed to receiving support from its suppliers. The demand for their expertise within the steel mill industry fueled the tremendous growth that they experienced during the next decades.
Linita Design and Manufacturing Corp.
www.linita.com
Linita Design and Manufacturing Corp. have been leaders in the custom steel fabricating industry for over 35 years. Linita designs and manufacturers hoists, presses, and water control gates according to their own or customer specific designs.
Oshkosh Corporation
www.oshkoshcorporation.com
Oshkosh Corporation is a leading manufacturer and marketer of access equipment, specialty vehicles, and truck bodies for the primary markets of defense, concrete placement, refuse hauling, access equipment, and fire and emergency. Oshkosh is a global enterprise with fiscal 2010 revenue of $9.8 billion. This financial performance is the result of the company’s diversified business model and focused growth strategies.
Parker Hannifin Corporation-Nichols Portland Div.
www.parker.com
Parker Hannifin is the world’s leading diversified manufacturer of motion and control technologies and systems, providing precision-engineered solutions for a wide variety of commercial, mobile, industrial, and aerospace markets. The company’s products are vital to virtually everything that moves or requires control, including the manufacture and processing of raw materials, durable goods, infrastructure development, and all forms of transport.
Precision Bearings, Inc.
www.precisionbearingsco.com
Precision Bearings has provided high quality bearings and balls to customers for over 50 years.
Rija Machining, Inc.
www.rijamachine.com
Samsung Electronics
www.samsung.com
For over 70 years, Samsung has been dedicated to making a better world through diverse businesses. Samsung Electronics leads the global market in high-tech electronics manufacturing and digital media.
Toolink Engineering
www.toolink-eng.com
In 1991 Toolink Engineering, Inc., was established to represent Konigdorn-MTM of Germany as their exclusive North American distributor and repair center. Since the 1960s Konig has produced precision arbors and chucks (hydraulic and mechanical) for the gear industry. Today, in alliance with Toolink, Konig’s devices are applied in applications from gear hobbing to hard finish grinding, to holding special profiles such as gas compressor rotors and their associated grinding tools.
Triumph Aerospace Systems Seattle
www.triumphgroup.com/companies/triumph-aerospace-systems-seattle
Triumph Aerospace Systems Seattle (TAS-Sea) is the systems engineering and integration focal for Triumph Group companies. They are leaders in the next generation of motion, control, and power systems for commercial and military aircraft and rotorcraft. Their capabilities include aircraft system design, hydraulic component design, electrical component design, system/component analysis, systems integration/spatial integration, and electrical/hydraulic/mechanical testing.
University of Alberta-Dept of Mechanical Engineering
www.mece.ualberta.cal
In the mechanical engineering building, a modern well-equipped machine shop and state of the art laboratories and facilities in computing, thermosciences, and applied mechanics are widely utilized throughout the undergraduate and graduate programs. Activities include fundamental research as well as applied research in support of industry.
University of Seville
www.esi.us.es
For the 29 years the school has been in existence it has been maturing as it has shaped 1,900 graduates who have been formed in its classrooms as doctors, professors, engineers, etc. We have forged channels of communication and collaboration with other universities in Spain and abroad for professors and students alike. At present students of ETSI complete many of their courses as part of the foreign exchange programs where they are taught in prestigious universities worldwide.
