The American Gear Manufacturers Association helps its members compete more effectively in today’s domestic and global marketplace. Among the many member benefits you can discuss with AGMA staff at their Gear Expo booth (#1109) next month are the wide variety of statistical programs that are offered exclusively to AGMA members. There is no better way to measure how your company compares to industry financial benchmarks than to participate in AGMA’s industry reports and salary surveys.
Using data provided by others in this industry, these reports help you see where you stand in the industry. AGMA provides three different industry reports: the Gear Market Report, Monthly Market Trend Report (MMTR), and the Operating Ratio Report. AGMA also alternates years for the two salary reports, the Management and Technical Workers Wage and Benefits Survey, and the Production Workers Wage and Benefit Survey.
For every report, the process is absolutely secure and completely confidential. All reports are mailed to an independent financial consultant or reporting entity; only they see the data. No AGMA member or staff person ever sees the participant’s data.
As always, this information about the programs is available on the AGMA website, but you will be able to ask specific questions of AGMA staff face-to-face at Gear Expo. Details for each report are included below.
Industry Reports
Gear Market Report
AGMA, in partnership with the economic forecasting firm IHS Global Insight, administers a forecasting subscription service. This comprehensive report provides information on U.S. economic conditions, industry conditions for gears, gear market bookings, and gear market shipments. But this information is also broken down into a series of end user markets, including: total gears, industrial machinery gears, construction machinery gears, power transmission equipment gears, mining, oil & gas field equipment gears, ship & offshore platform gears, railroad equipment gears, and aerospace gears. The product includes quarterly updates of the report sent directly to members in editable excel spreadsheets. This report is available to all corporate and associate AGMA members for an annual rate of $2,000. This subscription not only includes the reports but also includes one registration at both the spring and fall AGMA Marketing & Forecasting Conferences.
Monthly Market Trend Report
The Monthly Market Trend Report (MMTR) is managed for AGMA by the Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT). This report tracks actual booking and shipment data from domestic manufacturers of gears and flexible couplings. The summary report includes a variety of charts and graphs that list industry bookings, a bookings index, industry shipments, and a shipment index for all groups, enclosed gears, and each of the product groups.
The MMTR is available to all AGMA members who manufacture gears and flexible couplings. It is a statistical benchmarking tool by which a company can assess its competitiveness in the gear/flexible couplings industry. In addition to monthly reports on nine product categories, the MMTR includes an annual summary that covers the market activity for the most recent calendar year. Only members that participate in providing data for this report can receive the report. There are no additional costs above AGMA membership dues for participation.
Operating Ratio Report
AGMA’s Operating Ratio Report (ORR) is a profitability or “cost of doing business” study based on data reported by gear manufacturers in the U.S. and Canada. The ORR will help AGMA members understand and analyze “best practices” in the gear manufacturing industry. It can help improve financial results by establishing “typical” financial performance targets and by analyzing how “high-profit” companies in the industry achieve their success.
All participating companies also receive a FREE Individualized Financial Performance Report. This report compares a member’s specific company to the industry, to other companies in the same line of business and to other gear manufacturers of equal size. Participation in the AGMA ORR is open to North American gear manufacturing company members. Members must participate each year to continue to receive the report. Many participants have commented that participating in this survey is one of the most valuable benefits of AGMA membership.
Salary Surveys
Production Workers Wage and Benefit Survey
Your labor force is critical to being a competitive and successful company. Balancing wage rates with employee productivity is always a challenge. Maintaining competitive health care benefits represents a significant financial obstacle for most organizations. The Production Workers Wage and Benefit Survey provides information on benchmarks in fringe benefits to help AGMA member companies stay competitive when maintaining their current staff and searching for new employees.
This report is open to North American gear manufacturing company members. There is no cost to participate, but the final report is only available to those members who participate. Each participant will also receive an individual benchmarked report. Data for this report is requested in the fourth quarter of even numbered years.
Management and Technical Workers Wage and Benefits Report
This report is a comprehensive salary survey for non-factory employees in the gear industry and provides new insights into non-factory labor costs. Knowing how your company compares with the overall industry and with companies like yours is the first step towards financial success. Participation in the survey is open only to AGMA members and only participants receive the final report of information.
Data for this report is requested in the fourth quarter of odd numbered years. The survey covers administrative, operational, engineering, technical, and sales salaries in the gear and manufacturing industry.
Whether your company has been an AGMA member for many years or you are considering membership with AGMA, you should be taking advantage of the wealth of data that these industry reports provide. If you have immediate questions, please contact AGMA Director of Member Services, Jill Johnson at 703-684-0211 or jill.johnson@agma.org, or come by the AGMA booth at Gear Expo (Booth 1109).
Only Two Gear Training Courses Left in 2013
After Gear Expo is over this year, you will only have two opportunities left in 2013 to
attend AGMA’s popular education programs.
“Gearbox System Design” is designed for engineers who already know the basics of gear design, while “Basic Training for Gear Manufacturing” provides a great foundation of knowledge for machine operators, or anyone new to the gear industry. These courses both have limited seats available so that you can get the best learning experience and one-on-one time with instructors. Make sure to register at www.agma.org to ensure you get a seat!
“Gearbox System Design: The Rest of the Story…Everything But the Gears and Bearings”
October 16-18, 2013
Instructors:
Raymond Drago, Chief Engineer/Gear Technologist, Drive Systems Technology, Inc.
Steve Cymbala, Senior Drives Engineer, Drive Systems Technology, Inc.
The design of a gearbox system is much like a Hollywood movie production —the “stars” often get the recognition, while the “supporting cast” barely gets a mention! In a gearbox system, the stars are the gears and bearings. The supporting cast is everything else, including seals, lubrication, lubricants, housings, breathers and other details.
Explore the gearbox system’s supporting cast of characters at the Gearbox System Design Seminar. The treatment starts with basics, such as some history of design, the environment in which the gearbox must “live”, and the loading to which the system will be subjected. Loading includes starting/stopping, continuous, reversing, cyclic, and possible errant loads conditions.
A detailed design layout “Bible” will be introduced as the basis for the overall design and analysis. Elemental topics, weighing their individual pros and cons, include:
• Types of housing construction
• Drawing practices for housings and related components
• Housing elements (covers, inspection ports, sump, mounting, etc.)
• Bearing mounting, retention and sealing
• Selection and role of gearbox accessories, such as breathers, filters, screens, sight gages and other level indication devices
• Appropriate lubricant selection
• Application of the lubricant to the rotating elements
• Selection criteria concerning the basic lubricant chemistry
Since the best design is only as good as its implementation, drawing practices and tolerancing will also be addressed from the designer’s perspective. Learn about translating the general design from the design “Bible” to the individual component drawings.
“Basic Training for Gear Manufacturing”
November 4-8, 2013
Instructors:
Dwight Smith, Pete Grossi, and Allen Bird
The AGMA Training School for Gear Manufacturing will enable you to become more knowledgeable and productive. The Basic Course teaches students to set up machines for maximum efficiency, to inspect gears accurately, and to understand basic gearing.
Although the Basic Course is designed primarily for newer employees with at least six months experience in setup or machine operation, it has proved beneficial to quality control managers, sales representatives, management, and executives.
This course offers training in: gearing and nomenclature; principles of inspection; gear manufacturing methods; and hobbing and shaping. Most operator training is informal. A new employee works with an experienced mentor for a while and then is assigned to a machine with little or no real understanding of how gears are made, how to troubleshoot a problem, or how to inspect his/her own work.
After completion of this course, students are more competent and motivated. Repeatedly, AGMA hears that employees return with the ability to troubleshoot their own problems because they fully understand the process.
Although all training is basic, on manual machines, everything that students learn is valid and applicable with the CNC equipment commonly in use. By using manual machines, students can see the interaction between the cutting tool and the workpiece. They understand the process and the physics of making a gear.
AGMA to Hold International Business Conference in Dublin
AGMA Offers Gear Rating Software
AGMA is known worldwide for its technical standards, but did you know that AGMA also offers gear rating software? The Gear Rating Suite (GRS) 3.0 is similar to its predecessor, and is the result of several years of dedicated hard work by the members of our Computer Programing Committee whose vast experience and expertise in both gearing and computer programing was essential throughout the project. Building on the effectiveness and popularity of its earlier version, the GRS 3.0 offers new and improved capabilities, including:
Changes to the rating standards including the technical corrigendum to ISO 6336
Gear mesh visualization
Simplified input
Legacy file support
Enhanced output
Rich text format
Additional and updated ratings
ANSI / AGMA 6011-I03
ANSI / AGMA 6013-A06
API 613 – fifth edition
API 617 – seventh edition
Power ratings for ISO
Life ratings
Continued fidelity to standards
One of the most exciting improvements/additions to the new GRS 3.0 is Gear Mesh Visualization capability. This provides a dynamic graphical visualization of the designed gears. The gears may be rotated and their interactions, including any possible interference, observed.
Furthermore, the new GRS 3.0 offers users simplified data entry. Input and display can be conducted in many ways, including in SI or U.S. Customary units, degrees-minutes-seconds, or decimal degrees. Output may be changed at will and tolerances may be displayed for any gear quality or accuracy grade. The program also provides material hardness conversions.
The users of the new program will benefit from extensive geometry checking as part of every run as well as accurate calculation of the start of involute diameter. A useful geometry summary may be displayed, independent of the rating programs. Safety or service factors may be calculated based on the input power or the allowable power may be calculated from safety or service factors.
GRS 3.0 incorporates material from the following standards/information sheets:
AGMA 2000 – Tolerances
AGMA 2001 – Gear rating
AGMA 2002 – Tooth thickness
AGMA 2015 – 1 & 2 – tolerances
AGMA 6011 – High speed gears
AGMA 6013 – Enclosed drives
AGMA 901 – Preliminary design
AGMA 908 – Geometry factors
AGMA 913 – Profile shift (x-factors)
API 613 – Special purpose high speed gears
API 617 – Compressors & expanders
ASTM E140 – Hardness conversion
ISO 53 – Basic rack tooth profile
ISO 1328-1 – Tolerances
ISO 6336-1, 2, 3 – Gear rating
ISO 6336-5 – Materials
AGMA Gear Rating Suite 3.0 may be purchased by itself or combined with a specially priced package of the standards / information sheets indicated with (*).
Note: While AGMA Gear Rating Suite 3.0 makes using the standards easy and provides guidance and warnings related to the standards, the user must understand the standards to apply them properly. It is important that the user have a copy of the standards available for reference.
AGMA Gear Rating Suite 3.0 is easy to use, and can significantly reduce the time required to obtain gear ratings. It may be used to obtain additional information on gears, such as finding a span measurement when a measurement over balls is given. It can also serve as an effective teaching aid. However, it is designed for use by engineers with an understanding of gears, and is not intended for those unfamiliar with the fundamentals of gear design.
