Maximizing Your Power Transmission (Engineering)

Randy Stott, Managing Editor

Maximizing Your Power Transmission (Engineering)

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.

Here at Power Transmission Engineering, we understand. Like you, we have to work hard to continuously improve what we offer our customers. Only in our case, it’s not torque or efficiency we’re maximizing. It’s information and the way it’s delivered.

Over the past several months, we’ve implemented a number of changes that will help us significantly increase not only the amount of information we provide, but also its quality. Chief among those improvements is an increase in staff. In publishing, we increase throughput and improve quality by hiring smart, capable people. You may have noticed their names on our roster.

Erik Schmidt, Assistant Editor, has already begun making a big impact for us. In his article on gear buying (p.18), Erik interviewed gear industry experts to compile the five tips every gear buyer should follow. He’s also prepared a preview of the Automate 2015 show (p. 28) that takes you beyond the mundane facts and figures. I encourage you to read both of those articles, because we’re confident that you’ll find Erik’s writing to be both informative and entertaining.

We’ve also hired a new digital content manager, Kirk Sturgulewski, whose role is to make sure you receive our information in whatever format you prefer. So whether you subscribe to our digital edition, our e-mail newsletters or our product alerts, Kirk is here to make sure the information you receive is formatted properly for the device you’re reading it on. He’s also charged with making improvements to our website, adding features and making it more user friendly. You’ll see some of those improvements over the coming months.

Also, beginning in January, we launched a blog on powertransmission. com, featuring our regular contributor Norm Parker, who is a bearings specialist at General Motors. Norm has been a frequent author of technical articles and feature articles, as well as a regular expert in our “Ask the Expert” column. Now, Norm is bringing his expertise online, with a weekly blog on bearings. His topics range from “Just How Big Are the Biggest Bearings” to “Treat Your Suppliers Well” and some of the more technical aspects of machine design. If you regularly work with bearings, you won’t want to miss out on Norm’s insight.

The blog is designed to be interactive, so if you have a bearing- related question or want to chime in on one of the topics Norm has introduced, feel free. The more people that participate, the more valuable the resource becomes for everyone.

All of these additions are designed to maximize the information we bring you, and to ensure that it’s the information you need, delivered in the way you need it. We have a number of other projects we’re working on, and we hope to continue expanding our product range and offerings.

Of course, all of this is designed to better serve you, and your continued support helps ensure that we’ll continue adding content and making improvements. One of the best ways you can show that support is by keeping your subscription fresh. If you haven’t renewed your subscription lately, you’d be doing us a big favor by going to www.powertransmission. com and clicking on “Subscribe” at the top of the page.

Finally, we’d like to thank our advertisers, without whom none of these improvements would be possible.