The interference fit that cups should have in an aluminum housing seems to be a subject that comes across my desk in regular intervals. Of course, ...

I recently had a supplier give me a call to let me know that we had some outdated paperwork floating around that was going to wind up costing us a ...

Let’s be clear about something up front here: Delta Gear does not make parts for lawnmowers. This is a fairly flippant point that falls under the timeless, clichéd designation of “goes without saying.” Yet, not all that long ago,Tony Werschky had to say it.

It seems preposterous in the whimsical, wireless world of today, but in 1977 cinema’s greatest visioneers came together and decided the pinnacle of robotic technology in the future would be a motorized trash can.

The use of motor current signature analysis (MCSA) for motor fault detection — such as a broken rotor bar — is now well established. However, detection of mechanical faults related to the driven system remains a more challenging task. Recently there has been a growing interest for detection of gear faults by MCSA. Advantages and drawbacks of these MCSA-type techniques are presented and discussed on a few industrial cases.

Wear is a very important topic for dry running plastic gears. Over the past few years, the authors have worked closely with a number of manufacturers of plastic gears to investigate the problems of gear wear in detail. Together they have developed a calculation method that can be used to predict where and when local wear will occur on a tooth flank. Their findings have also just been published in the final version of VDI 2736.

When comparing bearing suppliers, engineers are often left with few options other than to compare dynamic load ratings and corresponding life calculations. Of course, we can look at steel and manufacturing quality; but if we are comparing sources of similar quality, those items may not provide a large contrast. It often surprises people to learn that bearing capacities are calculated values, not tested values. Lately, however, a trend is emerging for bearing suppliers to increase their ratings for higher performance bearings that have premium features such as higher quality steel and specilaized heat treatment. Bearing companies are under intense competitive pressure to make every feature add to the dynamic capacity of their bearings because it is very well understood that an increase in capacity adds to the bottom line.

The changing landscape of hydraulic drives is leading many fluid power specialists to quickly adapt to using variable speed pump drives. Optimum utilization of these drives requires, in many cases, additional system design considerations.

I don’t recall a single bearing class where someone didn’t want to know what the largest bearing ever made was. From my stint as a bearing engineer...

Happy New Year! I am pleased to announce that I will be your new blog writer for PTE. If we haven’t been introduced, my name is Norm Parke...