While the basic design of iron and coke blast furnaces is centuries old, today's steel makers are looking for innovative ways to produce molten iron with increased production and efficiency

The complete Industry News section from the April 2014 issue of Power Transmission Engineering.

Bearings that show wear may not always need to be replaced. Depending on the degree and type of wear, they may be candidates for reconditioning, a process that restores bearings to like-new specifications and performance - at an average 50 to 60 percent of the cost of replacement.

We are pleased to present our first annual Engineering Showcase, a celebration of some of the leading products and companies in mechanical power transmission. In the pages that follow, you’ll find examples of engineering excellence and technological know-how in the field of gears, drives, couplings, machine parts and other mechanical components.

Controls from Quicksilver help in the design and development of medical rehabilitation equipment originally designed for returning astronauts.

This paper summarizes the chemical, metallurgical and physical aspects of bearing steels and their effect on rolling bearing life and reliability.

Seal design engineers and end users are continually seeking improved sealing systems and materials. This paper describes the potential of a new thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) material to deliver improvements in pressure, speed and temperature capability, which are presented as comparisons to proven industry standard materials. Performance is demonstrated by virtue of test bench results of seals made from MDI-, PPDI- and NDI-based materials.

a custom hydraulic brake system from Mico Inc. aid in the development of specialized material handling equipment.

Maximizing packaging machine productivity and performance is imperative to success and is driving OEMs to adopt and invest in the latest technologies that can meet their customers’ challenges. At the forefront of these performance-driven technologies is an integrated control system—or programmable automation controller (PAC)—and latest-generation motion solutions.

This paper introduces the basic fundamentals of proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control theory and the characteristics of each of the PID control loops.