Almost daily I’m asked about the switched reluctance motor (SRM) — a motor that was invented more than 100 years ago. But only in the 1980s did it ...

News from around the industry

Tooth contact analysis (TCA) is an important tool directed to the determination of contact patterns, contact paths, and transmission errors in gear drives. In this work, a new general approach that is applicable to any kind of gear geometry is proposed.

The motors might be small, but the big-brain technology driving these electrical wonders was on full display at the 2014 Small Motor & Motion Association Fall Technical Conference, convened November 4-6 in St. Louis, MO. SMMA, the manufacturing trade association (120 members strong) that tends to the best interests of the electric motor and motion control industries — including manufacturers, suppliers, users, consultants and universities — played gracious host to a wide array of presenters from an equally diverse range of sources — from academia to the federal government. Like gears, motors are most everywhere, as evidenced by SMMA’s membership (consumer-, public interest-, national defense- and commercial-oriented) demographic which includes: appliance; transportation; medical equipment; office automation and computers; aerospace; and industrial automation. The association’s mission: To “serve as the principal voice of the electric motors and drives industry” and to provide a forum to “develop, collect and disseminate technical and management knowledge.”

At the recently held annual meeting of the Bearing Specialists Association, there was a lot of talk about online sales channels and how Internet retailers are changing the way industrial products are researched, sourced and purchased.

First-quarter results are in (bad weather) and summer will prove more interesting than either the market or the fall elections until after Labor Day. But much is happening!

The complete technical calendar from the April 2013 issue of Power Transmission Engineering.

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

This paper will look at the solutions that current drive and motor technology can offer in not only improving tension control but also solving several other issues that are inherent to systems with high ratio gearing.

The complete Industry News section from the April 2012 issue of Power Transmission Engineering