For design engineers and purchasing agents alike, bearings can sometimes be like family. Oh, you know - can't live with 'em, can’t live without 'em.

It's a fact that drive systems wouldn't function properly or efficiently without couplings. They quietly go about their business of transferring motion from one drive element to the next. In the PT market today, couplings have the unique challenge of satisfying a variety of customer needs including tighter tolerances, higher speeds and a more versatile selection process.

The development of a new, gas-carburized gear steel, necessitated by a customer-driven specification, has not only increased the power density in an existing gearbox design, but has done so without requiring any significant change to production processes or heat treatment equipment.

The S&P 500 has rallied six percent since our last review...here's analyst Brian Langenberg's take on what's next for the industrial economy.

A reader asks for clarification on last issue's Ask the Expert column about ball screw sizing.

The mechanical components of your drive system play a major role in overall system efficiency. Don't cut corners.

When it comes to gear design software, the learning curve never ends. The leading vendors offer various training programs to keep their users well-informed.

The PTDA Industry Summit, held on October 18-20, 2012 in Dallas, Texas, featured more than 700 participants for two-and-a-half days of networking opportunities and good old-fashioned Texas-style fun.

There are no alchemists at the California Institute of Technology, but a team of research scientists at the Pasadena-based institution is doing some pretty remarkable things "transforming something common into something special."

At first glance, ball bearings are relatively simple mechanisms. However, an analysis of their internal geometries reveals that they are quite complex. For example, the ball to raceway conformity, the radial play, and the number of balls all impact the ability of a ball bearing to support loads under a variety of conditions.