The following article is a collection of products and technologies featured at IFPE and CONExpo/CONAGG 2023. 

There is an increasing trend toward integrating evermore compact smart components into larger, more complex motion control systems, and advances in AI, ML, and IIoT are helping with the speed and quality of their adoption.

The following off-highway, construction and mining solutions hint at the all-electric transition taking place across each industry.

I think I spend more time talking about ball bearings today than at any other time in my career. Ball bearings have always had a large place in automotive, but not typically in high demand positions—other than a few niche areas. High demand positions, such as axles and planetaries, were typically reserved for tapers, needles and cylindricals. The landscape is changing quickly.

This study presents a simulation method for considering complex wheel bodies in an analytical tooth contact model. The wheel body is considered using reduced FE stiffness. Reduction points are defined over the width and linked with the analytical gear.

For cylindrical wheel bodies, comparative calculations show fewer deviations from the expected results with the new method. This is due to the additional degrees of freedom in the FEM model. In the calculation with cylindrical wheel bodies, bending due to axial force in tooth contact could also be verified in addition to the deformation in tooth contact and the influence of the shaft-bearing system.

The Timken Company recently announced its packaged wheel bearings are being used on Ford Motor Company's F-150 Lightning, the first mainstream electric light-duty pickup truck to hit the market. Timken bearings on the F-150 Lightning represent incremental content per vehicle, compared to its gasoline-powered counterpart.

Haydon Kerk Pittman, a business unit of AMETEK’s Advanced Motion Solutions division, is pleased to announce its new Haydon Kerk Express online linear actuator calculator.

Siemens is extending its Sinamics G120C-series of drives to include three new frame sizes for high power output ranges.  The new frame sizes cover the power output range from 22 to 132 kilowatts (kW), making the series available from 0.55 kW to 132 kW.  Standard features of the series include a compact design with optional filter, long cable lengths, full integration into the Totally Integrated Automation (TIA) Portal and simple control and commissioning. 

Thomson Industries, Inc., a leading manufacturer of linear motion control solutions, has introduced a family of compact linear systems that makes it easier for motion designers to implement complex applications in small spaces. Designers needing thrust and bearing support in a single, compact unit now have the flexibility to build such applications with versatile, time-tested components from Thomson.

Kollmorgen recently announced the new P80630-SDN stepper drive. Customers can now benefit from features such as smoothness, precision and torque across the full speed range in a significantly more compact package that enables smaller, lighter, more versatile machines. Kollmorgen will also be introducing additional stepper drives and features in the coming months, building upon the new, flagship P8000 stepper drive platform. 

With the new SKF Bearing App for the popular Ansys Mechanical Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software, engineers no longer need to rely on approximations or complex, unreliable models in their simulations. 

For nearly 50 years, AJD Forest Products has been producing top quality industrial lumber for the Lake States region. Located in Grayling, Mich., the company has earned a reputation for supplying high-grade red oak, hard & soft maple, aspen, ash, and basswood.  The mill processes 1,700-2,000 logs, or 70,000-90,000 board feet of lumber a day, but constant maintenance and adjustment on their stacker and chain conveyor brakes were forcing unplanned downtime.

Two of the global manufacturing industry’s premier organizations, AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology and Mesago, a subsidiary of Messe Frankfurt Group, today announced a collaboration to create the Automation Sector at IMTS – The International Manufacturing Technology Show in 2024, and SPS – Smart Production Solutions in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2025.