British Gear Association steps up a few gears

Citation

(1998), "British Gear Association steps up a few gears", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 50 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilt.1998.01850fab.017

British Gear Association steps up a few gears

British Gear Association steps up a few gears

Keyword: British Gear Association

The British Gear Association has gone live with a Web site (http://www.bga.org.uk) which is being promoted to more than 30 search engines on the Internet, with the objective of promoting their members' products and services to a worldwide audience.

At the same time, the site provides details of the BGA's technical and commercial services, news of BGA technical seminars and other events, together with private notices to members.

The publication of the Web site by the BGA is the first step in a longer-term plan to provide much more comprehensive technical and commercial services to members.

"The most important feature of the BGA Web site is the search engine which enables anyone in the world to locate a member by name, product or service", said marketing consultant Bob Beasley. "The effectiveness of the search engine in enabling readers to locate members and members' own Web sites is important ­ and this site is more effective than most I have seen. The search engine will be further developed over time to meet members' needs. We expect that within a few weeks it should be possible to find the site easily by tapping in a company name or any gear industry related word. Our aim is to ensure that British businesses involved in the gears and transmissions industries become far more visible on the world stage", Mr Beasley added.

The Gear Research Foundation is also making impressive strides forward in helping the UK power transmission industry to significantly improve its competitive edge. The GRF, a subsidiary of the British Gear Association, has reversed a decline in output and helped manufacturers to advance their gear technology and manufacturing techniques. From the original ten members when the GRF was established in 1993, there is now a membership of 34 major companies and several new members are expected to join within the next year. The GRF, which is run autonomously to allow both British Gear Association members and non-members to join, is now seeing improvements in the competitive position of the UK industry both in home and export markets, specifically in organising collaborative research projects. Projects are financed by individual members, supported by the DTI or EPSRC, and continue to increase.

Current projects are briefly described as follows:

• •

  Improving worm gear performance to give greater load capacity is a three and a half year research programme investigating the potential for significant improvements in load carrying capacity in worm gears.

• •

  ;Analysis and measurement of transmission errors in precision worm gears for low noise applications has been successfully completed with the full commissioning of the test facility for worm gear transmission error, and the experimental validation of the contact and TE analysis software.

• •

  Spline stressing and wear research to develop a comprehensive design capability for aerospace and industrial applications is nearing completion. The project has achieved the objectives in developing a validated full 3-dimensional spline coupling stressing and contact model and in conducting research into spline fretting/wear using a range of test rigs.

• •

  Reducing gear grinding costs for generative gear grinding has identified improvements in cutting oil delivery and developed a calculation procedure for optimising grinding feed and speed to achieve high metal removal rates without grinding burns.

• •

  Improving gear performance by enhancing the fatigue properties of steel is a very substantial research programme investigating ways of improving the fatigue strength of gear steels, heat treated by case carburising, nitriding and induction hardening, with fatigue testing of helical gears at powers up to 1800kw.

• •

  Improving understanding of micro-pitting is a large comprehensive programme of research which is about to start. It will investigate many aspects of micro-pitting failure in gears.

• •

  Improved gear stress analysis is under way to develop better stress analysis for gear design by providing a computer programme to implement the new BS-ISO 6336 (1996) gear standard and developing a 2.5 D-mesh gear model.

• •

  Net forgings is a three year project aiming to develop forging techniques/die designs to produce helical and spur gears, with profile modification and crowning, of at least ISO 5 accuracy.

• •

  Shakedown and ratchetting modelling of gear micro-pitting by the University of Sheffield involves adapting mechanics-based shakedown principles to examine micro-pitting in gears.

Subjects being considered by GRF for future collaborative research are shaft joint interfaces (including keys), plastic gears, application factors and safety factors, gear efficiency improvements, noise in spur gears, coupling design and development of functional metrology gear checkers.

For further details contact the British Gear Association, Suite 45, IMEX Business Park, Shobnall Road, Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire DE14 2 AU. Tel: +44 (0)1283 515521; Fax: +44 (0)1283 515841 or via the Web site address given above.

Two professional bodies have appointed the British Gear Association as a registered provider of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) activities.

A certificate has been presented to the BGA confirming their registration by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and the Institute of Electrical Engineers. The announcement will be made on both IEE and BGAs Web pages which will offer CPD course details.(IEE Web site address http://www.iee. org.uk/Profdev/CPD/ ­ I.Mech.E Website address is www.imeche.org.uk)

The BGA have also appointed PR & Advertising Limited to handle its public relations interests for the next 12 months. Any enquiries should be addressed to:

Peter Love, PR & Advertising Limited, Studio Six, 6 Lexington Avenue, Shrewsbury SY2 6SR. Tel: +44 (0)1743 236277; Fax: +44 (0)1743 247316.