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Excellence Awards Competition, sponsored by the Metal Powder Industries Federation, were
recently announced at the POWDERMET2015
International Conference on Powder Metallurgy & Particulate Materials. Receiving grand prizes
and awards of distinction, the winning parts are examples of
PM’s precision, performance, complexity, economy, innovation
and sustainability. The winning parts show how customers from around the world are taking advantage of PM’s
design advantages.
After a sluggish 2013, annual installations of new wind turbines grew by 44% in 2014, according to the Global Wind Energy Council. And while much of that growth has been in Asia— particularly China, which now leads the world with 114 GW of installed capacity—the USA, Europe, and the rest of the world expect steady growth for the next couple of years as well (Fig. 1).
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.”
EDITORS’ NOTE: “The Applications of Bevel Gears” is the excerpted third chapter of Dr. Hermann Stadtfeld’s latest book — Gleason Bevel Gear Technology (The Gleason Works,
Rochester, New York, USA; All rights reserved. 2014; ISBN 978-0-615-96492-8.), which appears here unabridged through the kind graces of Dr. Stadtfeld and Gleason Corp. Future installments will appear exclusively in Power Transmission Engineering
and Gear Technology magazine over the next 12 to
18 months.
According to the Department
of Energy (DOE), more than
half of all electrical energy
consumed in the U.S. is used
by electric motors. To address
this, several years ago, the DOE conducted
a technical study as to what
could be done to raise the efficiency
levels of “small” motors. After years
of study and litigation, the Small Motor Rule (SMR) was passed that covers two-digit NEMA frame single- and three-phase ¼ through 3 horsepower
motors in open enclosures.
In the Stott household, we love math.
Well, maybe not everyone in my household loves it equally, but since they were in kindergarten, whenever one of my children asked me for help with math homework, my reply has been an instant and cheerful “We love math!”