Gleason FCG

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com
CROWNED GEARS
SUPER SHAPING
www.gleason.com 7
W
While many companies are scaling back and running for
cover in the face of the severe global economic downturn,
Forest City Gears Fred Young has a slightly different approach
hes spending even more than usual on new equipment.
Weve already invested more than 19% of our gross sales this
year in new machines, says Mr. Young. After all, the machines
were buying give us a tremendous edge when competing for
new business. We can do things no one else can do. What better
way to compete when business is soft?
While some of his peers might consider Mr. Youngs methods
simply too risky in these uncertain economic times, few could
argue with the results. To date just this year, Forest City
Gear has shipped high-precision custom gears to almost 300
different customers around the world, including China, for every
application imaginable: aircraft to articial elbowstelescopes
to tractorsprinters to power toolseven the International
Space Station and Mars exploration vehicles. According to Mr.
Young, this success can be at least partially attributed to the types
of machines Forest City Gear invests in. We simply dont buy
Plain Jane, he says emphatically. We gladly pay a premium
for machines with unique capabilities and superior performance
because, when spread over the life of the machine, this premium
is negligible compared to the benets and the cost of losing
a customer if we under-perform. Our new Gleason GP 300 ES
Gear Shaper is a good example of how this strategy pays off
every day.
Crown shaping, super casting. Mr. Youngs willingness to
take on jobs which cant be hobbed efciently -- spur gears
with narrow face widths, gears with close shoulders and, most
importantly, internal gears -- has come as a result of Forest City
Gears impressive, and growing, gear shaping capability. Mr.
Young sees a growing demand for internal helical gears because
of their load-carrying, quiet-running performance, so hes
invested in yet another Gleason ES series gear shaper. Forest
City Gear was one of the rst companies to purchase an ES series
machine, in 2002. Back then, it gave Mr. Youngs company a
Company: Forest City Gear
Location: Roscoe, Illinois, USA
No. of Employees: 55
Major Products/Markets:
Custom gears for everything from telescopes
to tractors, articial elbows to aircraft,
printers and plotters, power tools, and even
the International Space Station and Mars
exploration vehicles.
Gleason Solutions: GP 300 ES Gear
Shaping Machine, (2) P 500 ES Gear
Shaping Machines, Phoenix

400GH
Hobbing Machines, (3) Phoenix

125GH
Hobbing Machines, Cutting Tools,
Workholding, and Services.
(above) Crowning an internal helical gear is remarkably easy with the
new GP 300 ES Gear Shaper.
Forest City Gears relentless investment
in new technology, like the Gleason
GP 300 ES Shaping Machine, helps this
custom gear producer tackle more tough
jobs from customers around the world.
8 www.gleason.com
decided competitive edge because, for the rst time, a helical
gear could be produced electronically, and without the
signicant expense and time needed to procure the mechanical
guide generally required to produce the necessary helix angle.
Instead, the ES uses its powerful Siemens 840D CNC and
Gleason proprietary software to superimpose an additional rotary
motion on the cutting stroke to produce any righthand or lefthand
helix angle on the gear. Forest City Gear liked the technology
so much that they subsequently bought two P 500 ES Shapers
(for gear diameters up to 500mm) and, most recently, a smaller
GP 300 ES machine.
Now, Forest City Gear is using the capabilities of this new
machine to offer customers yet another unique, and highly
desirable, gear characteristic called crowning. Crowning can
be highly advantageous because it creates the optimum face
contact between gear teeth so that load is distributed more evenly
across the face width of the tooth. Ultimately, this can lead to
signicant reductions in wear, and quieter, longer-running
gear performance. Crowning is done, traditionally, by using
mechanical cam devices to impart the crown motion, or
depth of cut, on the cutting stroke to create
a crown, or slightly convex shape. But,
just as with the mechanical guides
used to create a helix, production and
procurement of cam devices can be
costly and time-consuming.
Instead, the GP 300 ES uses the same
powerful controller and software that it
creates a helix angle with to produce the
ideal lead crown modication to the tooth
ank. As compared to traditional mechanical
methods, this process is amazingly fast, simple,
and economical. All gear cutting, tooling and part
parameters are simply entered into a user-friendly dialog
program, and the CNC controller calculates all the necessary
machine data/settings automatically.

Not surprisingly, particularly for those that know Mr. Young
as an avid sherman and outdoorsman, the rst application
of crowning on the new GP 300 ES was recently performed
on an internal helical gear used in the revolutionary new
SuperCaster 1000 baitcasting reel from U.S. Reel. The reel
has an innovative design that allows it to cast lighter lures
farther than other baitcasting reels, with fewer backlashes,
because line is pulled out continuously and smoothly from
its patented levelwind system rather than feeding through
an eyelet. This new design calls for an internal helical gear
to be used on the spool that pulls out or collects line, driven
by a pinion gear attached to the reels handle. U.S. Reel has
specied that the gear teeth on this internal gear be crowned in
order to minimize the possibility for wear over the course of
potentially hundreds of thousands of casts, and to assure the
absolute smoothest feeling for the sherman.
Crowning at Forest City Gear. Just one more way for
Fred Young to cast for customers.
U.S. Reels revolutionary new SuperCaster
uses internal helical gears with crowning to
help cast farther, with less wear over time.

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