Archived News and Events - 2007
July 2007
Aerospace Bloc
The Steering Committee of the Aerospace Bloc of the Gear Research Institute will meet at the Applied Research Laboratory of The Pennsylvania State University on August 23. While each sponsor of this Bloc is invited to send many individuals to attend the meeting, they nominate one individual as its representative on the Steering Committee. This committee jointly evaluates research efforts to date on current projects, directs changes to tasks, if necessary and identifies and approves new projects for future investigations, utilizing Bloc membership funds. Meetings are generally conducted twice a year when sufficient material for discussion is available to justify such a meeting. Current sponsors of this Bloc are Avio, Boeing, Curtiss Wright, Honeywell, Pratt & Whitney, REM Chemicals, Rolls Royce, Sikorsky Aircraft and Timken-Latrobe.
June 2007
New Sponsors - Gear Research Institute
The Flight Systems Division of Curtiss Wright Controls of Gastonia, NC has become a sponsor of the Aerospace Bloc of the Institute. This bloc that focuses research on aerospace gearing is now sponsored by Avio, Boeing, Curtiss Wright, Honeywell, Pratt & Whitney (East Hartford and Canada), Sikorsky Aircraft, Rolls Royce, REM Chemicals and Timken/Latrobe Steel.
The Institute also initiated efforts in June in support of the marine gear industry with a Single-Client project sponsored by Northrop Grumman Marine Systems of Sunnyvale, CA.
May 2007
Board of Trustees Meeting
The next meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Institute is scheduled for August 7 at John Deere’s Waterloo Works in Waterloo, IA. The Annual Meeting of the Institute will also be held on the same day and all members of the Institute are welcome to attend the Annual Meeting. Members who plan to attend should contact the Institute for details.
This will be the first meeting for Mr. Gary Kimmet as the President of the Institute. He was elected to this honorary position at the Board meeting in January of 2007, in place of Mr. Bill Bradley, who stepped down. Mr. Bradley continues on the Board.
March 2007
News - Gear Tooth Impact Testing
In the aerospace industry, higher performance specifications are driving gear manufacturers to utilize revolutionary materials, such as AMS 6308 and Pyrowear 675, among others. In the ground vehicle industry, where cost reduction is the driver, powder metal steel alloys are being seriously considered. In all these efforts the ability of the gear to withstand impact loading is of significant interest. In order to explore this characteristic the Gear Research Institute has instrumented and applied a drop-weight stand, shown below, to subject gear teeth to impact loads. A triggered release mechanism, which travels with the drop weight, is utilized to set the drop height and release the drop weight to initiate the test. The mass of the drop weight can be increased by adding dead weights on either side of the drop weight. A load cell, between the drop weight and the load anvil, measures the actual impact. By varying the drop height and the actual mass of the drop weight, the gear tooth can be subject to different amounts of impact energy, at various rates. Several sponsored programs are currently utilizing this test equipment to evaluate the impact characteristics of their gears.
January 2007
News - With the introduction of High Hot Hardness (H3) gear steels into aircraft transmissions, there is a growing need to evaluate gear related material properties at high temperatures. Knowing these characteristics would allow the design and implementation of gear boxes on aircraft that are capable of operating at high temperatures, which would in turn reduce the weight of transmission lubricant and on-board lubricant cooling systems. This would directly and favorably impact the payload of the aircraft.
The Gear Research Institute has been in the forefront of evaluating H3 gear steels. Shown below is a set-up, on a current project, sponsored by an aircraft engine and transmission manufacturer, to characterize the bending fatigue strength at temperatures around 300 degrees F. The first photograph shows the set-up immersed in hot oil and the test in progress, while the second photograph shows the set-up with the oil drained out. GRI has conducted these tests at even higher temperatures, utilizing other heating mediums.
