We are not clock watchers on a Friday afternoon nor are our friends at the AGMA who alerted us to this quirky video BUT check this out!

This week we say good-bye to one of Australia’s greatest gear icons. Peter Holinger, founder of Holinger Engineering has recently passed away, leaving behind a highly reputable career of gearbox manufacturing for the motor racing industry.

This week Ronson Gears hosted a visit from 27 leaders of manufacturing and engineering companies belonging to The Federation of Finnish Technology Industries who are on a Study Tour of Australia and New Zealand. Ronson’s managing director, Gordon New and our visitors joined other Victorian industry leaders at a Seminar at the Melbourne Business School which addressed doing business in Australia.

To meet customers' demands for shorter lead times and surpass their expectations of quality, Ronson Gears, manufacturers of gears and associated power transmissions components, has invested in a state-of-the-art Gear Shaping Machine. The Fellows FS630-200 CNC Hydrostroke Internal Gear Shaper brings a new level of internal gear cutting capability to Australia.

The Ronson Gears’ team gets understandably excited at the prospect of new innovation and learning – especially when it comes to talking gears. This week four students from the Melbourne Grammar School were welcomed to undertake a tour of our work site, set to learn about the business of gear manufacturing as part of their Geography assignment.

It’s a fact of life that in order to receive, we must also give, a philosophy that the American Gears Manufacturers Association (AGMA) Foundation effectively adopts. Established in 1994, the AGMA Foundation exists to “allow corporations and individuals to make tax-deductible contributions” to the gear industry.

At Ronson Gears we constantly seek to broaden our ‘gear services’ and we are also committed to taking our ‘gears’ globally. Europe, South Africa and South America are potential growth areas, with numerous industries requiring open gearing or custom made gear products.

On the road again! Recently, our ongoing search for knowledge and future business associates took Jason Graham, Ronson Gears’ Leading Hand in Gear Cutting and Gear Grinding, to the Gear Expo in Indianapolis, USA. Closer to home, Gavin New headed to the Mining and Energy Tradeshow in Muswellbrook, NSW.

We’ve made an interesting discovery this month - greet Google’s innovative technology – The Google Patent. Google Patent is an improved free online search engine technology that allows people to search a specific database for drawings and charts representing processes and applications. The database contains patents and patent applications from the “United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which are taken from the original USPTO database (which is in the public domain)” (source Wikipedia). What Google has done is establish a system that converts images and applications found in this database, into a format that’s easy to search.

Last week we came across an interesting article in one of Melbourne’s newspapers, ‘The Age’ by Harold Mitchell titled, "Going uphill or down, appropriate gearing is essential”.

People in manufacturing understand the importance of technical drawings. Good technical drawings can often reduce the risk of significant delays in production as well as guard against the danger of ending up with an inaccurate gear. Technical drawings must be accurate, and drafted according to industry standards, whether they be for one off or mass production.

Gear enthusiasts, this September get ready for Gear Expo 2009 returning to “Indianapolis for the first time in more than a decade”. Known as the world's only dedicated exhibition for gearing, Gear Expo is a golden opportunity for you to learn about current industry trends, obtain international exposure, meet people with common interests and get acquainted with industry experts.

Earlier this month, our Managing Director, Gordon New attended his first official AGMA board meeting, held at the association’s headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washington DC. Plans for some of the association’s upcoming activities including the GearExpo in Indianapolis (September 15th to 17th) and the Fall Technical meetings (September 13th to 15th) were a highlight. The Training programs and Technical Committee meetings are very well supported also.

The Gear Industry is very specialized and as such, we are often asked by those not familiar with mechanical devices, “What is a gear?” So this week we thought we would share very some basic insights on gear for the uninitiated.

Lately we’ve been hearing in the news that the manufacturing sector is on the mend but recovery can take a while and companies who are able to survive through the still difficult period, are those who understand and apply the diversification technique. This technique encourages companies to spread their risks across a number of different sectors in order to minimise failure when times eventually get tough.

Anyone with some experience in running a business will tell you that success is about building and maintaining good relationships. Whether you are in the business of selling services, products or simply ideas, it is important to manage the relationship you have with others independently of whether they are your customers, internal staff or suppliers. The profitability of your business and the quality of work that you produce will often depend on how well you do at managing those relationship.

Today witnesses the launch of the RMIT University’s Advanced Manufacturing Precinct project. The new precinct, located in the George Thompson Building at the RMIT city campus, will be dedicated to providing support and training to individuals interested in furthering their education in the fields of applied design and manufacturing.

If you’re a gear enthusiast with an interest in the Aerospace industry and are looking for something of value to read this week, take a look at the June issue of the Gear Technology Magazine where Jack McGuinn gives you an update on ‘Aerospace Gearing Research’.

We are extremely excited to announce that we have taken receipt of a new machine this week, a Fellows FS630-200 CNC Internal Gear Shaper straight from the USA! This new machine can cut internal gears up to 650mm in diameter and 200mm face width, is CNC controlled and will be fully commissioned in the first week of August.

Without a properly structured and well-oiled sales machine, a business will generally fail to achieve its maximum potential. One of our most valued assets at Ronson Gears is our very committed sales team. For 40 years, we’ve been focused on developing a sales team that always keeps the customers’ interests at heart, while keeping the wheels turning.