Laser hardening wear resistant coatings for your gears and bearings, you ask? Absolutely. Forget about tempering, cracking, even slower processing times. These are things of the past.

For decades, lasers have been used to increase metal resistance to wear. By delivering a specific energy to a localized surface, yet, now with minimal heat distortion. Bulk properties are retained, and you can gain a brand new micro-structure with improved wear properties.

This is especially true with surface modification techniques like laser hardening. These emerging processes are quickly proving reliable alternatives to other hard-facing processes, like heat treating or plasma nitriding.

Parameters such as power density or translation rate, and variables like atmosphere type or rate of material addition, can all shape surface characteristics. For example, care must be taken to avoid oxidation; otherwise, desired properties in the surface layer, such as thickness, composition and micro-structure, can all be compromised.

For highly-stressed alloys of gears and bearings, laser transformation hardening can be ideal. Ferrous metals are great conductors of heat. This means surfaces can be heated to austenitizing levels without loss in bulk properties of the material. And rapid heat loss means no outside quenching needed to form martensite at the heated surface.

Ultimately, with carbon steels, resistance to wear will be determined by the amount of ferrite or martensite. Those, in turn, will be determined by carbon level. Nevertheless, they present excellent alternatives to nitriding steel, any general nitriding process, or heat treat, which often require costly annealing operations to maintain geometric integrity, without distortion.

Next time you're designing your gear or bearing, take a closer look at laser hardening wear resistant coatings.

One way to have a commercial metal or steel building created and sent to you is to purchase a prefabricated steel building. They can be built at the factory and shipped directly to your site. Shops that specialize in creating prefabricated steel buildings can ship them almost anywhere. When the time comes to purchase your steel building, you will most likely meet with a project coordinator. That coordinator will go over the entire project with you from beginning to end. In the end, you will walk away knowing the most productive and least expensive way to accomplish your goals.

Slowly but surely, commercial steel buildings are taking over the industry. Conventional construction methods are fast becoming a thing of the past. For one thing, steel is strong and non-combustible. It is electrically safe and works well with just about all other building materials. Furthermore, it's very stable, has a long life span and requires less maintenance than other products. Prefabricated steel building products are used for roofs, barns and all sorts of large constructed free-standing structures.

Most of the time, your project will come with a 25 year warranty on the steel products used. The construction of these commercial buildings is much easier than most other methods and is also very economical. Prefabricated steel buildings allow customers more freedom to plan large building projects without tying up much needed financial resources to have the project completed. When considering the company to go with for your prefabricated steel building, it's important to remember that not all companies are the same.

A lot of companies out there may count on the fact that you don't truly know the difference between different building methods. Take time in your search for a company that will explain the differences and point you in the right direction. Pre-engineered steel buildings help provide customers with structures that are flexible and efficient while meeting the customer's needs. Be sure the company you deal with has experts that are not just out to make a buck. You need to know the best way to provide more usable space.

It would be extremely irresponsible for a company to provide you with the plans for a huge building project when a prefabricated steel building would be perfect for your needs. Whether you are in the need for an airplane hangar or merely a barn, a prefabricated option is also easy to expand upon. This gives your company the ability and freedom to make future plans that are cost effective. When planning your company's next addition of space, keep prefabricated steel buildings in mind. They could very well be the perfect answer to your company's needs.

As a manufacturer, plant manager, controller, or machine operator, you've undoubtedly encountered the concept of lean production. Lean this, lean that-lectures, brochures, talks, forums about how lean approaches to shop management can control and even reduce costs. In today's era of ever tightening margins, where even the slightest gains in efficiency can translate into considerable improvements to the bottom-line, lean manufacturing has become not only a way of life but also a philosophy in and of itself. Imagine the repetitive production line where pennies saved per part or assembly sometimes translate into thousands of dollars per hour put back into the plus side of the ledger.

In prior postings, we've listed benefits of leaning, as well as some of the broad waste concepts associated with lean philosophy in manufacturing. In this article, we will nuance some of items in those prior lists and offer more specifics as to the meaning of "waste" in production. With an eye toward operating within a lean structure, identifying potential areas of waste and continuously improving production through their elimination is what efficient manufacturing is all about:

Over-Production - In short, selling products at or below cost of production is not going to be very profitable. As well, warehousing products for a customer before they are actually ready to take delivery wastes both space and capital.

Inventory - Why have materials, parts, and other inventory just sitting around, waiting to be used at some unknown point in the future? Zeroing-out inventory is a waste-elimination concept designed to free up more capital while also making inventory more manageable.

Motion - The relationship between production time and operator motion has been studied over and over again. Findings show that unnecessary or awkward operator motions put stress on the body and cause waste in shop floor time management. To gain more productivity out of what is invariably a limited resource (i.e., time) is always beneficial. Another positive outcome to the elimination of wasted motion might also be found in the reduction of injuries and workman's compensation claims.

Conveyance - This is usually defined as the unnecessary movement of part(s) during the production process, and it considers the potential of damage that can come to material that is moved about without need. In high precision production, such damage can even be the basis of wasteful (and costly) rework.

Correction - Whether damaged in conveyance or the result of any other scrapping malady in production, having to re-work parts is a fairly frequent source of waste in manufacturing. Taking an excessive amount of time for sorting and inspecting parts is also wasteful and can be reduced through error proofing (i.e., designing processes so products can only be produced one way, which is the correct way, every time).

Processing - Like never before, clear communication between manufacturer and customer is absolutely necessary in order to work most efficiently. Of course, questions about such things as engineering and production material requirements must be answered before production begins. However, if a customer is continually changing processes or other requirements, the additional steps might be added to a job that does nothing more than simply add additional costs to the product.

Waiting - When an operator is on the clock but not on a job, this is a direct-cost waste that goes straight to the bottom-line. The occasionally idle machine is an expected aspect of the economic cycle; an idle operator (or one taking an hour or so to look for a part or tool) is usually the result of bad scheduling, inefficient shop floor control and design, or both.

Not under these circumstances, and here's why.

Ceramic is brittle by nature. Depending on wear mechanism, it (they) can chip, crack, even form fine powders, at or below the surface. Unlike metals or plastics under high contact stress, ceramics cannot undergo plastic deformation. Not in any measurable sense. As a result, ceramic coatings fracture under stress.

Unfortunately, even under extreme temperatures, ductility remains insignificant. The brittle condition remains largely unchanged. Not only are ceramic coatings vulnerable to higher stress, but in circumstances where there is a tensile component, too. This makes them poor candidates for abrasive wear. Being without a low elastic modulus, you see.

But mechanical wear is just one issue for ceramic coatings. Whether thermal spraying, plasma spray, hvof, many are susceptible to thermal shock fracture. This is because their heat transfer is so poor.

Imagine large heat gradients forming local "hot spots." There, large tensile stresses or cracking can develop. This, alone, can lead to fracture. And frictional heat relating to sliding motion is no exception.

Erosive wear can also become an issue. Based on ceramics sensitivity to strain, their wear rate to erosion or material removal can be most vulnerable when impingement angles near ninety degrees. As compared with metals, which fair equally poor, when impingement angles are much lower.

To maximize wear performance from ceramics, be sure the eroding medium is softer than the ceramic. But, if the eroding medium is harder than the ceramic, the erosion rate can be minimized. Just create as much fracture toughness as possible, in the ceramic. And be sure to request reduced porosity, smaller grain size, too.

Under those circumstances, ceramic coatings can be your most wear resistant coatings, ever.

Pumping of liquids is almost universal in chemical and petrochemical processes. The many different materials being processed require close attention to selection of materials of construction of the various pump parts, shaft sealing, and the hydraulics of the individual problems. A wide variety of pumps types have been developed to satisfy the many special conditions found in chemical plant systems; however, since all of these cannot be discussed here, the omission of some does not mean that they may not be suitable for a service. In general, the final pump selection and performance details are recommended by the manufacturers to meet the conditions specified by the process design engineer. It is important that the designer of the process system be completely familiar with the action of each pump offered for a service in order that such items as control instruments and valves may be properly evaluated in the full knowledge of the system.

A pump is a physical contrivance that is used to deliver fluids from one location to another through conduits. Over the years, numerous pump designs have evolved to meet differing requirements.

The basic requirements to define the application are suction and delivery pressures, pressure loss in transmission, and the flow rate. Special requirements may exist in food, pharmaceutical, nuclear, and other industries that impose material selection requirements of the pump. The primary means of transfer of energy to the fluid that causes flow are gravity, displacement, centrifugal force, electromagnetic force, transfer of momentum, mechanical impulse, and a combination of these energy-transfer mechanisms. Gravity and centrifugal force are the most common energy-transfer mechanisms in use.

Pump designs have largely been standardized. based on application experience, numerous standards have come into existence. As special projects and new application situations for pumps develop, these standards will be updated and revised. Common pump standards are:

1. American Petroleum Institute (API) Standard 610, Centrifugal Pumps for Refinery Service.
2. American Waterworks Association (AWWA) E101, Deep Well Vertical Turbine Pumps.
3. Underwriters Laboratories (UL) UL 51, UL343, UL1081, UL448, UL1247.
4. National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) NFPA-20 Centrifugal Fire Pumps.
5. American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
6. American National Standards Institute.
7. Hydraulic Institute Standards (Application).

These standards specify design, construction, and testing details such as material selection, shop inspection and tests, drawings and other uses required, clearances, construction procedures, and so on.

The most common types of pumps used in a chemical plant are centrifugal and positive displacement. Occasionally regenerative turbine pumps, axial-flow pumps, and ejectors are used.
Modern practice is to use centrifugal rather than positive displacement pumps where possible because they are usually less costly, require less maintenance, and less space. Conventional centrifugal pumps operate at speeds between 1200 and 8000 rpm. Very high speed centrifugal pumps, which can operate up to 23,000 rpm and higher, are used for low-capacity, highhead applications. Most centrifugal pumps will operate with an approximately constant head over a wide range of capacity.

Positive displacement pumps are either reciprocating or rotary. Reciprocating pumps include piston, plunger, and diaphragm types. Rotary pumps are: single lobe, multiple lobe, rotary vane, progressing cavity, and gear types. Positive displacement pumps operate with approximately constant capacities over wide variations in head, hence they usually are installed for services which require high heads at moderate capacities. A special application of small reciprocating pumps in gas processing plants is for injection of fluids (e.g. methanol and corrosion inhibitors) into process streams, where their constant-capacity characteristics are desirable.

Axial-flow pumps are used for services requiring very high capacities at low heads.

Regenerative-turbine pumps are used for services requiring small capacities at high heads. Ejectors are used to avoid the capital cost of installing a pump, when a suitable motive fluid (frequently steam) is available, and are usually low-efficiency devices. These kinds of pumps are used infrequently in the gas processing industry.

To properly accomplish a good and thorough ratinghizing of a centrifugal pump, the plant system designer should at a minimum do the following.

1. Understand the fundamentals of performance of the pump itself.
2. Understand the mechanical details required for a pump to function properly in a system.
3. Calculate the friction and any other pressure losses for each "side" of the pump, suction, and discharge.
4. Determine the suction side and discharge side heads for the mechanical system connecting to the pump.
5. Determine the important available net positive suction head (NPSH,) for the pump suction side mechanical system, and compare this to the manufacturer's required net positive suction head (NPSH,) by the pump itself. This requires that the designer makes a tentative actual pump selection of one or more manufacturers in order to use actual numbers.
6. Make allowable corrections to the pump's required NPSH (using charts where applicable) and compare with the available NPSH. The available must always be several feet (mm) greater than the corrected required.
7. Make fluid viscosity corrections to the required performance if the fluid is more viscous than water.
8. Examine specific speed index, particularly if it can be anticipated that future changes in the system may be required.
9. If fluid being pumped is at elevated temperature (usually above 90o F (32.2o C )), check temperature rise in the pump and the minimum flow required through the pump.
10. Make pump brake horsepower corrections for fluids with a specific gravity different from water. Select actual driver (electric motor, usually) horsepower in order that horsepower losses between the driver and the pump shaft will still provide sufficient power to meet the pump's input shaft requirements.
11. If the pump has some unique specialty service or requirements, recognize these in the final sizing and selection. Consult a reliable manufacturer that produces pumps for the type of service and applications and have them verify the analysis of your system's application.

Custom Lift Tables Solve Outboard Motor Manufacturer's Material Handling Issues

A major outboard motor manufacturer purchased a Self Propelled Max-Lift Table by Lift Products, Inc. to solve a material handling problem. They had tried to place 54" long molds on a conveyor system using a walkie counter-balanced lift truck. The truck was 72" long, plus load, making it difficult to see and almost impossible to maneuver. In addition they had to slide the molds off forks adding to these length problems.

The Max-Lift Self Propelled Lift Table was almost 3 feet shorter and had a gravity conveyor on it allowing the molds to be rolled on to the stationary conveyor. This allowed them a safer, more ergonomic, more maneuverable solution providing increased productivity.

Custom Tilt Table Solves Ergonomic Problem

A manufacturer of control cabinets submitted his ergonomic problem to Lift Products, Inc. The control cabinets he builds are over 6 feet tall with much of the work located at the base of the unit. The cabinets are on wheels.

The solution is a custom Max-Tilt Table with forks. The table was built with an offset platform so when the table is tilted 90 degrees the forks are a few inches from the ground. This allows the operator to push the cabinet base over the forks. The table, which has a raised platform, tilts the cabinet on its side at 24" elevation allowing easy ergonomic access to the work to be performed. Lift Products builds a large variety of tilters and upenders in both standard and custom designs.

John Deere tractors have been a huge success over the years, with many farmers choosing to purchase one for their farms. Tractors can be purchased from reputable dealers or they can be bought on eBay. If choosing to buy one off eBay, always do your research first to save any disappointment. There are many different models to choose from with some being able to do more than others.

The Model M tractor produced by John Deere was first released in 1947. This was fitted with 20 horse power and had a vertical 2-cylinder all square gasoline engine or 4x4. This design was to replace models (LA), (L) and (H). The design was fitted with Touch-o-matic hydraulics, and initially, it was four wheel standard tractors of the modern design. It had the usual PTO, which is standard, and electric starting. Many integral implements were offered to use with the Quik-tach hitching system. This was the same style as the larger row-crop tractors.

Time and muscle was spared by John Deere's MT tractor, or people often referred to this model as the magic tractor. This model helped make farming the land so much easier, with a quick touch of the operators hand on the controls lever and smooth hydraulic power raises, lowers or sets the tools to the exact depth desired automatically. Trip ropes, depth adjusting levers and stubborn lifting levers are done away with. Farm work is hard enough and this model helped them tremendously.

The advantage of Touch-o-matic from a farmer's point of view is simply great. It is an hydraulic pump at the front of the engine where it operates from and this is whenever the engine is running. With these advantages, it allows farmers to do work that is impossible with other light tractors. So much work is made easier, such as cultivating and planting to the desired depth. Even fertilizing is maintained easier on back furrows, terraces or in dead furrows because the right and left hand gangs can be operated at different depths.

To the farmer, it is important that any tractor used for general purpose farm work that changes can be made quickly and easily. These have been made possible with the MT model. A farmer can now attach and remove different tools, thanks to the Quick tach design making the job a lot easier, enabling remarkable ease and speed. Seeing one of these tractors demonstrate cultivators, plows and different tools being detached and attached so quickly is unbelievable.

The track type model MC crawler dozer is an ideal model for different terrains, wet ground, light soil and rough terrain. This model is ideal for this type of work if your hillside is to steep for wheel tractors. This powerful little giant is built for work like this. It can handle an eight foot double action disk harrow, and gives you 2-3 plow capacity with four forward speeds and of course, reverse.

There are so many models of tractors and different implements to go with them. John Deere created something in tractors that many people over the years have tried to match. By purchasing one of these tractors or other machinery designed by this great man, life on the farm will be so much easier.