Customers often call saying they need a gearbox but tell us the application is secret. It's understandable that privacy can be a concern. But it's equally important that your supplier really knows what is going on. A customer of ours approached us asking for a spiral bevel gearbox that was to be used in a high-temperature environment. They gave us no other information other than the torque required, that all shafts would be mounted horizontal, the speed would be under 100 rpm, and that it had to operate in a high temp environment of 180 [...]

There are a lot of industrial applications for gear products in harsh environments with not a lot of sources for them. Some of those gearbox applications require operating underwater. I’d say that’s pretty harsh. But it’s something we’ve been able to offer in a number of instances. A customer recently approached us with an engineering request for a gearbox to be used in a wastewater treatment plant. We had done other applications for this customer, but this gearbox had to be able to operate underwater. They were designing an agitation system, which in this [...]