AGMA member profile: Forest City Gear

Advancing gear technology for more than 60 years, Forest City Gear manufactures high-volume, low-mix gear types for automakers and some commercial truck companies and low-volume, high-mix lines used by racing teams, off-highway equipment makers, and some commercial equipment users.

“Gears for trucks we are currently doing today are axle gears that also have splines,” says Wendy Young, co-owner of the 120-person company. “Gears for trucks can have a somewhat lower accuracy requirement, oftentimes larger in diameter with a coarser pitch. Truck volume is medium-high. Racing gears are very different – typically very low volume and very high accuracy.”

Young says managing the two different types of work can be a challenge, but Forest City Gear has developed manufacturing strategies at its two Roscoe, Illinois plants to support both high-volume, and low-volume jobs.

“We are required to hold some stock, and we time production for just-in-time delivery,” Young says. “Most of the low-volume jobs are required to ship complete on a tight time schedule. Our high-volume jobs command definitive delivery schedules. These jobs are set up in cells with as much automation as practical. We have one building that is dedicated to high-volume cellular work.”

And the company has invested heavily to advance gear-making technology. One capability it offers to customers is fine-pitch crown-hobbing – a modification of the lead to impart a barrel shape on the flank of the tooth, which compensates for misalignment and helps reduce noise, especially in helical applications.

Adapted from European technologies used in power tools and small motors, fine-pitch crown-hobbing reduces noise for motor vehicle customers.

“Heavy trucks and earth-moving equipment industries are less sensitive to noise, but in almost all other vehicle markets, there is benefit to them in noise reduction and misalignment compensation. It would make sense to use them in the motors that control seats and windows – anything that would contribute to noise in the seating compartment.”
 

Forest City Gear Co.
www.forestcitygear.com

AGMA member profles

Today’s Motor Vehicles profiles American Gear Manufacturers Association members several times per year, alternating with profiles of the National Fluid Power Association and the Metal Powder Industry Federation. To nominate a company, contact editor Robert Schoenberger at 216.393.0271 or rschoenberger@gie.net.

AGMA event

May 12-15, 2016, AGMA, ABMA Annual Meeting, Omni Amelia Island Plantation, Amelia Island, Florida. American Gear Manufacturers Association, and American Bearings Manufacturers Association members will discuss the state of the industry and new technologies and processes. Attendees will have the opportunity to attend educational presentations and network. www.agma.org