_------------.II'GEARiP,R'OFILES---------------Eliot K. Buckingham

INancv IBartels

ELIOT K. BUCKING,HAM

EDUCATIONIB.S. MassachusettsInstitute of Technology,1949.M.S. University of NewMexico, 1951.

MIUTARY SERVICEU.S. Army, 1943-1946.U.S. Air Force, 1951-1953.

MEMBERSHIPSAmerican Society ofMechanical Engineers.licensed Professional

CAREER EXPERIENCEUniversrty of New Mexico;.A.w. Haydonce,Waterbury, CT;

lIied Control Co., Plantsville, CT;

.nlrinemallrl VT;IUlstl~blishEld Buckingham Associates.IUlllnrinn"iAhj VI, 1960.

SELECTED ARTICLES &PUBUCATIONS

"Accelerated LifeTests," Machine Design,July 25, 1974.

MAvaidingOverdesign of Gears,"Machine Design. Feb., 1980.

"Backlash in Gears," Power DriveEngineering, April/May, 1962.

~Controlling Tooth Loads in HelicalGears," Machine Design. Det, 1975.

"Gear Cardiograph." with Weyman S.Crocker. Presented to the AGMAAerospace Division, Feb.• 1966.

"Bears in Action.MAmerican PfauterGear Process Oynamics Clinic, Oct.,1982.

"Guide to Worm Gear Types,"Product Engineering, .ApriI26, 1965.

"How Oesign Errors Influence theFunctioning of Gear Trains," with EarleBuckingham, Machinery, August, 1964.

"Measurement of Surface EnduranceLimit." International Powder MetalConference, Orlando, Fl, June, 1988.

Revised Manual of Gear Design,Sections I-llfwith Earle Buckingham,1980-1981.

"Spur Gear and Worm Gear Sets."Machine Design, March 3,1966, PowerTransmission Design, May, 1966.

"Surtaea Endurance of Tufftrided®Materials,· ASME Design EngineeringConference, April, 1975.

"Tables for Recess-Action Gears,"Product Engineering, June 8, 1964.

"Taking the Guesswork Out of WormGear Design:' Machine Design, March20,1975.

GIl is resume reads like that of

I

m...a~y gear.. eng.i.li.ee~sofhjs gen-I era~lOn; the stint HI the anny

__ during World War U; the breakfor college in the late 40s; deliberatelyvague descriptions of project for the AirForce in the New Mexico de. en in theearly 50s;tbe corporate 'engineering joblater on in the decade.

Then in 1960. I.ong before lhe tennbecame aeuphernismfor "laid off by abig corporation," Eli.ot K Buckinghamstruck out on hi own and became a gearcon ultant,

The i.dea of going one's own way ingear engineering was not new to EJiot.Buckingham. In a sense, he was only fol-lowinglbe family tradition. He is, afterall, the youngest son of Earle Bucking-ham. author of The Man.ual of GearDesign and other staples of gearing liter-ature. By the time Gear Technologyspoke with llimearlier this year,Buckingham had spent, quite literally, alifetime in gearing.

Buckingham's view on the induslry issomething of a 'contrarian one. Perhapsthis is inevitable. having pent most. ofhis professional life analyzing and cor-recting other people's lUi take . A fewweeks ago, he hared his perspective onthe American gear industry.

Tbe Last 50 YearsBuckingham see only two new tech-

nologies that have come directly from thegear industry in the last 50 years. Theseare (TW's Spiroidi!l system and Novikov-Wildhabergears.

Spiroid gear fill a niche betweenbevel, worm and face gear desigll. Theyare u eful. in application .where an offsetgreater than. 20% of the gear radius isrequired. The pinion is tapered and

JULY/AUGUST 1997 '9

_-------------GlAR PR.OFIILESI _resembles a worm, and the gear memberis a face gear with teeth curved in a

lengthwise direction. The tooth inclina-tion is like a helix angie, but is not a truehelical spiral.

The Nevikov-Wildhaber gears have

parallel shafts and circular form teeth and

are suitable for low-speed drives. Tbey

have applications in low-tech countriesbecause they can be produced on ordi-nary milling rnachjnes, but their use is

limited elsewhere.

"Beyond those two," says Bucking-ham, "most improvements have come

from other technologies and been appliedto gears."

SEE IUS .Al AGMA G.EAR:EXPO BOOTH #1126

10 GE ....R TECHNOLOGY

Buckingham says that, like many oth-ers, the gear industry has been a greatbeneficiary of the space program .. Manytechnologies developedthere have madetheir way into common use throughout

the industry. "Better techniques and bet-

ter materials do improve things," he says."Back in the early 60s," he recalls,

"we were retained by the Instrumentation

Lab at MIT to work on a very accurate

indexing device for a space sextant for

the Apollo program ..Our goal was to geta 4-1nch diameter gear with an accuracyof about 5 arc-seconds. That's the equiv-

alent of walking 3.5 miles with 110 morethan an inch deviation off a straight line ..

.IKEGAI.IIKEGAI A:MERICA CORPORAl'ION2246 North Palmer Drive, Sullel0B

Schaumburg, illinois 60,1 TJTEL. (847) 397-<1970 FAX (847) 397.7535

CIRCLE 124

"We made II spur gear 4" in diameter,

with 64 pitch and 256 teeth. We spent$40,000 to make the gear. That includesrebuilding a Pellows/Reishauer grinder:

All the spindles were ground down foraccuracy. We ended up with a drive ace -

rate to 5 arc-seconds overall and 2-2.5arc-seconds in any 90D quadrant.

"In the meantime, someone else sworking with a company in New York on

an optical disc and got it to an accuracy of..5 arc-seconds. That workcontribut tothe whole field of optical machine control ..

The American Approa.cbIn spite or many improvements i I

material,lechnique and technology;Buckingham is less than sanguine a, utsome a peets of American industrialdevelopment For most of his adult ilife.

American manufacturing, says Bucking-ham, has been its own worst enemy Lsome respects. "A friend of mine in man-ufacturing was fond of saying that n

you came up with a new machine andtook it to Europe, the first question you

would be asked would be 'What's theprinciple behind it?' In the U.S., - t

they want to know is 'How much do s t

cost, and who else is using it?' We as

those questions too often here. We

our eye too much on the bottom line."We don't do enough research, Man

companies that 20 or 30 years ago adlarge research departments don't hay

one at all now. The only kind of rese ellwe're doing is product development.

"I have the feeling that we're big hereinto supporting planned obsolescen .Buckingham continues. "We tend tQ

design products (not just gears) with thattitude thai. if the thing runs 4 or 5 yethen that's good enough."

Eliot K. Buckif!gham. I!i~ wife "Max'" and.granddaughter Sabrina;

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CIRCLE 130

1,2, GEAR TECHNOLOGY

Buckingham feelsthat this attitude is

one that has cost the industry over theI~ongrun. "I spoke with a fellow who's in

charge of a ugar refinery in Germany,

He told me that the only time he ever hadany gear failure problems were when hebought an American-made gearbox."

It al 0 lead 10 the kind of shoddybusiness practice that leaves a bad tastein the mouth. !II was called in to consul!

for a power station out in New Mexico.The main bull gear was coming 10

pieces, and a local simp was trying to cut,ill replacemenl. The data they sent medidn't make any sense, so I went out to

look at it It turns out that the bull gearhad been cut wilh a different hob than thepinion. A nonstandard hob had beenused. I'm convinced the only reason it

was done this way was sothat 'lile origi-nal supplier would be the amy one who

could provide a replacement."Buckingham admits not every gear

company is this way. "I've worked with

products trom gear companies whereI've never seen a gear failure."

But this tendency to look to short-term profit ruasagainst the grain forBuckingham. "Some people seem to

think: that they make their money sellinggears," he reflects. "Actually, I think youmake money on new gears and on thereputation for quality. One of the thingmy dad taught me was that, whenever Itook a job, to work myself out of it asSOOI1 as possible. It's worked. People.

always come back. Sometimes the Oldyway I know a.job has been suece sful isthat .W neverhear from the customer. Then

five years down the road I'll get a call:'You know that job you did five years

ago? Car! you. do another one?"

Buckingham on AGMAEliot Buckingham also takes a some-

what contrarian view of AcGMA Whileadminingthe usefulness and even neces-

sity of such an organization, he stales."Sometimes I think. what we really needis an American Gear Users Association .."

Buckingham parts company withAGMA over technical and philosophi-cal issues.

"AGMA was started during the FirstWorld War by engineers who were inter-

e ted in setting standards for gears and in

__________ --_IGiEAR,PROFILJES _

clition. AGMAratings are based on'average' eondaions, but how do you tellwhich specific application is 'average'?"

Buckingham says that a better way todesign would be to' "determine the maxi-mum dynamic load thai the gears will seein service and then calculate the beamstrength and wear load capacity accord-ingly, That is general engineering prac-tice for all load and stress calculations,e cept for gears."

eooperanng to develop better gear tech-nology. Somewhere along the way, m

believe in Lhe1930s, the associationbecame dominated by salesmen ratherthan engineers," Buckingham say.

The approach to developing standardschanged. The emphasis was placed onfaster and cheaper methods of manufac-ture, rather than on producing betterqualhy gears, Very little attention wasplaced on end use. Wllat this means isthat ", .. [the standardsjgive a base rat-ing and then proceed to reduce it withservice factors for various types of con-

hWhat was it like growing up withsomeone obsessed with gears?" asksEliot Buckingham. "I don't know. You'llhave to ask my kids. The oldest was 12and the youngest 5 when I got started[in business on my own). My dad neverbrought his work home."

But he was very focused. SaysBuckingham of the time when he andhis father worked together: "He'd getcompletely wrapped up in his work. Hehad a very small office, and he'd beworking, and I'd come in, work awhileand go out again, and he'd never knowI'd been there."

On the other hand, growing up in theBuckingham household, it was hard toescape the gear theory entirely. WhenEarle Buckingham was working on hisbooks, he would bring them home'to theresident editor, his wife.

"My grandfather, my mother's father,was a librarian at Trinity College," EliotBuckingham explains. "My mother usedto say that books had to read smoothlyaloud, so she used to read all my father'Sbooks out loud to him, so they could seehow the words sounded."

Perhaps it was through just such anexercise that one of Earle Buckingham'smost famous observartionsacquired theform we're most familiar with: "Man-made ... laws have little in common withthe laws of nature. They are incomplete,ambiguous, and often inconsistsnt 'oneoften contradicting another.... Nature'slaws, on the other hand, are completeand coordinated, whether we k.nowthemall or not. They are also self-enforcingand the penalty for violation is alwaysexacted to the precise degree that theoffense has earned. About the only thingin common between the laws of natureand those of man is that ignorance of thelaw is no defense."

GROWING UP BUCKINGHAM

Buckingham say that the dominanceof salesper onnel in the AGMA stan-dards setting process has lessened. "Inthe Iast years good engineers have againbecome involved, and there is a realinterest in furthering gear technology,"he says. But, he adds, there is still a ten-dency on the part of some user to driftaway from the AGMA standard and usetheir own whenever it is possible \0 doso. On the other hand, because AGMA

ANiJ Systems Co. announces that it is now amanufacturing source of spiral gear roughingand finishing cutlers and bodies.

We also can manufacture new spiralcutter bodies in diameters ·of5" through 12"at. present.

ANiJ can also supply roughing; and finishingcutters, hardware and replacement parts formost 5"-12" diameter bodies.

Whether it's service or manufacturing, con-sider us as an alternaliv,e source for replace-ment parts and hardware as weill as bodiesand cutters.

I

. You'll be in fo~.a Pleasan~surprise. _I NlEW! Straight Beve'l Cutters.

III II

Royal Oak, Michigan 48067Tel: (248) 544-3852 .' iFax: (248) 544·3922

I I I I I I

Sfli US AIAGMA GEAR EXPOIIBOOTHI#121 CIFlCl-E105

JULY/AUln,ST un 13

_-------------GEAlRPROF,ILES:------------does et the standards for the gear com-munity. companies may feel forced (0

de ign 10 those standard • whether theyreflect the best approach or not.

The Tr.aining Gap'One place where Buckingham does

agree with many others is about the seri-ousness of the training gap for youngengineers. In his view. there simplyaren't enough places training youngengineers in gearing. with the result that" ... we'll fall farther and farther behindother countries ... The indu try needspeople who know how to do the basics."

He acknowledge that there are ornegood training progarns out there, but theproblem is that they are offered on ahit-or-miss basis, and many people don'tknow about them. Buckingham also feel

that many engineering curricula neglecttraining ingear design.

"There's good information 'out there,"he says, "but people have to rea]]y work.at getting it."

Gears of the Future[0 spite of some of the problems fac-

ing the industry, Buckingham ees gearas being with us for a longtime (0 come."~t'sjust a very economical way to trans-fer power at a reasonable cost," he ays.

He is predicting a bright future forboth plastic and powder metal gears."Right now the big problem w.ith plasticgears is that there is very little wear te t

data. available for them."He also admits to being "very enam-

cured" of powder metal gears. "We'vefound that the surface durabitil.y of pow-

14 GEAR TECHNOLOGV

der meta] is greater than that of basealloys. YOIl can impregnate powdermeta] with lubricants. You can makealloys out of powder metal that youcan't make otherwise."

Buckingham also suggests that he'salreaely seen one of the most significantchanges in the way gears are designed-the comparee "When my dad was writingthe Manual o/,Gear Desigll, he calculatedeverything by hand from '15-place trigtables. He literally wore out an old hand-run calculator. Nowadays, you'd just dothe whole thing en a computer.

"Before the computer. there were a lotof things we did by rule of thumb. Youjust didn't go beyond certain parameters.Now you can automatically check thingsout on the computer. You can lake thingsright up to the edge of the manufacturingand performance capability."

One development Buckingham wouldlike to ee in the future is in th.earea ofgears in the 40--45 Rc range, hardened to50 Rc. Some are available now in high-volume production application, butthere isalso a need for them in smallerlots, he says.

"Wbat happens now is that there's thisgap. You frequently have to go from thesoft _teels a]~ the way up into hardenedsteels, and sometimes you'd like to havesomething in that gap area."

Buckingham ees changes in the gearindustry coming slowly. which, hethinks, may not be altogether a. bad thing."Many problems are caused by solu-tions," he remarks.

He also likes to quote George Gram,who in ] 890 commented about theadvantage of using 'the involut.e over theold epicyclic gear: "The old system waseasy to draw, easy to make, long estab-lished, and there was a reluctance toaccept a change, particularly a change forthe better."O

Nancy Bartels is Gear Technology'ssenior editor.

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