Now Offering Hub City!

The newest product line to hit the Akron Bearing portfolio is Hub City.  Hub City manufactures a full line of Gear Drives and Speed Reducers.  Their newest and most advanced gearbox is the HERA – High Efficiency Right Angle. 

HERA Benefits:

• Up to 40% more efficient than worm gearing
• Runs Cooler
• Rapid Payback
• Longer Life
• Increased Torque Density
• Plug-in shaft kits
• Ratios from 7:1 to 423:1
• Flexible Mounting bases and Torque Arms
• Viton Double Lip Seals
• Cast Iron and Stainless Steel
• Interchangeable up to 11 sizes of worm drives
• 3-year warranty

Use the www.hubcityinc.com and go to the “Tools” tab for 3D models and HERA Efficiency Calculators. 

Loctite at Akron Bearing

Akron Bearing stocks over 100 different types of Loctite products right here in our store. And more importantly, we have the expertise to get the right product for your job. Stop by to see all we have on hand to offer, or give us a call and talk to one of our experienced employees. 

Retaining Compounds

Loctite Retaining compounds secure bearings, bushings, and other cylindrical parts into housings or onto shafts. They eliminate the need for expensive replacement parts, time consuming machining or, or the use of mechanical methods.

Threadlocker

Loctite thread lockers prevent unwanted movement, loosening, leaks, and corrosion to threaded fasteners. They cure at room temperature, and completely fill the gaps between mating threads to lock threads and joints.

Gasketing & Sealing

Loctite gasketing products are single-component solutions to replace conventional gaskets. Excellent instant seal, and fills all voids. Many varieties for resistance to chemicals, temperatures and pressures. 

Anti-Sieze Compounds

Loctite anti-seize products provide protection against rust, corrosion, seizing, and galling, as well as lubrication. They are the product of choice for high temperature applications.

Thread Sealants

Designed for low and high pressure applications, they fill the space between threaded parts and provide an instant seal. When fully cured, they seal to the burst pressure of most pipe systems. They can be used on any size of pipe filling and replace all types of tape and paste sealants.

Employee Spotlight: Pete Kalgreen

My name is Pete Kalgreen and I am President of the Akron Bearing Company. I attended Saint Vincent- Saint Mary High School and the University of Akron, home of the mighty Zips. I started working at Akron Bearing on Saturdays and after school at the age of 16 doing shipping/receiving. After college I worked inside sales, later as a road salesman, and then became president in 1990. My wife Diane and I like to travel, especially hiking in the Appalachians. We have five children and four grandchildren.

Ralph Jones, my grandfather, started Akron Bearing after his employer, Ahlberg Bearing, decided to close their Akron branch in 1940 during the depression. From those humble roots he started a company that has survived these 70+ years because of his basic and sound business ideals that we carry on to this day. We take care of our customers, make sure their needs are met, and solve their problems. Ralph frequently said “You cannot do business from an empty cart.” Ralph, you sure were right!

Martin Conveyor Idlers

It seems as if everywhere you look, belt conveyors are the method of choice to move many different materials. Conveyors are a proven way to move bulk materials in practically every industry. Conveyors routinely operate at 90% capacity and can be operated 24/7, 365 days per year. Conveyors have a lower operating cost and can provide a higher return on investment than competitive methods. Maintenance is minimized and less labor is required. Material conveyed can range from very fine to large lumps of iron ore, stone, coal and pulpwood logs. 

While Martin has been a well-known and loved name in the head and tail pulleys for belt conveyors, they're now ready to serve the industry with a full line of idler rollers. Martin idlers are manufactured to meet or exceed CEMA standards.  uses sealed-for-life ball bearings that allows for trouble-free life even in the harshest applications. 9 gauge tubing is used for CEMA C & D Idlers and 7 gauge tubing is used for CEMA E Idlers.

Features:

• Drop-in Idlers-Retrofit for all major competitors
• Idlers are maintenance-free. Martin Idlers use sealed-for-life ball bearings that allows for trouble-free life in the harshest applications
• Extremely low rolling resistance that allows for the lowest total operating cost
• Designed for low run-out (TIR), rotational torque and axial bearing clearance
• Offered in a wide range of belt widths from 18" to 96" for excellent versatility
• 9 gauge tubing for CEMA C & D; 7 gauge tubing for CEMA E

Many different types from Martin: 

• Flat Return Rollers
• Guide Rollers
• ImpactIidlers
• Live Shaft Idlers
• Offset Idlers
• Return Roll Guarding
• Rubber Disc Idlers
• Self-Aligning Idlers
• Troughing Idlers
• Underground Idlers
• V-Returns

Contact Akron Bearing, or ask your local sales person about Martin's offerings for your belt conveyor roller and idler needs!

IDC Select Electric Motors

Check out some great motors from our house brand, IDC Select! These motors are both high quality and a great value. IDC Select offers NEMA design motors manufactured using state of the art equipment, including fully automated winding equipment and a VPI epoxy resin system for windings. They are manufactured in ISO 9001 certified facilities.

They also come with a 3 year warrenty, so you're sure that your new IDC Select motor is of the highest quality.

IDC Select motors come in a variety of frame configurations to meet your demanding needs. This offering includes:

• Rolled Steel frames
  • Single phase (including c-face)
  • Farm duty with manual overload protection
  • Three phase (including c-face)
• Cast Iron frames
  • Premium efficient (including c-face)
  • Crusher duty (NEMA design C)
• Stainless Steel (including c-face)

You can check out the full catalog here.

Television Giveaway!

We give away a new TV to one of our lucky newsletter subscribers!

Seven symptoms of bad meeting

Seven symptoms of bad meeting
             . . . and what you can do about them

BY JOEL LEVITT

The door to the meeting room opens and it’s the person who called the meeting, running 10 minutes late because the previous meeting ended late and he had to stop by his office and pick up some notes to remind him of what this meeting was about. The folks already in the room are discussing last night’s game and wondering how long the meeting is going to last. Only one person remembers getting the notes from the last meeting, and he’s the only one with a copy of the report they’re supposed to discuss.

Does this sound or feel familiar? You’re not alone. One topic that everyone can agree on is this: meetings are often a waste of time and money. Scary meeting statistics abound. Software company Atlassian’s infographic states that U.S. businesses waste $37 billion a year. Some of that meeting time may have been wasted in your organization. What is strange is why this situation isn’t on the top of anyone’s list to get fixed. If we are wasting billions, why don’t corporations make the effort to fix the problem? Perhaps it boils down to a lack of accountability. But this is something that is entirely within our control. Here are some symptoms of bad meetings and what you can do to fix them.

1. Your meetings ramble on without a clear purpose. If there’s an agenda, no one follows it.

Good meeting practice says that a specific agenda will almost always reduce the time wasted in a meeting. A poll of 471 management leaders noted that 90 percent of those polled attributed the failure of most meetings to a lack of advanced planning and organization. So be sure to send out an agenda before the meeting. Review the agenda at the beginning of the meeting and gain agreement to follow it. It’s also important to empower people to point out when the meeting veers off the agenda. That way everyone can share the responsibility to keep things on track.

2. People are doing their own thing during the meeting – texting, talking on the phone, responding to email, carrying on unrelated conversations.

One way to avoid this is to establish ground rules that everyone agrees on before the meeting begins. These rules include removing temptation by setting limits on texting, email and phone conversations, and requiring people to listen without interrupting. Even if people have agreed in advance to these rules, they may need to be reminded of the ground rules at the beginning of the meeting or during the meeting itself if the rule-breaking is particularly egregious. Such reminding may be done by fellow members or by the meeting leader if there is one.

3. People show up who are not prepared.

They haven’t read the report, document, or spreadsheet that the meeting was about or they have not done the research they promised to do. 
A well-run organization holds staff members accountable for doing their jobs and keeping their promises. But real life often falls short of how we know we should operate. Holding people accountable should be part of any set of ground rules for meetings. When you distribute the agenda in advance, state clearly the preparation that is expected of each member who will participate. Even when you reiterate expectations, there may still be people who don’t think they are the ones who are supposed to be prepared. In a separate setting, the meeting leader or their manager needs to state the obvious: meetings are places where people report on their work, share information, etc. When members fail to do what they promised, they are being disrespectful of other people’s time – those who came to the meeting in order to participate and learn what progress had been made. Not only are they being rude to co- workers, they are also creating actual economic waste of organizational resources.

4. There is no closure for decision-making.

Decisions are discussed but not decided. There is no agreement to support collective decisions once they are made and people continue to fight them, disavow them, or bad-mouth them afterwards.
A good business process gets essential activities done with a minimum of waste. A good meeting process requires decisions or a decision that the topic be continued to the next meeting. Create the expectation that a decision will be made during the meeting and drive for consensus. If a decision still can’t be made, the decision may need to be kicked upstairs or assigned to a sub-group. Then, after everyone has their say and decisions are made, the decision needs to be supported by the entire group, even if some disagree. Otherwise, the disagreements move underground and undermine the workings of all. There is one special exception: if the decision is illegal, immoral, or dangerous. In such cases, dissent may be healthier for the organization in the long run than cooperating in the short run with bad decisions.

5. Meetings are dominated by a few talkers (not necessarily the leader) or there are knowledgeable people who never volunteer to speak up.

Facilitation can improve both the process and the outcome of meetings. According to an article in a past issue of The Facilitator, using a skilled meeting facilitator increases the productivity of a project by 25 percent. Of course, the magazine may have a bias, but having someone with training in meeting facilitation has the potential to improve most things. If that’s not an option, help the meeting leader develop some basic meeting facilitation skills that will help even out participation.

6. Meetings start and end late. Some people come late or leave before the end.

Timeliness is a matter of integrity. Here we are using the word “integrity” in the sense of being unimpaired or sound. Consider the integrity of the steel beams in a building. If one or more was missing or askew, wouldn’t the building sag or fall down? Similarly, the integrity of your work group  or team is undermined when key people are missing during updates or decision-making times; it doesn’t matter why or how. They will inevitably miss important communications, updates, reframing of the issues under discussion, and waste everyone else’s time when they have to be specially brought up to date. Because they missed the original sequence of events, they may also leave the meeting objectives.

7. People leave meetings tired, frustrated, angry or depressed.

Your current meeting style might not be healthy for you. If your meetings include donuts, coffee, soft drinks, and bagels, they may spike your blood sugar and then cause it to crash. Are your meetings longer than necessary or are they run without breaks? Or perhaps you are holding the wrong type of meeting for the particular time of day. Consider the logistics of the meeting to see if your meetings actually help or hinder the work of the organization

This article was based with permission on content from the book: “10 Minutes a Week to Great Meetings” and “The Meeting Idea Book.” Springfield Resources, 2013.

Joel Levitt is the director of international projects with Life Cycle Engineering (LCE). He has over 30 years of experience in the maintenance fi    including process control design, source equipment inspection, electrical expertise, fi      service technician, maritime operations, and property management. A recognized expert at training maintenance professionals, Joel has trained more than 17,000 maintenance leaders from 3,000 organizations around the world. You can reach Joel at jlevitt@LCE.com.

Keyless Locking Devices

Historically, Keyless Locking Devices have been seen mostly in Europe, but more and more are making their way across the pond here to the US. Here's a quick video from IDC Select, a great product bringing great value to our customer's in many other product lines, explaining their offerings for this increasingly popular  product. 

Ball Bearing Mounting Methods

There are the four different locking mechanisms for mounted ball bearings - set screw, eccentric locking collar, concentric locking collar, and adapter. PTI shows us in this great video how to install and tighten the bearings, as well as how to maintain them once installed. 

How To: Install Jaw Coupling

The three jaw coupling is one of the most common methods of shaft coupling that we see here at Akron Bearing. Our friends at TB Wood's have made this great video showing us the best way to install them. Take a look and feel free to let us know any tricks of the trade that you have found useful too!

American Pride

I just wanted to show off our brand new addition to the landscape here at Akron Bearing.  Come on by and wave to Old Glory, flying proudly above our front entrance. 

A very special thanks to DJ and Jake for installing the the flag pole. Looks great, and (mostly) straight!

And a sincere apology to the duck family living under the bush we had to remove. 

Custom Product Design from PTI

A Case Study:

New Housing Created for OEM of Commercial Drying Equipment

BACKGROUND

A large, US-based OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) supplies drying equipment for commercial use. Their products include machines such as industrial grade large capacity dryers, coin operated dryers, and drying cabinets. 

THE CHALLENGE

The OEM discovered the bearings of their drive motors were overloaded and prone to premature failure. While needing a very light swivel fit for the bearing within the  housing during installation, the customer also wanted the ability to lock the bearing down in the housing after motor and drive components were aligned and installed. Ultimately, they wanted a new adjustable clamp type housing.

THE SOLUTION

PTI’s Engineering Team worked with the customer to understand and analyze the application needs.
 

PTI started with an existing OWFK housing...

...And made modifications to create the clamping concept. Prototype testing proved to be effective.

PTI printed and shipped a 3D model to the customer for concept validation. The customer tested the new housing for fit and function.

Once the model was approved by the customer, PTI’s Engineering Team created a mold from the model drawing for a formal cast iron housing for production.

THE RESULT

This new housing allowed all drive components to be aligned and installed first, then the bearings could be clamped into position. Due to the lube-for-life feature desired by the customer, PTI recommended a 60% lube fill to allow as much lube for the best possible service life. The project length from initial contact to completed production units took less than three months.

 

PTI’S ABILITY

By utilizing PTI’s engineering capabilities, customers benefit from dedicated, knowledgeable and creative problem solving even under very compressed time frames. PTI remains committed to cutting-edge engineering capabilities and top-notch customer service.

 

Power Twist Belting

One of my favorite products is the Power Twist belting. This is one of most versatile products we have, and can be a true life-saver. Check out this video and see just how easy is to use. And if you're intregued, come on down to Akron Bearing and we'd be happy to talk more about the benefits. We'll even sell you most sizes per foot so you get what you need and you get it now. 

Strive for perfection

10 steps to establish best practices in maintenance management

Establishing best practices in production maintenance is an achievable goal. But it’s a goal that many talk about but few achieve. So why is it so difficult? And, why are so many manufacturers still running at over 90 percent reactive?

Many blame it on the age of their manufacturing assets and the repairs they require. More blame goes to not stocking the critical (and expensive) spares needed to sustain production. And still more can be blamed on today’s fast-paced manufacturing that doesn’t allow for proper planning or time management.

Rather than play the “blame” game, what steps can be taken to proactively reach world-class maintenance in this reactive environment? Here is what I would propose:

1. The first step of any journey to best practices is to gather as much data as possible on machine downtime, meantime-between-failure, parts spend, tech utilization, technician response time and percentage of deliveries made on time. With this, you can begin to calculate the average cost of one hour of downtime.
2. Given your estimate on the average cost of one hour of downtime, you can then begin to measure the effect of maintenance on production. By making some simple assumptions (based on the cost of one hour of downtime), how much would an improvement of only five percent in machine availability be worth to your operation? Although it seems like a small amount, a five percent improvement can provide remarkable results.
3. Now look through the variables in your operation. How much more savings would be possible by initiating a plan for critical spares? What effect would an increased response time have on providing more machine availability? How would a work order system improve uptime?
4. As you analyze these variables, you will start to see opportunities to add more value. Now it’s time to invest. Adding a Computerized Maintenance Monitoring System (CMMS) could have a monumental effect on virtually all your variables. That’s because a CMMS system could provide work order information, it could also increase technician response time, which lowers your mean time to repair and reduces the amount of downtime.
5. After inputting work orders through the CMMS, every manufacturing asset in your operation is shown at the touch of a computer screen. Critical parts and spares can be tracked. Preventative maintenance (PMs) can be scheduled and checklists generated.
6. Moving from reactive requires planning for your technician’s time as well as planning for having the right part at the right time. That’s why introducing a scheduler planning function can be one more way to drive out downtime by maximizing machine PMs.
7. So now we are moving from a reactive model to a more proactive model. But where do we go next? Welcome to predictive tools. Along with a good PM checklist, it’s important to develop a predictive PM checklist as well. Electrical equipment should have a thermography PM included to look for overheating issues. Rotating equipment should be scheduled for vibration analysis. And airlines need ultrasound scanning for air leaks.
8. So where do we go after predictive? Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) takes the maintenance to the next level by involving the operator. No one knows the day-to-day operation of a manufacturing asset better than the operator. So why not provide some simple ways that the operator can assist with maintenance. These could be as simple as installing sight gauges to monitor fluid levels or cleaning and repainting the asset to make leaks or malfunction more visible.
9. Now we are on the road to reliability. Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) puts it all together. Through this concept, your operations become more experiential. Individual machines are no longer brought down for scheduled PMs on a scheduled basis. Rather, they are run to the threshold of failure to assure the most productivity possible. In some cases, run to failure is permitted based on cost and mean time to repair.
10. Moving the needle from reactive maintenance to best practices in maintenance takes time, a complete cultural shift and talented maintenance technicians. And, with today’s skilled labor shortage, finding and retaining skilled technicians can be difficult. So it is conceivable that you might need help from a third party – not only to find talented technicians – but help to establish the proper metrics and processes within your operation. To find the right third-party provider, don’t be afraid to reach out to that provider’s customers and ask the tough questions that only a customer can answer. Next, congratulate yourself for starting this journey to Lean maintenance. It’s an investment that will pay handsome dividends for years to come.

Jeffrey Owens is president and chief operating officer of Advanced Technology Services (ATS).

Headquartered in Peoria, Ill., ATS makes businesses run better by improving the productivity and profitability of the world’s most respected companies.
Visit www.AdvancedTech.com to learn more.

How to: Install a Falk Gear Coupling

Here's a great video from our friends at Rexnord, showing us the best way to install a gear coupling. Check it out!