Customer Spotlight: Gear Motions
There’s a belief within the Gear Motions walls: there isn't a project they can’t handle. The leading gear manufacturer (supplying custom cut and ground gears to OEMs in all industries and all around the world) is able to meet the stringent quality demands in almost any application and specification.
Across both facilities in Buffalo and Syracuse, New York, Gear Motions produces custom work including precision ground helical gears, spur gears, pump gears, bevel gears and worm gears, as well as multiple types of sprockets, timing pulleys, shafts and splines.
Of course, meeting high demand on a daily basis requires the best people—and the best equipment. For the latter, Gear Motions counts on its relationship with STUDER cylindrical grinding and with UNITED GRINDING North America.
Buffalo’s Best Gear Manufacturing
In January 2023 in Tonawanda, New York (smack dab in the middle of the city of Buffalo and Niagara Falls), a new Gear Motions facility opened up that brought two of the best together. Oliver Gear (founded 1892) and Niagara Gear (founded 1974) joined forces to bring the work they’d been doing for Gear Motions since 2014 under one roof.
High quality parts and high quality work is what Gear Motions Buffalo hangs its hat on—with range and flexibility that’s hard to find elsewhere. “We do 1- and 2-piece orders, but we can also do production orders of a thousand pieces,” said Paul Andruszko, Vice President, Buffalo Operations. “We have the ability to adapt from low volume to medium to high volume. Very high mix.”
“A customer of ours might have 300 different part numbers. A lot of mix in that customer profile,” said Dean Burrows, President and CEO, Gear Motions. “The ability for us to handle all of it from here in Buffalo sets us apart.”
To handle the range of parts, Gear Motions has new gear grinders that go all the way up to 550 mm. And now we’ve arrived at where UNITED GRINDING North America—and the STUDER S151 cylindrical grinding machine—enters the Gear Motions story.
Incomparable Internal Cylindrical Grinding
That’s the promise of the STUDER S131/S141/S151 family, capable of mastering any challenge thrown their way. Untouchable STUDER precision is delivered thanks to the famous Granitan® machine bed and StuderGuide® guideway system.
The S151 is the largest in the family, boasting that 550 mm swing diameter Gear Motions needed. In addition, it brings a 700 mm or 1300 mm max. workpiece length, 390 mm internal grinding length and 250 kg max. workpiece weight.
“The journey that eventually led us to this machine started in 2019,” Andruszko said. “We were looking at several OEMs knowing that we needed additional capacity. We got quotes from Ryan Michels (Regional Sales Manager, UNITED GRINDING North America) and Kevin McCarthy (President, Syracuse Supply) for the S121 and S131 back then.”
“What we liked about UNITED GRINDING was the quality name, and the quality and versatility of the machines,” he continued. “It wasn’t until 2022 that the STUDER S151 was identified. It was initially out of our price range, but this machine would be fully rebuilt, making it a perfect match. It really had everything on our wish list.”
The STUDER S151 Difference
The Gear Motions team was trained by UNITED GRINDING North America Customer Care. Soon after, they were off to the races. “Overall, the S151 is great. Much easier to set up than our previous CNC,” said Mark Malysza, Lead Machinist,- Cylindrical Grinding, at the Buffalo facility. “Once you assign a wheel to a quill and touch it off, it saves in the tool library. So any time you take that tool off, it goes right back to where it was when it returns.”
And speaking of wheels, Malysza has noticed significant savings on that side of the operation. “Since we got the machine, we haven’t called in any additional wheels,” he continued. “We’re saving a lot of money on wheels and dressing. You just dress it real quick and you’re ready to go.”
“The S151 has been holding size well for us,” Andruszko said. “A significant focus for us is grinding downstream for the gear grinder. If you don’t have proper squareness in the bore, you’re going to get some gear lead wobble. But with multiple spindles on the S151 grinding bore and face simultaneously, we’re holding very tight perpendicularity tolerances. I’m talking a tenth or less, which is significant in the gear business.”
Cycle Times and Other Benefits
Gear Motions has seen cycle time savings with the STUDER S151 on the floor, which Burrows estimates at an average of around 20%. In addition, the new machine has unlocked welcome efficiency and process improvements. “With the S151, we’ve addressed a bottleneck in our production that has limited our ability to provide product to our gear grinding operations,” Andruszko said.
“That bottleneck is gone, and we’re getting more product through our system now. In order to be able to feed our two highly productive automated gear grinders, the cylindrical grinding now on our floor allows us to provide that throughput.”
Burrows concurred, and he spoke about the benefit of unifying the platform across multiple locations. “We intentionally moved to a common platform with our Syracuse locations to allow us STUDER gear grinding symmetry,” he said. “Having the same equipment and processes eliminates redundancy for our customers and lets us easily move product between facilities.”
Ready for the Future of Skilled (or Unskilled) Labor
Gear Motions has an institutional knowledge story that will be familiar to many manufacturers: five employees have over 40 years tenure at the company. When they leave, all of their knowledge leaves with them. So it was vital for Gear Motions to find a cylindrical grinding partner that closed the knowledge gap.
“Simplicity is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s a requirement,” Burrows said. “The STUDER interface is excellent, and it allows someone without programming knowledge to interact with it. If you have a little ability and a good mentor, you can go a long way.”
It’s thanks to the technology that’s baked into each STUDER machine. “We don’t have to go to a book or a calculator. It’s all there. For someone who might not be as experienced, it’s easier for them to process the information,” Malysza said.
“When we were meeting with Ryan and Andrew (Osborn, National Sales Manager, Cylindrical Division), we had constant interaction to determine which way we would go. In conversations and in pictures and on YouTube, they gave us a good feel for how easy STUDER makes programming.”
The Future of Gear Motions
We asked the Gear Motions team what they would say to someone who is considering a STUDER machine.
“Are they a competitor?” Burrows asked. “Then I’d say don’t buy STUDER.”
“But if they’re not a competitor, just looking at the control, the pictogram, all the different accessories, these things clearly make the machine easier to set up and run. It’s going to let you do most or all of what you want to do. And if you have questions, they will make you feel supported.”
Gear Motions has its eye on growth. On a day-to-day basis, this manifests as a steadfast focus on customers and capabilities. The team expects its business to double in the next five years, which will lead them into new markets and products. The exact path is still undetermined, but there’s some certainty: this will remain a top-tier gear manufacturer that relies on UNITED GRINDING and the North America team.
If you are on the hunt for a precision grinding machine and the support to go with it, do what Gear Motions did. Get in touch with UNITED GRINDING North America and start the conversation.