More CO2 that causes global warming  is good for trees but bad for the inhabitants of wetlands. The trade-off  is that more oxygen will be released,which is good for  our growing human population and other creatures.How do we get back to a harmonious balance? Do we need to correct the situation or could it be a normal  cycle that would correct itself (as skeptics say)?
that existed before.

Read and decide for yourself.

Global warming good for trees, bad for ducks: studies

AFP/File – The sun peaks through a canopy of trees in Shenandoah Park, Virginia in 2008. Global warming is good …

by Karin Zeitvogel Karin Zeitvogel – Wed Feb 3, 12:23 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Global warming is good news for trees, which are thriving in higher temperatures and longer growing seasons, but bad news for ducks and other waterfowl, whose wetland habitat may dry up and disappear, two studies show.

A study by researchers at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) in Maryland indicates that higher temperatures, longer growing seasons and increased levels of carbon dioxide brought by climate change are helping trees in temperate climates to grow faster.

The researchers studied data on how many trees there were in 55 forests in the eastern United States during a 22-year period, as well as 100 years of local weather measurements and 17 years of carbon dioxide measurements.

Their findings, which were published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) show that recent tree growth “greatly exceeded the expected growth,” and they hypothesized that the spurt was due to climate change.

“Increases in temperature, growing season and atmospheric CO2 have documented influences on tree physiology, metabolism and growth and likely they are critical to changing the rate of … growth observed,” says the study.

Rising temperatures have increased the metabolic processes of trees and extended their growing season, while higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could be spurring tree growth through carbon fertilization, the study says.

But for ducks and other waterfowl, rising temperatures are bad news, according to a separate study conducted by researchers from the US Geological Survey and South Dakota State University and published this week in the journal BioScience.

That study found that the prairie wetlands that stretch across five north-central US states and into Canada, where numerous species of duck, waterfowl and amphibians feed, breed and shelter, could dry up if temperatures rise by four degrees Celsius.

A model developed by the researchers to try to understand the impact of a warmer climate on the wetlands projected major reductions in water volume, a shortening of the time water stays in the wetlands, and changes to vegetation in the vast area, which reaches across North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Montana and Iowa and into Canada.

If temperatures rise by four degrees Celsius, parts of the North American prairie will become too dry for waterfowl and other parts will have too few functional wetlands and nesting habitat to support historical levels of wetland species, W. Carter Johnson, one of the authors of the study, said.

Wetland species need a minimum amount of time in water to complete their life cycles. Mallards, for example, need at least 80 days of surface water for their young to grow and be able to fly and for breeding adult ducks to molt, or grow new feathers.

“The prairie wetlands are highly vulnerable to climate warming and less resilient than we previously believed. It’s difficult to imagine how to maintain today’s level of waterfowl populations in altered climate conditions,” study author Glenn Guntenspergen of the US Geological Survey.

An auxiliary transmission fluid cooler is easy to install and can substantially lower fluid operating temperatures. The plate/fin type cooler is somewhat more efficient than the tube and fin design, but either can lower fluid temperatures anywhere from 80 to 140 degrees when installed in series with the stock unit. Typical cooling efficiencies run in the 35 to 50% range.

Vehicles that are used for towing, pulling long hills, operated in high temperature climates, hauling heavy loads or constantly in stop-and-go traffic should be considered for auxiliary cooling units. Keeping transmission fluid at lower temperature increases the life of the lubricant and hence protecting the transmission. See the article on this site titled “Why Automatic Transmission Fluid (ATF) Wears Out” for a detailed explanation of the life expectancy based on temperature of the fluid.

Yesterday a helicopter lost control and plummeted into the tarmac of Puerto’s harbour side car park scattering pieces of shattered blades during the air display which marks the end of the July Fiestas.

Thankfully, it was only a model copter and the only injury was to the pride of the pilot who had been doing a grand job until the disastrous moment which raised what I thought was an insensitive cheer from the crowd.

That would be at least a €100 fine for anyone else!

Half an hour later the Guardia Civil sent bits of the lighthouse the same way as they attempted to set the runner of their very real helicopter on its top and very nearly sent the satellite dish flying. I’m sure I can’t have been the only one to consider the irony of such a blunder by the island’s traffic cops. To be fair, it was a freak gust of wind that sent the runner awry and they’d already wowed the crowds with their prowess beneath the blades in a series of awesome manoevres. Still, I trust a ticket was forthcoming.

Hordes of residents and visitors braved the excessive temperatures yesterday to enjoy the free air show, filling the stands and swarming the hillock beside the car park like ants on a termite mound. They were rewarded with demonstrations by the archipelago’s air rescue and firefighting services and a display of freefall parachutists, one of whom resembled a flying squirrel in his special suit as he glided to within what felt like death distance before pulling the chord on his chute.

The Canarian rescue services are often unsung heroes

Jack and I positioned ourselves on a small mound right behind the VIP grandstand with its top brass audience. With the mercury pushing 35 degrees Celsius we watched a staged land to air rescue and gallons of water dropped from the basket of a twin bladed copter which just the day before we’d watched doing it for real in the hills above El Tanque where a forest fire had clearly broken out in the tinderbox conditions.

Then half a dozen uniformed officers left the stand and disappeared, at which point the demonstrations ground to a seemingly inexplicable halt for the best part of half an hour while audiences broiled. That’s when the tragic accident befell the model helicopter whose pilot had stepped into the breach to keep the crowds amused.
Eventually the VIP guests returned and the show was able to resume. I do hope their view wasn’t too spoiled by the ambulance removing the heat exhaustion victim right in front of them.

The day before we'd seen this in action for real

But imminent sunstroke or not, we weren’t leaving until we’d seen the finale. A Hornet jet fighter appeared over the sea on the horizon, shimmering in the heat haze, and screamed towards the crowd in a supersonic series of manoevres that sent pulses and testosterone levels rising; an effect earlier achieved by the appearance of two rather sassy looking female army officers in extremely tight skirts and rather fetching berets.
“It’s not in the slightest bit like the British army’s female uniform,” remarked Jack, his camera lens following their hips like a guided missile to its target.

All in all, a rather splendid day and a fitting end to a month long fest of fun. Well done, Puerto!

This is why Al Gore and the enviro-Nazis were rushing to get cap-and-tax or some other global warming/climate change laws passed.  Scientists KNOW that we are not having a MEASURABLE effect on the weather or climate.  They have known for a long time that the earth goes through periods of warming and cooling.  The enviro-nuts were screaming “warming” up until about two years ago, and a few that didn’t get the memo still are.  Now the appropriate mantra is “climate change.”  They couldn’t get their laws passed before the earth started cooling again, so they changed the name of their cause.  Their TRUE cause is POWER and CONTROL over YOU and YOUR MONEY.

This rush to pass things before anyone can take a real look at what’s going on should sound really familiar.  B-HO and the liberals screaming “if we don’t pass this stimulus, unemployment will reach 9%,” or “millions of people are uninsured, so if we don’t pass this health care reform they’re all going to die.”  Just like the non-stimulus package, they are trying to ram a political payback and power grabbing package down our throats before we get wind of what they are really doing.  It’s the liberal laundry cycle again: Scare, Tax, Spend, Repeat.

UPDATE: It’s not just the surface land temps — Blog reader Tim points out “Water temps at Frying Pan Shoals (off Cape Fear) fell to 78 degrees a few days ago; NDBC historical data shows this occurs only 0.3% of the time in July!” Here’s a look at the weekly departure from normal sea-surface temperatures:

This is not the case away from the Carolina coast; most of the Atlantic that we would be concerned with for Hurricane season is normal or slightly above normal – there are other factors keeping that activity down.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Here are some stats and maps regarding the unusually cold July that is happening over a large portion of the U.S., especially the Northeast quadrant (yes, it’s been unusually hot in the SW, see below). Note: Since I am on vacation at the end of the month, I will not be able to update these but AccuWeather.com will be running news articles about how cool July was in these areas, come the first week in August.

First, some stats. 1,044 daily record low temperatures have been broken this month nationwide according to NCDC — count record “low highs” and the number increases to 2,925, surely to pass 3,000 before the end of the month. Some thoughts on the ‘low highs” below.*

The period of July 17-20 was the worst, with over 1,600 stations breaking records. It’s worth noting that these stats include all records across the nation. Of the record lows, through July 20th (thanks to William Schmitz @ SERCC, check out their Twitter Feed), this was the regional breakdown:

Nationwide: 966
Southeast (AL/GA/FL/NC/SC/VA): 248
Northeast (MD/DE/PA/NJ/NY/CT/RI/MA/NH/VT/ME): 193

Next, a map of the Departure from Average temperatures so far in July (yes, we have one week left). Yes, that’s a “-10.0″ in Pennsylvania – double digit deficits over a month are rare indeed. Note that there are no positive numbers.

Even if you zoom out to the U.S. you’ll see the majority of stations are reporting departures below normal thus far — only Arizona, New Mexico and Texas have all stations reporting above normal.

The lowest temperatures of the month are also impressive, with 50s in every state and 40s in most, some 30s. Normally temperatures are peaking in July.

And finally I’ll repeat this map which shows the lack of 85-degree days in the Northeast through July 20th. Note that the Northern Plains are not immune from the chilly weather either; Mark Vogan says that Minneapolis hasn’t failed to hit 90 in the last 15 years. (Mark has some other good stats too).

*I was especially impressed by the latter stat and I think it speaks more to the cool summer people have been experiencing – more people are out and about during the peak of the day then they are early in the morning, so they see that the temperatures in the middle of the afternoon are much lower than they should be this time of year. For perception, this may be even more important than morning lows.

The days here in the San Joaquin Valley have been hot for the past week–over 100 every day, and closer to 108 on some.  I keep the yards well watered so the neighborhood critters will have a cool place to rest in the afternoons.

I am so thankful for air conditioning in our house, and lots of shade covering the rooftop, so that I can stay comfortable on these scorchers.  What did people do before air conditioning?

Al Capone tucked away on the concrete patio.

Although I do not “own” this cat, he hangs out in our yard most of the time, especially on these hot days.

Lilly is the neighbor’s cat, but she likes our yard because it’s quiet and cool.  Her owners have dogs.

One of my squirrel buddies

This is one of the many squirrels who come through our yard, eat the nuts I put in the tree, and sometimes hang out for awhile, especially on a hot summer afternoon.

Temperatures are predicted to soar in London this week. As the mercury climbs higher no doubt it will be accompanied by louder claims that this is the product of global warming and human irresponsibility towards the environment. To digress a little, I was at the Neil Young concert in Hyde Park on Saturday when he played one of his dreadful odes to Mother Earth and how we are raping it etc. I looked around and the crowd, up until then excited by Young’s fantastic guitar playing, suddenly resembled a funeral party. Indeed, when I started to discuss this with my wife I was told to hush by someone close by.

This quasi religious approach to all things environmental typifies what is wrong with the climate change discussion. As Joe Kaplinsky and James Woudhuysen argue in their very good book Energise – A Future For Energy Innovation, insofar as there is a problem with human created climate change it needs to be tackled through a concerted programme of  energy innovation.  In other words it  should be a scientific and technological issue rather than a moral or political one.

The problem with discussing this issue at all is that climate change has become so politicised  that it is hard, as a rational person, to distinguish good science from green-led proselytising and moral blackmail.  It is also right to feel sceptical about a subject where nay sayers are accused of being ‘in denial’ and compared with war criminals.  

Nevertheless we have to assume that many of the scientists involved in this area are basing their concerns on good observations and proper scientific methodology. To do otherwise risks falling into the anti-science camp which doubts and questions all scientific progress. As Rob Clowes pointed out recently, were all the climate science to be proved wrong it would be the biggest failure of science since Lysenko.

However, given that climate change has been politicised, we have to challenge the anti-growth sentiments which lie behind it. The extent to which climate change is man made and can be reversed remains an open question. What we do have to insist on is that collectively humanity requires far more energy in order to have a good quality of life. This requires an open minded approach to energy innovation and far more resources put into all types of energy development. It requires an emphasis on economic growth to pay for it and a challenge to anybody who wishes to limit the types of energy that are developed on the basis that they change the world around us.

I swear I if hear “beat the heat” one more time, I will hurl my body on the floor, flop like a fish and soil myself. Go ahead. Say it. I dare you.

Too many of you act as if the sun will cause your skin to blister in 60 seconds, make your Lawn Boy explode, and chaos will hit the streets as a sun-induced frenzy causes us to pillage the town and rape our virgins.

I know the rules: drink plenty of water, wear light clothing and avoid the outdoors at all cost, but I think I have a real solution.  It’s called stop being a pussy.

We’ve survived millions of years with the heat, and we’ll survive millions more. Blue-collar workers deal with this all summer. They get hot. They drink water. They survive. It’s the white-collars workers who whine about the heat. Ahhh, the poor man in a business suit that has to walk 20 feet from his air-conditioned car to the air-conditioned building. I hope he can survive two minutes outdoors.

It’s tragic when a white-collar worker has to dab a little sweat off his forehead and carry a melted Starbucks Iced Caffé Mocha into the office. The suffering, oh the suffering. You want to know real suffering? Try a heat rash from the sweaty groin of a blue-collared worker. That’s some serious rank on a hot summer day.

The next time someone complains to you about the heat and you’re a blue-collar worker, take off your pants and let the boys roam. They may not feel better, but at least you will.

Devastated local fauna

Strange things happened yesterday. The first was the temperatures were in the 70° F range. This is unheard of in April, especially after last month and the first part of this month were so cold. It’s been hell on some of the local fauna, as you can see in the picture. The Boyo and I had to put them out of their misery. It was past their prime, anyway.

Then a really sucky thing happened. My vacuum cleaner quit. Well,

This really sucks!

paused anyway, because the filter was dirty. I washed the filter, but I still had paper shreds all over the floor. When he came over, The Boyo noted my problem, and offered to bring up his new toy. A gigantic shopvac. And oh my, did that thing ever suck. It picked up all the paper shreds. However, The Boyo nearly lost something near and dear to him when he tried to goose me with it. Now that really sucked.

In addition, I seem to have found another way to pimp my blog and get more hits. I noticed that the day after I blogged about my miseries with SHA, I had more hits than I’d had in one day all year. This is not how I envisioned my blogging career. It got more hits than the post with the breastages of myself and Daisy Fae. That’s scary. It’s also scary that now SHA knows where I live in the blogosphere, and I can’t complain anonymously anymore. Darn.

After exciting Southbound Interstate 5 this morning at 12:18 a.m. I noticed the temperature indicator in my car displayed 89 degrees (Fahrenheit). I was coming home from the DeVry University center in Bakersfield where I just wrapped up another successful 8-week session. 

This experience reminded me of a time when I drove into Scottsdale, Arizona for a Theta Chi Fraternity convention at about the same time of day in August (roughly 14 years ago) when it was 101 degrees. Similarly, in the summer of 1990 I traveled around Israel for six weeks so I’ve experienced real heat — including a stop in Eilat, a beach city in the southernmost point of Israel where it meets the Red Sea, when it was easily 110 at 9 a.m. 

Certainly there are hotter places in the world, but it has still been just unbearable in the Santa Clarita Valley these past few days. Temperatures are expected to reach upwards of 107 degrees today and if it is 89 degrees this early in the morning, I can only imagine how hot it will be in just a few hours.

Thank God for air conditioning!

SITUATIONAL RESPONSE TRAINING; Responding To Heat Related Emergencies www.privateofficer.com

Procedures For Removing Children Or Animals From Vehicles Due To Heat

Atlanta GA. June 11 2008

BY: Rick McCann
Executive Director
National Association of Private Officers

As private officers assigned to many publicly accessed areas such as malls and shopping centers, apartment and condominium complexes, parks, schools and an array of other properties where we have constant contact with people, WE ARE FIRST RESPONDERS!
Long before the police or firefighters or emergency medical personnel respond to a situation, nine times out of ten we’re already there and we need to know the right and the legal way to handle a situation.
“Situational Response” is a course that we teach that covers a large and varied list of possible situations that you might be faced with as a private officer.

HEAT EMERGENCIES is one of them. Today is just the eleventh day of June and already in the southeast region we have been faced with temperatures as high as 100 degrees with a heat index in some places as high as 115 degrees. That’s hot and it’s very dangerous for babies, small children, the elderly and our pets.
You don’t need to be a paramedic to realize that if someone is sitting in a vehicle with the sun shining down and all of the windows closed or nearly closed with an outdoor temperature of 90-100 degrees, the inside of the car is baking with temperatures near 120-130 degrees in some cases!

So, let’s say that you’re patrolling the parking lot of a shopping center or mall and come upon a vehicle as I just described with an infant in their car seat, doors on the car are locked, windows barely open and there is no adult in the vehicle.
What do you do? Begin smashing out windows?
NO!

Regardless if your employer or client wants you to be proactive or reactive (email me if you don’t know the difference) in your duties, there will always be situations that will dictate that you respond in a manner that you think is best at the time to save a life or protect someone or do the job in a way that serves everyone as a whole better.

Heat Emergencies is one of those times. Am I telling you to disobey your boss? YES! Absolutely!
As long as you take the appropriate actions for each situation and do it in a professional, thoughtful and educated manner, I have no problem with your actions at all!

In a situation as I have listed above, you want to take several things into consideration before busting out windows.

A. Have some idea of the exterior temperature. The urgency of the situation will be much different if it’s 70 degrees or 90 degrees outside. So this is important to know as best as possible without running to find a temperature gauge.

B. Consider who the occupant of the vehicle is. If it’s a child 1 month to 4 years old, the danger factor for them will be higher than a child of 6 or 7 years old. The older child may also be able to open the vehicle door for you and thus avoiding any damage to the vehicle. Which by the way should not be considered in a dyer and urgent situation.

C. If you have a small child in the vehicle observe for signs of distress such as sweat dripping from forehead or face, labored breathing or signs that the child is semi or fully unconscious. If it is a pet, observe for panting, pawing at windows, doors etc or signs of being unresponsive or unconscious.

D. By touching the windows and hood of the vehicle you can get an idea of how long the vehicle has been parked in direct sunlight and how hot it may be inside the vehicle. By touching the hood and grill area you can also determine by the heat coming from the engine compartment how long the vehicle has been parked at that location. The hotter the engine the more recent it was parked there.

E. If you have checked the area for the parents or driver of the vehicle and can’t locate them or if you don’t have the time to go that route, determine if it is necessary to make entry into the vehicle right now or could you wait 10 minutes, 15 minutes or longer.

F. If you must break into the vehicle to extricate a child or pet, call 911 and get the police and medics responding or have someone else do it.

G. If possible, before you break windows or slimjim the door, try to have a witness and have that person write a short statement after the child or pet is out and safe. Attach their statement to your incident report should the owner or the police question your actions or try to sue you.

H. If the parent or driver comes back before the police arrive and you have intentions of making a citizens arrest or filing a complaint against them for child endangerment or pet abuse charges, you can try to detain them by using “minimal means” and try not to escalate the situation until police get there to assist you.

I. Make sure that you collect as many witness statements as possible from everyone and anyone who witnessed anything and even if the driver flees before police arrive, ALWAYS make an incident report with police and encourage them to pursue charges against the driver. All of this will lessen your liability in a civil matter.

J. All of this applies to the elderly as well. The difference will be that they will be able to communicate their needs and wants to you in most cases. In the event that they are ill, intoxicated, not of sound mind or physically not able to respond to you verbally, you should also call for police assistance and use the determining factors as listed above before trying to remove them from the vehicle.

You may find yourself faced with a similar situation but instead of a vehicle, the person or animal may be alone in a hot apartment or home with no air conditioner and no adult supervision present.
In this situation, you must determine the urgency factor before trying to make entry or taking any further steps.
If it’s a child left alone, without question, notify police and they will respond and take the appropriate actions. The same applies for an elderly person or pet.

Don’t take any more risk or raise liability when you don’t have to. If the situation is not absolutely life threatening at this point and 5 or 10 minutes won’t make much of a difference, then call always call the authorities and let them handle it.

The bottom line as with every aspect of our job is to use common sense and act reasonable and don’t overdo things or escalate what they really are. If you’re not sure of what to do, always call 911 and get police and fire and medics rolling your way and let them extricate the person or animal out and this way they assume all liability.

My best advice for you is to always use good judgment, rely on training and call for help in every situation that might require more than what you can offer or are trained to do.

When in doubt, CALL 911 and in doing this, you’ve done your job, you’ve met your employer’s expectations and you have responded to the situation and took steps to get the necessary assistance to address the situation.

If you have any questions, please mail me at rick@privateofficer.com

This training is sponsored by the National Association Of Private Officers and http://www.privateofficer.com/

Copyright 2008

This material may not be copied, distributed, rewritten, printed in any form, or used in any manner without the written consent of the N.A.P.O. All rights reserved.

Dear Ian,

I don’t know if it would be summer without a trip to Buffalo. It’s a reminder of humility when one falls. It always looks like there are whales in the Niagara River. Good ole Nessy.

A few months ago I had a dream we were in your room in your apartment and there were whales swimming in your backyard, then jumping in the air, attempting to throw themselves into the apartment. They were singing, and we were missing a party.

I had a dream last night that an ex-boyfriend of mine was my boyfriend again. I was angry because he was fat and would just lie in bed shirtless watching movies on his laptop. In the dream I drank a glass of Cointreau and ran away.
Have you ever run away? It can take time an elevation. My legs hurt from running. I have been running through your dreams all night. I am tired.

I just remembered that I’d forgotten about bowling. For a month or two, all I wanted to do was get drunk and go bowling, but when the opportunity was there, I’d be too lazy to leave home. Tonight I hope to drink mojitos and margaritas although at the moment I’m not so excited about it.

When the temperature is high, where do you go? When the high temperature goes, what are you?

A backhoe digging through a pile of shovels.

Juxtapose.

Your friend,

Sharon

If someone were to ask you which state, Alaska or Hawaii, you thought had a higher record temperature, what would you say?

If you picked Hawaii, you’re wrong.

If you picked Alaska, well you’re wrong as well.

The two states share the same record high at 100° F. Read why here.

How many people really understand a Planetary Gear set, how it works, it’s use, and versatility in the market place?  The planetary gear set is one of the most amazing inventions used in our industrial society!  It’s use is all around us and we don’t even realize it.  Without it, we wouldn’t have all the luxuries and manufacturing processes that we have today…

Well, what is the darn thing?

A planetary gear set is gear assembly that consists of 3 primary components.  A Ring Gear (the outer most gear), 3 planetary gears that are housed by a Planetary Carrier assembly (the middle gears), and a Sun Gear (the gear in the center of the gear set.   All three gear sets are splined in order to connect or mate to a band, clutch, and/or splined to the main shaft.  Through an intricate collage of these various types of connections and brakes, various components of the planetary gear set can be allowed to spin free, be held, or transmit applied power or torque to an output member – commonly referred to as the transmission assembly or power plant.  The bands or brakes can be applied in several ways such as Hydraulics, centrifugal clutches, electronics, servos, etc., and can be done automatically or manually.

Below is an example of a Simple Planetary gear set.

With this Simple Planetary gear set, there are “7″ gear possibilities (8 if you count neutral) in a Simple Planetary Gear Set (meaning only 1 planetary gear set).  Although technically you can have seven gear possibilities, typically only “4″ gears are commonly used due to how the planetary gear components are applied for output.

Below is  chart that shows the seven possible gear ranges in a simple planetary gear set.  Note that if any “two” gears are held together in a planetary gear set, the result is a 1:1 gear ratio applied to the output.

  Click on chart to view

To show you how old and amazing a Simple Planetary gear set is, take a look at this next example – I’m sure we’ve all seen, used, maintained and repaired this next gear set…  An old fashion Pencil Sharpener.

Now that we have discussed a simple planetary gear set, lets discuss the more typical and common use of planetary gear sets.  If you apply two or more gears sets together, sharing a common member between one output as the input for the next, you now have a compound planetary gear set.  By combining two or more gear sets with varying gear sizes and tooth counts, you can create a multitude of gears and gear ratios.  Thus the typical Automotive automatic transmission.  A typical Automatic transmissions use three or more planetary gears sets to achieve the desired gears and ratio results for output members.

However, simple and compound planetary gear sets are not limited to the automotive industry.  They are commonly used throughout manufacturing and in the general market for common household items – you’ve just never looked inside of it to realize it…  In manufacturing, they are used in many of the industrial machines to provide quite, quick, and multiple gear ranges.  There are also many mini gear sets used in many house hold tools and appliances.

Below is one of the most amazing uses of a mini compound planetary gear sets.  A Rechargeable Drill Motor or Screw Driver.  You ever wondered as to when you screw or drill into a hard substance that the drill motor or screw driver slows down and increases torque in order to get the job done, and speed up with less torque when it’s smooth sailing.  This is done with a friction type of clutch that applies or free up members of the compound planetary gear set for gear reduction, one-to-one or over-drive if necessary – not to mention reverse when then reverse switch is applied.

Planetary gear sets is very old technology, but still widely used in a versatile market of products.  One of the most cost effective methods of manufacturing these gear sets is through a process called Powdered Metallurgy.  A leading manufacturer in this process is Fansteel-AST.

The next time you use a rechargeable screw driver, see if you can notice the smoothness and multitude of gear ratios used when drilling or screwing.  It’s truly amazing!

- Jack Miller (Click to View Business Card)

OK Transmission Techies, remember the old days when you disassembled a clutch pack or planetary gear set and sliced up your hands on a clutch pack housing, disc, or planetary carrier assembly?  Many of these components were stamped, cast or machined steel and commonly lacked the deburing and finishing processes needed in order to reduce process costs.  Well those days are diminishing…  Why?

Many transmission component manufacturing is going to a process called P/M (Powder Metallurgy).  This is a process where ferrous and non-ferrous metals and alloys are in a powdered form.  These powders are then fed into a die, and then pressed into shape.  The part is now ejected out and sent through a sintering furnace where the part is hardened.  Unless a resizing or finishing process is needed, basically you now have a net-shape or near net-shape part.  The first part is basically a duplicate of the last part…

What types of transmission parts are manufacturered with P/M?

• Torque Converters
  • Turbine Hubs
  • Stators
  • One way clutches
• Pump Systems
  • Gear Pumps
  • Gerotor Pumps
  • Vane pumps
• Clutches
  • Clutch plates
  • One-way clutches
  • Clutch Hubs
• Gears and Drive
  • Planetary Carrier and Gears
  • Drive & Driven Sprockets
  • Output Flange Hubs
• Speed sensors (Alloy Portion)

Not to mention many other small parts that can be produced by P/M.

What are the advantages of P/M?

P/M is Versatile: The basic versatility of P/M is applied in numerous industries including automotive, business machines, electronics, small and major appliances, agricultural and garden equipment, hand and power tools, recreational vehicles and heavy truck. Thousands of different cost saving, reliable P/M designs now serve these industries in a wide range of engineering applications. 

P/M components have become far more stable than in the past and is becoming more cost effective in automatic transmission production, and yet provides net-shape green parts.  No burrs, no contaminating flashings that block screens, ports and shift valves, pre chamfered, aids in lubrication to friction plates, pretty much a perfect part every time.  A leading manufacturer of P/M technology is Fansteel-AST.  When producing high volume parts, P/M is the best choice.

 If you have further questions regarding P/M, feel free to contact me.

- Jack Miller (Click to View Business Card)

How many times have you got into a vehicle and looked at the shift boot and said to yourself “is it leather?”  There have been many design and process changes from real sewn leather, to Rubber.  This article will explain why many manufacturers are going to rubber Shift Boots as well as many other components.

Although leather looks and smells nice, especially if you are a leather lover like me, it has many properties that are not the best choice for today’s customer demands.  Customer satisfaction and NVH (Noise/Vibration/Harshness) concerns have been a primary focus for the past decade.  Customers expect a Sherman tank to drive quiet and smooth like a Cadillac – thus the Hummer…

One primary port of entry for related Power-train noise and Transmitted Resonance Frequencies is the shift boot.  Leather boots have many porous entries for NVH.  They are sewn and the stitching holes provide an entry as well the shaft seal and base mount.  Costly additional processes are required to add further sound deadening substances to the shift boot assembly – which typically include foam, rubber, and plastic fillers.  All-in-all, Leather just does not provide good sound deadening properties and is very costly to produce due to the multiple processes and materials required to make the part.

Rubber, on the other hand has many advantages in production that is a significant cost reduction, provides excellent NVH properties, meets Lean Six Sigma and Continuous Improvement requirements, and commonly only requires one or two processes and materials to produce.  Why and how is this possible?

One of the Leaders in manufacturing rubber shift boots is a company located in Deckerville, MI called Midwest Rubber Company.  They are pioneers of many new rubber manufacturing processes for the Automotive Industry and have been doing this for over 60 years.  Their innovative designs and processes provide reduced manufacturing costs with significant savings – commonly %10 to 40% cost reduction compared to conventional processes.

Rubber has excellent sound deadening properties for shift boots.  There is virtually no porosity, it form fits to mating components, flexible for a good base seal, and can be molded to look and feel like Leather.  Yes, it will smell like rubber… 

Real Leather Shift Boot

Rubber Molded Shift Boot

These Shift boots are commonly Roto Molded, as well as other applicable processes, and consist of a variety of elastomers depending on the specific application and resist environmental conditions such as oil, low and high temperatures, water, dust, dirt and ozone.  Many manufacturers are increasing production with the use of these new style of shift boots.  If you have further questions on Rubber Shift boots, you can contact me with the information on the Business Card Below.

- Jack Miller (Click to View Business Card)