High Precision Gears
For Demanding Applications
Excellence Without Exception
EXCELLENCE
WITHOUT
EXCEPTION
I
In today’s particularly demanding global gear industries,
producing good gears isn’t good enough. That’s why, at
Forest City Gear, Excellence Without Exception is more than
just a slogan – it’s at the core of everything we do, and has
been for almost 60 years. We simply won’t rest until we’ve
made the best gear possible.
The commitment we make to our customers is made all the
more challenging by the breadth of our customer base, who
come from all corners of the globe, and make everything
from jet turbines to tractors, pumps to power tools, and
medical equipment to the Mars Curiosity Rover. Even our
competitors are customers. So we continuously invest in
one of the most modern and productive gear shops in the
world. After all, Excellence Without Exception is only possible
with the best machines, and skilled people to operate them.
Above all, we’re passionate about the
business we’re in, and the work we
do. We look forward to meeting
the particular challenges of
your next gear project, and
demonstrating the difference
Forest City Gear can make.
Fred Young – CEO
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Stetler and Evelyn Young founded Forest City Gear in 1955
on the simple belief that a small gear shop equipped with
good machines and a ‘family’ of dedicated, hard-working
employees with a passion for making gears could go on
to do great things. Today, almost 60 years later, the same
philosophies continue to serve us, and our customers, well.
We are among the world leaders in the production of fine
and medium pitch custom cylindrical gears. In hundreds of
applications on land, sea and in the air and space, wherever
exceptional performance and reliability are required, you
will find gears made by Forest City Gear hard at work. We
are without equal in combining the most advanced gear
production and inspection technologies with a hard-won
base of knowledge to find better ways to produce our
customers’ gears. Here’s a closer look at our company,
our people, and the work we do for our customers.
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Wendy Young
ON
LAND
F
4
President
They make a great team…While Fred Young works to
find ways to make better gears, Wendy Young works to
build the best possible company. As president, she has
for years been instrumental in continuously
raising the ‘performance bar’ for
employees and vendors alike. She
manages sales, marketing, financial
and legal operations as well. Talk
about multi-tasking: the American
Gear Manufacturers Association
(AGMA) has elected Wendy to a threeyear term on their board of directors.
From motion controls moving packaging to medical devices
pumps, kidney dialysis equipment, CT scanners and artificial
saving lives…race cars traveling 200 miles per hour to tractors
limbs. We’re helping CareFusion meet the critical need for
moving hundreds of tons of earth a day….Around the world
portable, high-performance ventilation, and making it easier
and around the clock, Forest City Gear products are at
to move intensive care patients from location to location,
work, keeping thousands of vehicles, devices, machines,
with gears for its EnVe® ventilator. Extreme miniaturization,
automation and industrial equipment up and running
performance and reliability are built into the blower motor
profitably, reliably and economically. We’re ISO 13485
gears we supply. Wherever high-precision, smooth-running
certified for medical gear work of the type found in blood
dependable gears are needed, you’ll find our products.
Fully 25% to 40% of our gross revenue every year is invested back into highly
productive new equipment, like the Kapp Form Gear and Threaded Grinder shown
above, hard at work producing high precision crankshaft gearing for American Le Mans
(ALMS) series race cars. Below, right, a Gleason ES Shaper produces internal helicals.
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Jared Lyford
AND
AT SEA
S
Production Manager
Jeff Mains
Manufacturing Operations Manager
Jared Lyford and Jeff Mains lead the efforts of an
extraordinarily talented and well-trained team of machine
operators, engineers and technicians.
Under their combined leadership,
our Lean Manufacturing
environment is one of the
most productive and efficient
in our industry, delivering the
highest possible quality
and service levels.
Sailors call the ocean ‘the proving ground’ – because out
Carriage Stream Tow and Recovery System (CSTRS) to quickly
here there’s no room for error. That’s why our titanium winch
raise and lower mine-hunting and destruction equipment.
gears were chosen for the BMW Oracle Racing Team, and
the revolutionary high-performance catamaran that won the
In these and other recreational, sporting, aerospace and
America’s Cup in 2010. It’s why US Navy MH-60S Seahawk
defense applications found out at sea, Forest City Gear is
helicopters patrolling for mines out ahead of surface vessels
helping customers meet their gear challenges – and make
use our high precision gears in a powerful and precise
sure their missions go as planned.
Fully 25% to 40% of our gross revenue every year is invested back into highly
productive new equipment, like the Kapp Form Gear and Threaded Grinder shown
above, hard at work producing high precision crankshaft gearing for LeMans ALMS
series racecars. Below, a Gleason ES Shaper produces internal helicals.
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(Shown above) Bourn & Koch 400H provides plenty of capacity for spline lengths
up to 1,800 mm. Koepfer 300 7-Axis Hobber includes automated loading and a
skiving capability. Pfauter PE 125H is ideal for hobbing gears with high helix angles.
Just three of our more than 20 gear hobbing machines.
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Kika Young
IN
THE AIR
N
No wonder most of the leading commercial and military
aerospace manufacturers and many of their suppliers
have engaged with us on their most challenging and
ambitious gear projects. At Forest City Gear, gear and
spline manufacturing is done under the guidelines of ISO
9001:2008 and Aerospace AS 9100B:2004 Rev C utilizing
the newest equipment, technologies and inspection,
coupled with the continuous education and training of
all our employees. Our gears can be found in the basic
general aviation aircraft systems and support equipment
found in piston powered aircraft, the latest commercial jet
aircraft and next-generation military fighter jets. Whenever
extreme accuracy is required, such as for the main fuel
controls, engine oil pumps and weapons systems, the
aerospace industry turns to Forest City Gear for our
renowned reliability and consistency.
Our gear shaping department is among the most modern and
productive of its kind. Our Gleason 300 and 500 ES Shapers
offer a unique electronic guide capability that allows us to
perform a number of advanced shaping operations more
economically and accurately, including lead crown correction.
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Human Resources Director
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree…
as Human Resources Director and a member of
the 3rd generation of family members helping
manage the company, Kika Young is
instrumental in helping implement
the new technologies, business
models and best practices that
she and her co-workers are
employing today to meet the
challenges of the global market.
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Gene Fann
EVEN IN
SPACE
M
Mission accomplished…In early 2013, NASA’s $2.5 billion
Mars Curiosity Rover became the first robot ever to drill
into the surface of Mars, penetrating into the sedimentary
bedrock to find evidence of wet environmental conditions
many centuries ago. Helping make the mission a success
were over 70 gears produced by Forest City Gear, helping
actuate Curiosity’s mobility systems, and the robotic arm
used to perform the critical drilling operation.
This wasn’t the first time our gears had gone to Mars.
We also produced gears for the highly successful Spirit
and Opportunity Rovers, which landed in 2003 and
operated well beyond their anticipated mission life.
Our gears also are even in use in winches and antenna
drives on the International Space Station.
Höfler Helix 400SK Form Grinder and Drake GS Thread
Grinder (shown above, right) are just two of the advanced
machines in Forest City Gear’s high precision, highly
productive finish grinding department. Combined with
our Kapp and Samputensili grinders, capabilities exist for
internal gear grinding as well, and for workpieces ranging
in size from 15 mm to 550 mm in diameter.
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Gear Technology Manager
Gene has spent the last 27 years at Forest City Gear
helping customers solve their gear challenges – whether
it’s helping uncover new production processes,
recommending changes in design, or finding
ways to improve quality. But it’s not
enough just to find a better way: you
have to be able to produce it. Gene
relies on our fine team of technicians,
the collective expertise of almost
60 years of gear industry experience,
and an exceptional array of technology
tools to help make it happen.
Rustin Mikel
Manager, Corporate Sales and Marketing
Rustin’s extensive manufacturing background at
Forest City Gear gives him unique
insight into the challenges our
customers face – and how Forest
City Gear can apply all of its
resources to meet them. Rustin
combines this experience with
sales management and leadership
training and an infectious
enthusiasm for every project.
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QUALITY,
ABOVE
ALL
M
Meeting the increasingly demanding quality, cost and
throughput requirements of nearly 1,000 customers
worldwide, and hundreds of diverse projects annually,
would not be possible without a massive investment
in what is arguably the best equipped gear laboratory
in the United States. It’s one reason why over 20%
of our customers are other gear manufacturers – and
why we’ve been so successful in reverse engineering
projects, and discovering solutions for design flaws in
existing gearsets.
On any given day, our highly trained quality personnel
use four late-model Klingelnberg and Wenzel analytical
gear checkers, and a Zeiss CMM, for the complete
inspection of all the critical features on internal and
external gears as large as 650 mm in diameter, face
gears, worm and worm wheels, splines, serrations and
threads with various forms.
As many as 25 double flank roll testers check for toothto-tooth composite error, total composite error, runout
and test radius verification against master gears. And
micro-finish is verified on gear teeth, bearing journals
and flat surfaces to even fractional micron levels.
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Dennis Atchley
Quality Assurance Manager
Dennis brings over 35 years of quality management
experience to Forest City Gear, and an intimate familiarity
with ISO 9001, ISO 13485 and AS 9100B quality systems.
His role at Forest City Gear focuses on
employing our quality resources
to help customers meet their
quality challenges, identifying
new opportunities – and raising
awareness of Forest City Gear’s
exceptional capabilities.
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T
ROSCOE
The importance of starting a gear project with high-quality
‘blanks’ can’t be understated. It’s so important, in fact,
that Forest City Gear has launched a new division called
WORKS
Roscoe Works for the production of gear blanks. Roscoe
Works is today operating out of its own highly productive
new turning facility located in close proximity to the main
plant. It gives us complete control over the quality and
delivery of the blanks (and slugs) that are the starting
point for many of the gears we produce. The new facility,
equipped with today’s most advanced lathes and turning
centers, easily meets current capacity requirements,
gives us room to grow – and is a contract resource for
customers seeking a high precision turning capability.
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11715 Main Street, Roscoe, IL 61073
815-623-2168
www.forestcitygear.com • sales@forestcitygear.com