Southwest Manufacturing News • March 2026

S W SW SOUTHWEST M ANUFACTURING N EWS Serving Since 1965 Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana & New Mexico Feature Editorial Quality Control & Measurement Dual-Method Gauging System Users can select the optimum inspection method to address a variety of needs. See Page 6 Vol. 61 No. 3 March 2026 See Online DIGITAL EDITIONS at www.mfgnewsweb.com Gear Headquarters Accelerates Custom Jobs, Design-2-Part Shows Scales into Production Gear Manufacturing 2026 Schedule team to produce custom gears faster and more reli-ably while bringing higher-volume OEM production in-house. Historically a quick-turn job shop, Gear Headquarters often outsourced higher-vol-ume OEM work. With the Hera 750’s rigidity, speed, and dialog programming, the team now runs those OEM production parts in-house with faster cycles and consistent quality, improv-ing lead times, process con-trol, and margins. This same capability also accelerates custom and emergency replacement jobs. From Job Shop to OEM Production, Fast “We are a specialty gear facility; we Continued on 46 Design-2-Part Trade Shows has an-nounced its upcoming schedule for the 2026 show season. The trade shows con-nect OEM engineers and buyers with American manufacturing experts. Each event offers attendees the opportunity to discover new technologies and processes, compare suppliers in person, and view thousands of sample parts. Spring 2026 show dates: • Atlanta, GA: March 10-ll • Irving, TX: April 1-2 • Secaucus, NJ: April 22-23 • Schaumburg, IL: May 6-7 • Denver, CO: May 20-21 • Novi, MI: June 17-18. Fall 2026 show dates: Continued on Page 46 Material Handling Optimize Workflows Gear Headquarters, a specialty gear facility known for quick-turn break-down and repair services, has installed a Hera 750 CNC gear hobbing machine from Helios Gear Products. The up-grade modernizes the company’s legacy gear cutting operations, enabling the 2025 Orders Beat 2024 in 11 Months New orders of metalworking ma-chinery, measured by the U.S. Manufac-turing Technology Orders Report published by AMT—The Association For Manufacturing Technology, totaled $437.9 million in November 2025. This repre-sented a 19.6% decrease from October 2025 and nearly equaled the orders in No-vember 2024, with a difference of just over $2 million. Machinery orders tracked by USMTO through November 2025 to-taled $4.92 billion, a 17.8% increase over the first 11 months of 2024. End-of-year manufacturing technol-ogy orders tend to increase as firms seek to exhaust capital equipment budgets Continued on Page 46 Steel distributor maximizes storage capacity. See Page 14 OGP Announces Large Capacity SmartScope M130 M-Series Applying Technology New Look at Automation A new technology partnership automates small-to mid-sized shops. See Page 24 Additive Manufacturing Resourceful Production of Large, Complex Components Optical Gaging Products (OGP) of-fers the newest addition to the next evo-lution of SmartScope 3D Multisensor Metrology systems: SmartScope M130. “For leading manufacturers crafting large, heavy parts, SmartScope M130 ush-ers in the next generation of enhance-ments in image accuracy, optics, and throughput in a new large format 3D mul-tisensor video measurement platform,” said a company spokesperson. Continued on Page 7 Hands-On Experiences, Career Pathways Return to Inspire the Next Generation The Smartforce Student Summit will return to IMTS—The International Man-ufacturing Technology Show Sept. 14-19, 2026, at McCormick Place in Chicago, IL. This will mark the summit’s 14th edition since its launch in 1998. Coproduced for the second time by AMT—The Associa-tion For Manufacturing Technology and SME, the 2026 summit will once again bring together thousands of students, educators, and industry professionals to Continued on Page 46 Reuse powder without compromising quality. See Page 36 People in the News Page 32 Subscription Changes: To make name, address subscription changes contact: • Phone: 800-375-8488 • Fax: 817-488-7813 • E-mail: info@mfgnewsweb.com • www.mfgnewsweb.com Advertiser Index Page 31 Gross Publications, Inc. SOUTHWEST MANUFACTURING NEWS P.O. Box 847 Grapevine, Texas 76099-0847 U.S.A. CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE DALLAS, TX PERMIT 4245 PAID