Please tell us a little about your company. How do your offerings support the gear industry?

Dontyne Systems has produced software to design and manufacture gear systems since 2006. The main software package is the Gear Production Suite (GPS), which is a collection of programs of differing functionality and levels to flex to a given requirement.

In 2013 we formed Dontyne Gears to carry out design work, prototyping, and testing programs for our clients as a service. With the resources we have acquired we have been able to undertake various R&D projects of our own. The benefits of these projects are starting to be felt by our clients. We have over 200 customers worldwide, with the UK, Japan, and USA our main markets until now, but India is now on our agenda. We have been involved in R&D projects for many years that have directly helped to improve industry productivity and continue to do so with collaborations with Design Unit (Newcastle, UK), AMRC (Sheffield, UK) and AFRC (Glasgow, UK). There are references to the work, which has been incorporated into our software and services of course, on our website. Several more of our solutions are not yet in the market but will help to improve performance, lower carbon dioxide footprint, and improve production efficiency.

What are the latest advances in your field? How have you incorporated those into manufacturing?

The latest advances are for close integration of design data with manufacturing equipment and for live reporting and correcting of error sources. This is at the heart of our GPS software. We are making interfaces of our functionality to Gearbox Models such as from Romax Technologies to simulate manufacture for tool design the definition of appropriate tolerances before the design is approved in order to avoid costly delays and waste in production. We are also integrating our software with hardware to generate digital twins such as G-code for multi-axis platforms and nominal files for inspection equipment from OSK and Renishaw. This allows integrated production at a cost-effective solution, rather than dedicated equipment from a single source.

What are your impressions of the overall India market? What are the unique challenges and opportunities here?

India is a large market and has good links to the UK. We anticipate new trade deals after Brexit, that will facilitate further growth in the UK and for us. We are working with Himshiv Machines, Delhi, to promote and support our products and services in India. This gives us access to good local knowledge so that we can adapt quicker than if we were trying on our own or through UK agencies. Our collective challenge is to convince the Indian market this is not a replacement for the already well-established gearbox design solutions, but is designed to work with them to facilitate tool design and process efficiency. However, the system becomes more powerful, the more our solution is used. Having been in business for 17 years now it is clear that we offer something distinct, or we would not still be in business.

What applications do you foresee for your products? Are there any specific machine types attracting the attention of the Indian buyer right now?

Our software is used across a range of applications with the majority of our customers in automotive and aerospace, but our manufacturing simulations for hobbing, grinding, shaving, shaping, honing and skiving will be of special interest to the Indian market also being heavily involved in manufacture. Our software can be used to quickly layout a gearbox, check deflection, and analyze appropriate micro geometry, then define tooling for a given gear design and assess effects of machining tolerances on design performance. This can be agreed with the client in advance of manufacture. Such services can be offered to clients as an additional revenue stream and may be greatly appreciated. The software has a database to utilize existing tools, which is ideal for smaller operations. Our GPS CAM solution will be of interest to clients using 5-Axis for cylindrical or bevel in small or medium batch sizes.

How is Dontyne addressing issues in supply-chain disruption and labor shortages caused by the Covid-19 pandemic?

In the field of software development, we have found that there has been little disruption for us directly, but it has prevented us from getting to exhibitions for 2 years. We have lost more working days due to sickness of course than usual but this has passed now and we are back attending IMTEX and IPTEX to get to know our market requirements in meetings on site again. Exhibitions deliver our strongest business connections in customers and collaborations.

How will the launch of Gear Technology India help the industry?

We are a very small company with a wide range of clients from small design offices to Tier 1 multi nationals but we have, until now, not been very proficient at promoting ourselves as an alternative to gear software or services on the market. Promotion through Gear Technology will help greatly increase awareness of our offering.