Hugh,
I am not sure what printing process you are talking about, but gear quality can only be a tip of the iceberg. We (Mark Andy) spend tons of money and effort fighting gearmarking (commonly referred as banding). Most important for gearmarking is PD runout, lead and tooth profile. Then come 1000 other variables which have nothing to do with gears. If you can be more specific about printing process and type of marking (wide, narrow, periodic etc), I might have a few more clues for you.
And AGMA10 is not excellent, it is only acceptable for a high quality printing.