Lately, I was pleasantly surprised by one of the conferences I attended involving decision making and startup development: I was expecting the generic speech about entrepreneurship, monetizing one’s idea and incorporating innovation in one’s thought process. But I ended up with insightful techniques and a quantified understanding of the process of creation, brainstorming and prototyping …
There was a time when the idea of using textile material for primary load parts was scary. Thankfully we now live in the post-era of composites’ mistrust and we can no longer deny the revolution they brought and the advances they enabled. Composites in the aeronautics and aerospace industry usually refer to the laminated and …
The main issue with a parts’ life cycle is failure by fatigue which ultimately comes through crack propagation. Step forward fracture mechanics which is a relatively new science that dives into the mechanism of crack formation and spread. Thankfully there are now different scenarios to inspect and treat cracks in parts made from classic alloys …
In many ways the subject of micromechanics prompts more questions than it answers in a world where many see everything as black or white with no grey areas. If you have been through the basic engineering courses, you will understand the classic model of materials: they are linear, homogeneous, isotropic and Hookean. If you were …
I’d like to discuss an example of failure analysis on a customer’s product, a small machine. During the course of my analysis, I projected a significant decrease in performance over time due to a seemingly insignificant manufacturing defect. He was faced with a choice: either repurpose the part (melt it and reuse its material) or …
A Machine’s Lifecycle: Assessment through Failure Analysis Read More »
Most markets today are cost-competitive, so naturally many companies try to save costs by reducing the amount of material in their products. Reducing material saves money and normally decreases the weight of the product, which is a positive side benefit. However, when you can no longer remove any more material and you can’t invent a …
Using Failure Analysis to Make Products More Competitive Read More »
I have often been described as a talkative person. It’s not that I love my fits of verbal diarrhoea, but the need to be as specific as possible and to give as many details as I can leads me to either speak in paragraphs or use a particular vocabulary. In the meantime, I require precision …
In my last article I discussed the importance of failure analysis and work cycle quantification. To perform these analyses there are several software programs and many methods to choose from, but they all share a similar philosophy. Several names in failure research including Murakami, Raju, Newman, and Paris have come up with formal methods to …
Lifecycle Of A Frying Pan: Work Cycle Quantification Example Read More »
According to Greek mythology, the goddess Juno was the only one able to see through her husband Jupiter’s puffs of smoke and cloudy disguises. By 2011, she was getting ready to perform a similar task, this time thanks to NASA’s efforts. It is now 2016 and in early July the spacecraft has succeeded in joining Jupiter’s first …
Amongst discussions the freshly hired have amongst pals and close friends, there is the so infamous but quite taboo “being a new graduate in an office of seniors”. Rookies that are not only new to the industry or the work environment, but also freshly graduated and tackling a new job. They’re not only the Y or …
It’s Tough Being The New Graduate In An Office of Seniors Read More »
In the last few decades we have learned a great deal about space and vastly improved our exploration tools and skills thanks to NASA’s published efforts. But, while NASA and other agencies focus their resources on finding answers and understanding our solar system, one company’s aim is to give shape to the dream of space travel. This is …
Is there decent money in mechanical design engineering? The shortest answer possible is: there is as long as you don’t hang out a lot, don’t intend to spend your savings on your two week vacation and have a good retirement plan as well as a good position in a decent company. The more complicated, longer, …
Is There Decent Money In Mechanical Design Engineering? Read More »
In previous articles, we spoke about the undeniable use and help the notion of symmetry brings to a mechanical design. It is a powerful tool, and everyone has always used it intrinsically, if not explicitly. The need for radial, spherical or even bilateral symmetry arose with the advent of mechanisation, due to the need for ease of …
Boston Dynamics recently broke the mould with its ATLAS robot but the company has just released a new funky, flexible and extremely well advanced model in the shape of SpotMini. You can see at a glance what this particular robot is capable of by checking out the quick video embedded in this post. Introduced on …
Tesla Autopilot has been making the headlines for some time, and even recalls are on the table as a potential outcome. According to the media, autopilot mode on TESLA cars is not safe to trust while driving. A fatal accident occurred on May 7th involving a Tesla Model S which was on autopilot mode at the …
You may have stumbled upon a viral video of a certain 5ft 9in robot tripping in the snow, lifting boxes and getting bullied with a hockey stick. While it is a delight to watch and can be interesting to share, it’s the actual technology that makes the video so impressive. The latest version of Atlas, the …
Atlas, Boston Dynamics’ Incredible Humanoid Robot Read More »
With the 21st century came a new goal: creating lighter materials with more advanced properties. The evolution started with new alloys, continued with polymers, and now composites and ceramics are in the spotlight. Whenever an engineering requirement for decreased weight arises, one of the first areas of consideration is usually materials technology. The goal is either to improve the properties of an …
The 22nd century never seemed so close As the 21st century advances, science-fiction could soon be science fact thanks to Lilium aircraft. Whilst we are used to seeing people in flying cars in cartoons or sci-fi movies, it is not generally considered that we may actually be getting pretty close to the real thing. Given the technological …
I have to confess this question about female mechancial engineers hasn’t come to my mind until I recently watched a Society of Women Engineers (SWE) workshop, with the initiative to get women more involved in STEM fields. It never crossed my mind that it is still a challenge to get females into the workforce within …
Why are there so few female mechanical engineers? Read More »
Most of us in the aeronautics industry remember the famous Concorde…the famous supersonic commercial jet that became reality but didn’t last long enough to become mainstream. In Denver, Colorado an ambitious startup is reviving the dream of supersonic travel, and designing a plane able to fly at Mach 2.2, and shooting for a cost of no more than $5000 …
The mechanics of animal locomotion have recently become a source of inspiration for many designers. One example of this is Assistant Professor Amos Winter’s project, which started off with the need to create an underwater robot capable of digging. His robot needed to be compact, rigid, and able to move underwater while requiring little power …
The Robot Clam That Could Someday Help Lay Transatlantic Cable Read More »
As a general rule, a mechanical measure cannot be written without a precision. When a study does not contain an error range estimation or analysis, and when mechanical design engineers don’t pay attention to such details, it’s a warning sign that risks are probably not well understood or handled. In our practice, we are more …
Getting From A to B: Assessing Error Range From Input to Result Read More »
While it is easy to find rich, interesting analyses on the way finance companies, law offices and software labs’ inner processes are conducted, little is known about the insides of factories, industrial companies or R&D departments in the mechanical engineering sector. At MDF, we are eager to initiate the public and future mechanical engineers into …
Mechanical Designing in the Automotive Industry: A General Outline Read More »
We spoke previously about the importance of making a CAD model more FEA friendly. A mechanical design engineer should get used to running multiple iterations of a FE analysis, making small modifications to the CAD model for each iteration. To make this iterative process much easier and faster, it is a good idea for the …
Create more robust CAD models using Parametering Read More »
We’ve previously spoken about the concepts of accuracy and precision and how they play a key role in determining the error range in mechanical engineering calculations. The main recommendations were to use the most specific input data possible and to note the accuracy, significant figures and precision used in the input data. When dealing with …
For most people, Nicholas Tesla is known for his work in electromagnetism and the unit given his name. For a smaller portion of the public, he is known for his benevolent, full, and rich life. Father of electricity and of several other important inventions, he was a man of many skills who famously contributed to …
Tesla Motors go OPEN SOURCE with its electric car technology Read More »
We deal with numbers in every aspect of life. In mechanics, understanding the more obscure concepts and definitions can be critical to our designs. Most people understand that there are two kinds of numbers: 1) Exact numbers: You could safely state there is 1 balloon or 6 eggs in the fridge. 2) Inexact numbers: This …
Basic theory of numerical accuracy and precision Read More »
Human innovations are often inspired by, and at times copied from, the existing designs of nature. Human flight is one example where man adapted one of nature’s existing methods and used it in his own technology. While the aircraft and aerospace industries have improved the performance and perfected the designs of their flying machines, they …
The flying jellyfish machine: How nature inspired a new flight design concept Read More »
Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is a key step in the design process. In fact, industry now commonly requires a calculation analysis sheet from design departments to approve the final virtual product. Moreover, FEA is an essential tool for developing a mechanism, calculating its lifecycle, and improving it in a number of ways. To speak of …
10 ways you can make your CAD models more FEA-friendly Read More »
Designing in the mechanical engineering field has gone through many phases. In the ‘80s, a designer was different from an engineer, who was different from a design engineer. Nowadays, a single mechanical design engineer is responsible for all three job descriptions. You might be tempted to ask, what exactly is a mechanical design engineer? Instead …
5 Skills Every Mechanical Design Engineer Should Have Read More »
In the mechanical engineering and design world, many things seem trickier to begin with than they actually are. Writing a formal specification is one of those things. Because of its perceived complexity, some people do away with it altogether and others write a quick one just for the sake of audits. Most don’t understand the …
Managing and maintaining technical files is a common problem within the engineering discipline. When it comes to design data, a huge and diverse body of iterated data is often too much to deal with through manual naming and file organization alone. A shared drive or a server along with a standard archiving method is the …
The importance of PLM for Design Data Management Read More »
In mechanical engineering, PoC (“Proof of Concept”) is a critical part of the design process. The premise is extremely simple: a part or assembly must perform a function, so a basic physical model is manufactured to prove that it can be done. It’s a quick, small, incomplete model, and depending on customer requirements, it might …
8 things you need to know about PoC (Proof of Concept) Read More »
One of the tricky things about mechanical design is that requirements might change over the design stage of the project (more about that here). Therefore, it is important that a team of designers should be able to cope with sudden changes and deal with them quickly and efficiently. Getting your CAD data into a coherent …
One of the main steps of the design process is simulation/analysis. During this stage the designer analyses the CAD model, assesses its limitations and improves it accordingly. Improvements typically involve adjusting design features or changing the material. This simulation is used to ensure that a design meets its mechanical requirements (e.g. stress or thermal analysis, …
Meshless CAD Simulation – a new alternative to FEA Read More »
Of all the powering options available nowadays, heat engines were the first to be developed in the industrial years, and they remain a classic choice within mechanical systems today. Despite physicists’ attempts to refinine and optimise the design, improving the thermodynamic cycles within, heat engines remain trapped within the Carnot Limit. This limit is depicted …
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