Theo Jansen builds amazing walking machines. Each leg is an eight-bar linkage. The Wolfram Demonstration Project models this linkage in a Mathematica notebook. See the link: http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/ATheoJansenWalkingLinkage/ [vimeo]http://vimeo.com/1242383[/vimeo]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology provides an on-line periodic table. Access it and other information at the link: Periodic Table
This is a link to notes on Geometric Design and Tolerancing by Prof. Graeme Britton of Raffles Design Institute, Singapore. A pdf version of Prof. Britton’s lecture is available at: http://synthetica.eng.uci.edu/mechanicaldesign101/GDandT.pdf Here is another excellent set of notes from the Technical College of New Jersey on geometric dimensioning and tolerancing.
Here is a link to a facebook album showing the racecars and teams at the 2009 Formula SAE California intercollegiate engineering racecar competition that occurred June 17-21, 2009 at the Auto Club Raceway, Fontana CA. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=89098&id=92647534369
Michael Ashby presents materials information in a practical format in his book Materials Selection in Mechanical Design. This is a link to lecture notes that give an idea of his approach: http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/cme/pdfs/443ashbylectures2006.pdf
This 10-bar linkage is designed to drive a scissors movement in order to actuate a deployable structure. It was presented at the 2009 ReMar Conference in London. (UCI Robotics and Automation Lab)
According to Shigley and Mischke’s Mechanical Engineering Design (McGraw-Hill 1989) experiments show that the tensile stress supported by a threaded rod equals that of a rod with diameter that is the mean of pitch and minor diameters of the threads. Thus, the tensile stress area of a threaded fastener is computed from the average of its […]
This are two animation of the operation of a diesel engine. The first focuses on the four stroke cycle. The second start with the turbo-charger, and makes its way through the engine.
This YouTube animation shows the animated assembly of a solid model of a four-cylinder engine. It interesting just to see the number of fasteners, but it is worth waiting for the animation of the four-stroke cycle that occurs about two-thirds through.
Mechanical Design 101 is a collection of resources to educate, guide and perhaps inspire the mechanical designer. Please send me links to your favorite resources, and to interesting and useful examples of mechanical devices. I would also appreciate a note, if you see any errors. Thank you, Michael McCarthy