The MatWeb site provides detailed information about materials such as the tensile strength of various compositions of steel.
MatWeb: Material Property Data
For example the search “low carbon steel” results in the list of links to information:
http://www.matweb.com/search/QuickText.aspx?SearchText=low%20carbon%20steel
There are a variety of numbering systems for materials such as steel. The unified numbering system (UNS) uses a letter to designate a material category followed by five numbers constructed from the existing materials designations to coordinate all of these numbering systems.
The unified numbering system (UNS) is described in Wikipedia at the link: Unified numbering system
Some of the category letters for steel are:
– G for AISI/SAE carbon and alloy steels;
– S for stainless steels; and
– T for tool steels.
Generally, the standard designation is inserted after the letter defining the material category. For example, AISI/SAE 1018 carbon steel has the UNS designation G10180.
The AISI-SAE steel alloy designation system is listed in Total Materia.
Also see Wikipedia at the link: SAE steel grades
The doors of the Koenigsegg CCX open using the “dihedral synchro-helix door actuation” system. You can see this movement on the video
Cambridge University provides a useful overview of materials properties such as the chart below.
Elastic Modulus v. Density
The tutorial can be accessed at the link:
http://www-g.eng.cam.ac.uk/125/now/mfs/tutorial/non_IE/charts.html
Joseph Klann provided a useful comparison of the leg designs for the Mondo Spider and Theo Jansen’s Strandbeest at this (archived) link: http://www.mechanicalspider.com/comparison.html.
Here is an excellent web page about the Klann and Jansen leg mechanisms, as well as other leg designs: Dog Feather Designs.
This article compares the leg designs: Mechanical Spider Using Klann Mechanism
This is a youtube video prepared by William Thielicke that illustrates the two leg mechanisms.
This walking machine is known as the Mondo Spider. More information is available at Mondospider.com.
The leg of the mondo spider has the topology known as a Stephenson six-bar and is described in US Patent 6,260,862 awarded to Joseph Klann. Access it through the link:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US6260862B1/en
Wikipedia calls this the Klann linkage which is described here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klann_Linkage
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]
Periodic Table
The National Institute of Standards and Technology provides an on-line periodic table. Access it and other information at the link: Periodic Table
National Institute of Standards and Technology
This is a link to notes on Geometric Design and Tolerancing by Prof. Graeme Britton of Raffles Design Institute, Singapore.
Prof. Britton\’s Notes on GD&T
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
2009 Formula SAE CA