Mechanical Engineers

Four laws of thermodynamics The so-called Zeroth Law is a bit more fundamental than the other Three Laws. It came into being after the Three. It essentially says that if each of two systems is in equilibrium with a third system, the first two are in equilibrium with one another.  The First Law basically says that energy or matter can neither be created nor destroyed. In terms of the machine, this meant that the total energy output (work by the machine) is equal to the heat supplied. In other words, the change in the internal energy of a closed system is equal to the heat added to the system minus the work done by the system. Because the system operates in the real world, some energy always escapes into the outside world, thus leading to both inefficiency and the Second Law, which was generated to cover the so-called flaw in the First Law.  The Second Law essentially says that it is impossible to obtain a process where the unique effect is the subtraction of a posit...

Conduction Conduction transfers heat via direct molecular collision. An area of greater kinetic energy will transfer thermal energy to an area with lower kinetic energy. Higher-speed particles will collide with slower speed particles. The slower-speed particles will increase in kinetic energy as a result. Conduction is the most common form of heat transfer and occurs via physical contact. Examples would be to place your hand against a window or place metal into an open flame.  The process of heat conduction depends on the following factors: temperature gradient, cross-section of the material, length of the travel path, and physical material properties. The temperature gradient is the physical quantity that describes the direction and rate of heat travel. Temperature flow will always occur from hottest to coldest or, as stated before, higher to lower kinetic energy. Once there’s thermal equilibrium between the two temperature differences, the thermal transfer stops. Cross-s...

Solar impulse is one of the most innovative ideas in the world and it's success proves that nothing is impossible. Do you know what is solar impulse? If not then do not worry , here is a little glimpse of solar impulse. According to wiki : " Solar Impulse   is a Swiss long-range   experimental   solar-powered aircraft   project, and also the name of the project's two operational aircraft. [2]   The privately financed project is led by Swiss engineer and businessman   André Borschberg   and Swiss psychiatrist and aeronaut   Bertrand Piccard , who co-piloted   Breitling Orbiter 3 , the first   balloon   to circle the world non-stop. [3] The Solar Impulse project's goals were to make the first   circumnavigation   of the Earth by a piloted   fixed-wing aircraft   using only solar power and to bring attention to   clean technologies . [4]   Reflecting on these goals, Mike Scott wrote in   Forb...

When people think of automobile performance, they normally think of horsepower, torque and zero-to-60 acceleration. But all of the power generated by a piston engine is useless if the driver can't control the car. That's why automobile engineers turned their attention to the suspension system almost as soon as they had mastered the four-stroke internal combustion engine. The job of a car suspension is to maximize the friction between the tires and the road surface, to provide steering stability with good handling and to ensure the comfort of the passengers. In this article, we'll explore how car suspensions work, how they've evolved over the years and where the design of suspensions is headed in the future. If a road were perfectly flat, with no irregularities, suspensions wouldn't be necessary. But roads are far from flat. Even freshly paved highways have subtle imperfections that can interact with the wheels­ of a car. It's these imperfections tha...

BRAKE BLEEDING Brake bleeding is the procedure performed on hydraulic brake systems whereby the brake lines (the pipes and hoses containing the brake fluid) are purged of any air bubbles. This is necessary because, while the brake fluid is an incompressible liquid, air bubbles are compressible gas and their presence in the brake system greatly reduces the hydraulic pressure that can be developed within the system. The same methods used for bleeding are also used for purging, where the old fluid is replaced with new fluid, which is necessary maintenance. The brake fluid capacity of a typical automobile is around 500 ml. Brake fluid is toxic, and must be handled carefully and disposed of properly. Most cars use DOT 3 or 4 brake fluids, which may be mixed, but DOT 5 is silicone-based and not compatible with DOT 3 or 4. Note that DOT 5.1 is a higher specification fluid compatible with DOT 3 and DOT 4, but not DOT 5. Most types of brake fluid harm automotive paint and plastics...

The process by which a car works is a lot simpler than you may think. When a driver turns a key in the ignition: The car battery powers up sending Power to the starter motor, which Turns the crankshaft, which Gets the pistons moving With the pistons moving the engine fires up and ticks over A fan draws air into the engine via an air filter The air filter removes dirt and grit from the air The cleaned air is drawn into a chamber where fuel (petrol or diesel) is added This fuel-air mix (a vaporised gas) is stored in the chamber The driver presses the accelerator pedal The throttle valve is opened The gas-air mix passes through an intake manifold and is distributed, through intake valves, into the cylinders. The camshaft controls the opening and closing of the valves. The distributor makes the spark plugs spark, which ignites the fuel-air mix. The resulting explosion forces a piston to move down which in turn causes the crankshaft to rotate. What happens in the cyl...

Today, large manufacturers are a wonder of automation: not only their manufacturing processes, but their business processes as well. This software-based approach – much of it in the cloud – saves them time and money and increases the transparency of their processes across departments, locations and even partner companies. For small manufacturers, however, the benefits of software-based approaches aren’t so transparent, and many small companies struggle with the best approach to software-based process automation. Software Advice, a Gartner-owned consulting firm that provides research to software buyers, recently pulled data from its interactions with thousands of manufacturing organizations to  uncover trends  in small manufacturing companies (defined as those will annual revenues of $100 million or less) and their aspirations with regard to software purchasing. The goal was to discover these companies’ software needs and their pain points, as well as what would compe...