Need a Mechanism for Your Design? Here's the Motherlode. Let's say you're a designer trying to create something with moving parts: A set of double doors that open in an unusual way, a console that deploys a hidden flatscreen monitor, or a space-saving cabinet with panels that slide sideways rather than swing out. Where do you start? There are companies that make hardware to achieve these things, but there's no guarantee that hardware is sized to fit your application. If you can understand how the mechanisms work, however, you can create something to custom fit your design. That's where this retired mechanical engineer comes in: Nguyen Duc Thang has made it his mission to illustrate mechanisms so people can understand them.
Using Autodesk Inventor, he creates succinct 3D animations of various mechanical mechanisms, and staggeringly, he's created 1,700 videos of them to date. As an example, check out this mechanism for double doors that open within a limited space: Enter a caption (optional) An overhead-concealed monitor mechanism: Via Kottke.
Gear Trains. A simple gear train is used to transmit rotary motion A simple gear can change both the magnitude and the line of action of an effort force. The effort force is applied to the "driver" and the load is applied to the "follower". Transmission Ratio Transmission or movement ratio can be expressed as μM = nD / nF = tF / tD (1) where μM = movement ratio nD = revolutions of driver (rpm) nF = revolutions of follower (rpm) tF = number of teeth on follower tD = number of teeth on driver When the same direction of rotation is required for both the driver and the follower, an idler wheel is used.
The movement ratio for a gear with an idler wheel can be expressed as μM = nD / nF = (tI / tD) (tF / tI) = tF / tD (2) where tI = number of teeth on idler Make 3D models of spurs and gears with the Engineering ToolBox Sketchup plugin Spurs and Gears Typical Gear Ratios Typical gear ratios for different types of gearsets are indicated below. Related Topics Related Documents Search the Engineering ToolBox. Andy's Place. This Awesome GIF Will Teach You Everything You Need To Know About An Engine. A Long-Range Motorcycle, Powered By Nothing But Air. Electric motorbikes are slowly gaining acceptance, even among some diehard gear-heads. But electricity isn’t the only means of powering alternative two-wheelers; good old, plain air is also a viable, and sustainable, possibility. Propelled by compressed air, the O2 Pursuit can go 100 kilometers on a single tank, and up to 140 kilometers per hour (87 mph), according to Dean Benstead, the graduate of RMIT University, in Melbourne, who designed it.
The prototype essentially brings together three pieces of a kit: a Yamaha WR250R frame, a compressed-air engine built by an Australian company called Engineair, and a standard scuba diving tank (that’s right). Demonstrating in this clip, Benstead opens the tank, rings the throttle letting air into a heat exchange unit, and from there to the Di Pietro engine. The drawback with air power is that you need a network of refilling stations, and you still need to find power to compress the air in the first place. MOTION. Open Channel Flow Calculator. Fillet Weld Throat Area Equations and Calculation. Legacy Engine.