Robot Path Planning and Offline Programming
1. Programming the Robot Before the Robot Exists A robot program is a sequence of targets, each a position and orientation of the tool, linked by motions, guarded by signals and wrapped in logic, and…
Assembly Line Takt Time and Workstation Balancing
1. The Rhythm of the Line An assembly line is a promise about time: every station must finish its work in the same interval, so the product can move from station to station without waiting…
Electric Motor Cooling and Air Cooling Design
1. Heat Is the Motor’s Payload An electric motor converts electrical energy into mechanical energy with an efficiency that is never a hundred percent, and the difference, the loss, appears as heat inside the machine….
Cam and Intermittent Motion Mechanism Design
1. From Profiles to Motion Cycles A cam is a machine agreement: the rotating profile agrees to push the follower through a prescribed displacement while the follower agrees to stay in contact and give the…
Gear Contact Stress Verification
1. The Tooth as a Contact Pair A gear pair transmits power through line contact between tooth flanks, and the contact between two convex rolling surfaces is the most loaded small area in the machine….
Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) Programming
1. From Drawing to Measurement Plan A coordinate measuring machine does not measure parts, it measures points, and the quality of a measurement program is decided before the first probe touch in the planning that…
Fastener and Threaded Joint Design
1. Why Threaded Joints Fail Every bolted joint is a spring, a screw acting as a tension spring clamped against the compressed parts. The engine of the bolted joint world has understood this for over…
Valve Design and Fluid Control
1. The Valve as a Controlled Orifice A valve is an adjustable orifice placed in a pipe. It stops flow, allows flow, or regulates flow by varying the size of the passage, and the way…
Industrial Pump Design and Selection
1. The Two Families of Pumps A pump exists to move a fluid from a lower pressure or elevation to a higher one, and the way it does that splits the entire industry into two…
Spring and Elastic Element Fatigue: Design for Long Life
1. Springs Fail in Fatigue Springs recover their shape, and that recovery is what makes them useful, but each deflection cycle also works the material. A spring in a valve, a clutch, a shock absorber…
Surface Treatment and Coatings: Anodizing, Chrome Plating and PVD
1. Why the Surface Is a Design Feature The surface of a part is where it meets the world, and most failures that are blamed on the material are actually failures of the surface. Corrosion…
Laser Welding and Cutting Technology: Processes and Parameters
1. The Laser as a Thermal Tool A laser beam concentrates optical energy into a spot small enough to melt or vaporize metal almost instantly. The same physical principle powers two dominant industrial processes: laser…
Coupling Alignment and Shaft Alignment: Methods and Tolerances
1. Why Alignment Controls Machine Life Shaft alignment is the practice of placing the centerlines of a driver and a driven machine on the same straight line, or at the deliberate offset defined by the…
Deep Groove and Tapered Roller Bearings: Selection and Application
1. Two Bearing Families with Different Jobs Between the many rolling element bearings in a machine, two families cover an outsized share of rotating shaft applications: the deep groove ball bearing and the tapered roller…
Worm Gear and Speed Reducer Design: Efficiency, Heat and Ratio Selection
1. The Worm Gear as a Right Angle Drive When a drive must turn through ninety degrees and reduce speed at the same time, the worm gear set is often the most compact and quiet…
