Engineering - Design - Architecture


Engineering is the discipline dealing with the art or science of applying scientific knowledge to practical problems. Plan and direct a complex undertaking. Someone who can correctly calculate the load capacities of materials and assemble them correctly. Engineering is the application of mathematics, empirical evidence and scientific, economic, social, and practical knowledge in order to invent, innovate, design, build, maintain, research, and improve structures, machines, tools, systems, components, materials, and processes. The discipline of engineering is extremely broad, and encompasses a range of more specialized fields of engineering, each with a more specific emphasis on particular areas of applied science, technology and types of application.

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Ruler - Protractor - Square Designing is Planning to create something for a specific role or purpose or effect. Create the design for; create or execute in an artistic or highly skilled manner. Conceive or fashion in the mind; invent

Engineering Marvels are a man-made artifacts or objects such as bridges, tunnels, skyscrapers or railways are feats of engineering that make you stare in awe and wonder at the process that led to their existence.

Reverse Engineering is the processes of extracting knowledge or design information from anything man-made, and then re-producing it based on the extracted information. The process often involves disassembling something like a mechanical device, or a electronic component, computer program, or biological, chemical, or organic matter, and then analyzing its components and workings in detail so that you may build something similar to it, or build something more advanced. Modeling.

Architecture is the discipline dealing with the principles of design, construction and ornamentation of fine buildings. Designing buildings and environments with consideration for their esthetic effect.

What are the differences between design, engineering and art? Can all 3 disciplines be combined without sacrificing health, science and sustainability?

How Architecture can Create Dignity for All: John Cary (video and text)

Environmental Science - Safety Engineering - Structural Engineering

"There's pretty and then there's practicable, but if you can make practicable pretty, then that's even better."

Practicable is something usable for a specific purpose. Capable of being done with means at hand and circumstances as they are.


Engineering Types - Branches of Engineering


Types of Engineering Engineer designs materials, structures, and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality, regulation, safety, and cost. Math Skills Needed.

Engineering Branches (45 Types)

Electrical Engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism.

Electronic Engineering is an electrical engineering discipline which utilizes nonlinear and active electrical components (such as semiconductor devices, especially transistors, diodes and integrated circuits) to design electronic circuits, devices, microprocessors, microcontrollers and other systems. The discipline typically also designs passive electrical components, usually based on printed circuit boards. Electronics is a subfield within the wider electrical engineering academic subject but denotes a broad engineering field that covers subfields such as analog electronics, digital electronics, consumer electronics, embedded systems and power electronics. Electronics engineering deals with implementation of applications, principles and algorithms developed within many related fields, for example solid-state physics, radio engineering, telecommunications, control systems, signal processing, systems engineering, computer engineering, instrumentation engineering, electric power control, robotics, and many others. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is one of the most important and influential organizations for electronics engineers.

Mechanical Engineering is the discipline that applies the principles of engineering, physics, and materials science for the design, analysis, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the design, production, and operation of machinery. It is one of the oldest and broadest of the engineering disciplines.

Electromechanics combines processes and procedures drawn from electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. Electromechanics focuses on the interaction of electrical and mechanical systems as a whole and how the two systems interact with each other. This process is especially prominent in systems such as those of DC Machines which can be designed and operated to generate power from a mechanical process (generator) or used to power a mechanical effect (motor). Electrical engineering in this context also encompasses electronics engineering. Electromechanical devices are ones which have both electrical and mechanical processes. Strictly speaking, a manually operated switch is an electromechanical component due to the mechanical movement causing an electrical output. Though this is true, the term is usually understood to refer to devices which involve an electrical signal to create mechanical movement, or vice versa mechanical movement to create an electric signal. Often involving electromagnetic principles such as in relays, which allow a voltage or current to control another, usually isolated circuit voltage or current by mechanically switching sets of contacts, and solenoids, by which a voltage can actuate a moving linkage as in solenoid valves. Before the development of modern electronics, electromechanical devices were widely used in complicated subsystems of parts, including electric typewriters, teleprinters, clocks, initial television systems, and the very early electromechanical digital computers.

Civil Engineering - Infrastructure - Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge (wiki)

Geotechnical Engineering - Structural Engineering - Construction

Green Building - Stone Work - Wood Work

Environmental Engineering is the branch of engineering concerned with the application of scientific and engineering principles for protection of human populations from the effects of adverse environmental factors; protection of environments, both local and global, from potentially deleterious effects of natural and human activities; and improvement of environmental quality.

Aerospace Engineering (space travel) - Flying - Orbital Mechanics

Peter Palchinsky was a Russian engineer who played a significant role in the introduction of scientific management into Russian industry. (1875–22 May 1929). The Ghost of the Executed Engineer.

Chemical Engineering is a branch of engineering that applies physical sciences like physics and chemistry, as well as life sciences like microbiology and biochemistry, used all together with applied mathematics and economics to produce, transform, transport, and properly use chemicals, materials and energy. A chemical engineer designs large-scale processes that convert chemicals, raw materials, living cells, microorganisms and energy into useful forms and products.

Engineering Physics refers to the study of the combined disciplines of physics, mathematics and engineering, particularly computer, nuclear, electrical, electronic, materials or mechanical engineering. By focusing on the scientific method as a rigorous basis, it seeks ways to apply, design, and develop new solutions in engineering. Engineering physics or engineering science degrees are respected academic degrees awarded in many countries. It can be taught at the undergraduate level and is often designed as an honors program at some universities due to the rigorous nature of the academic curriculum which covers a wide spectrum of scientific disciplines.

Mechatronics is a multidisciplinary field of science that includes a combination of mechanical engineering, electronics, computer engineering, telecommunications engineering, systems engineering and control engineering. As technology advances, the subfields of engineering multiply and adapt. Mechatronics' aim is a design process that unifies these subfields. Originally, mechatronics just included the combination of mechanics and electronics, hence the word is a combination of mechanics and electronics; however, as technical systems have become more and more complex the definition has been broadened to include more technical areas.

Technologist is a specialist dedicated to the development, design, and implementation of engineering and technology. Engineering technology education is more of a broad specialized and applied engineering education.


Safe - Reliable - Sustainable


Industrial Engineering is a branch of engineering which deals with the optimization of complex processes, systems or organizations. Industrial engineers work to eliminate waste of time, money, materials, man-hours, machine time, energy and other resources that do not generate value.

Occupational Safety - Stress Testing - Form Follows Function - Sustainable - Design

Mechanism is a device designed to transform input forces and movement into a desired set of output forces and the movement. Mechanisms generally consist of moving components such as gears and gear trains, belt and chain drives, cam and follower mechanisms, and linkages as well as friction devices such as brakes and clutches, and structural components such as the frame, fasteners, bearings, springs, lubricants and seals, as well as a variety of specialized machine elements such as splines, pins and key.

Reliability Engineering is engineering that emphasizes dependability in the lifecycle management of a product. Dependability, or reliability, describes the ability of a system or component to function under stated conditions for a specified period of time. Reliability may also describe the ability to function at a specified moment or interval of time (Availability). Reliability engineering represents a sub-discipline within systems engineering. Reliability is theoretically defined as the probability of success.

Safety Engineering is an engineering discipline which assures that engineered systems provide acceptable levels of safety. It is strongly related to industrial engineering/systems engineering, and the subset system safety engineering. Safety engineering assures that a life-critical system behaves as needed, even when components fail. Earthquakes - Structural Engineering.

Quality Control - Risk Management - Scenarios - Codes - Capacity - Procedures

Security Engineering is a specialized field of engineering that focuses on the security aspects in the design of systems that need to be able to deal robustly with possible sources of disruption, ranging from natural disasters to malicious acts. It is similar to other systems engineering activities in that its primary motivation is to support the delivery of engineering solutions that satisfy pre-defined functional and user requirements, but it has the added dimension of preventing misuse and malicious behavior. Those constraints and restrictions are often asserted as a security policy.

Biosecurity is a set of preventive measures designed to reduce the risk of transmission of infectious diseases in crops and livestock, quarantined pests, invasive alien species, and living modified organisms. The emerging nature of biosecurity threats means that small scale risks blow up rapidly, thus an effective policy becomes a challenge for there are limitations on time and resources available for analysing threats and estimating the likelihood of their occurrence.

System Safety concept calls for a risk management strategy based on identification, analysis of hazards and application of remedial controls using a systems-based approach. This is different from traditional safety strategies which rely on control of conditions and causes of an accident based either on the Epidemiological analysis or as a result of investigation of individual past accidents. The concept of system safety is useful in demonstrating adequacy of technologies when difficulties are faced with probabilistic risk analysis. The underlying principle is one of synergy: a whole is more than sum of its parts. Systems-based approach to safety requires the application of scientific, technical and managerial skills to hazard identification, hazard analysis, and elimination, control, or management of hazards throughout the life-cycle of a system, program, project or an activity or a product. "Hazop" is one of several techniques available for identification of hazards.

Fail-Safe in engineering is a design feature or practice that in the event of a specific type of failure, inherently responds in a way that will cause no or minimal harm to other equipment, the environment or to people.

Inherent Safety has a low level of danger even if things go wrong. Inherent safety contrasts with other processes where a high degree of hazard is controlled by protective systems. As perfect safety cannot be achieved, common practice is to talk about inherently safer design. “An inherently safer design is one that avoids hazards instead of controlling them, particularly by reducing the amount of hazardous material and the number of hazardous operations in the plant.

Intrinsic Safety is a protection technique for safe operation of electrical equipment in hazardous areas by limiting the energy, electrical and thermal, available for ignition. In signal and control circuits that can operate with low currents and voltages, the intrinsic safety approach simplifies circuits and reduces installation cost over other protection methods. Areas with dangerous concentrations of flammable gases or dust are found in applications such as petrochemical refineries and mines. As a discipline, it is an application of inherent safety in instrumentation. High-power circuits such as electric motors or lighting cannot use intrinsic safety methods for protection.

Engineering Controls are strategies designed to protect workers from hazardous conditions by placing a barrier between the worker and the hazard or by removing a hazardous substance through air ventilation. Engineering controls involve a physical change to the workplace itself, rather than relying on workers' behavior or requiring workers to wear protective clothing. Engineering controls is the third of five members of the hierarchy of hazard controls, which orders control strategies by their feasibility and effectiveness. Engineering controls are preferred over administrative controls and personal protective equipment (PPE) because they are designed to remove the hazard at the source, before it comes in contact with the worker. Well-designed engineering controls can be highly effective in protecting workers and will typically be independent of worker interactions to provide this high level of protection. The initial cost of engineering controls can be higher than the cost of administrative controls or PPE, but over the longer term, operating costs are frequently lower, and in some instances, can provide a cost savings in other areas of the process. Elimination and substitution are usually considered to be separate levels of hazard controls, but in some schemes they are categorized as types of engineering control. The U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health researches engineering control technologies, and provides information on their details and effectiveness in the NIOSH Engineering Controls Database.

Hierarchy of Hazard Controls is a system used in industry to minimize or eliminate exposure to hazards. The hazard controls in the hierarchy are, in order of decreasing effectiveness: Hazard Elimination is a hazard control strategy based on completely removing a material or process causing a hazard. Hazard Substitution is a hazard control strategy in which a material or process is replaced with another that is less hazardous. Prevention through Design is the concept of applying methods to minimize occupational hazards early in the design process, with an emphasis on optimizing employee health and safety throughout the life cycle of materials and processes. It is a concept and movement that encourages construction or product designers to "design out" health and safety risks during design development. The concept supports the view that along with quality, programme and cost; safety is determined during the design stage. It increases the cost-effectiveness of enhancements to occupational safety and health. This method for reducing workplace safety risks lessens workers' reliance on personal protective equipment, which is the least effective of the hierarchy of hazard control. Administrative controls and Personal protective equipment.

Passive Nuclear Safety is a design approach for safety features, implemented in a Nuclear Reactor, that does not require any active intervention on the part of the operator or electrical/electronic feedback in order to bring the reactor to a safe shutdown state, in the event of a particular type of emergency (usually overheating resulting from a loss of coolant or loss of coolant flow). Such design features tend to rely more on the engineering of components such that their predicted behaviour would slow down, rather than accelerate, the deterioration of the reactor state; typically take advantages of natural forces or phenomena such as gravity, buoyancy, pressure differences, conduction or natural heat convection to accomplish safety functions without requiring an active power source. Many older common reactor designs use passive safety systems to a limited extent, rather, relying on active safety systems such as diesel powered motors. Some newer reactor designs feature more passive systems; the motivation being that they are highly reliable and reduce the cost associated with the installation and maintenance of systems that would otherwise require multiple trains of equipment and redundant safety class power supplies in order the achieve the same level of reliability. However, weak driving forces that power many passive safety features can pose significant challenges to effectiveness of a passive system, particularly in the short term following an accident.

Subsurface Utility Engineering refers to a branch of engineering that involves managing certain risks associated with utility mapping at appropriate quality levels, utility coordination, utility relocation design and coordination, utility condition assessment, communication of utility data to concerned parties, utility relocation cost estimates, implementation of utility accommodation policies, and utility design.

10 Biggest Architecture Fails In The World (youtube)
10 Embarrassing Architectural Failures (youtube)
10 Biggest Architectural Fails (youtube)

How Drilling a 14 in. Hole Created a 1.3K ft Deep Saltwater Lake Out of a 10 ft Deep Freshwater One (youtube) - Lake Peigneur is located in Louisiana near the Gulf of Mexico. Before 1980, it was an approximately 10-foot deep fresh water lake with an island in the middle. Next to it, and partially under it, Diamond Crystal Salt Company maintained a salt mine, with salt being mined near the lake since 1919.



Teaching Engineering


Teach Engineering - Try Engineering
Practical Engineering - Grady Hill House (youtube channel)
The Efficient Engineer (youtube channel)
Real Engineering (youtube channel)
Steve Mould (youtube channel)
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
National Academy of Engineering
Teenage Engineering
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Pritzker Architecture Prize
Arch 2o
Element 14 online community specifically for engineers.
Center for Advanced Engineering



Math Skills needed to become an Engineer


How much you use these skills will depend on the type of engineering work that you will be doing. Reading, writing, communication and problem solving will always be your most used skills in every profession. In order to find an engineering position that you like, you may have to move to another state or country. Scientist.

Math Skills needed to become an Engineer - Engineering Principles - Principles and Practice of Engineering Exam - PE Exam - Fundamentals of Engineering Exam.

Basic Arithmetic: All math is based on the idea that 1 plus 1 equals 2, and 1 minus 1 equals 0. Multiplication and division --2 times 2 and 4 divided by 2 -- are variations used to avoid multiple iterations of either subtraction or addition. One example of an engineer's use of basic arithmetic is the civil engineer's calculations for describing water flow across an open basin. The flow is reckoned in cubic feet per second, or Q, where Q equals the runoff coefficient times the intensity of the rain for a specified period, times the area of the basin. If the runoff coefficient is 2, the intensity, in inches of rain, is 4 and the basin -- a specified area of land -- is 1/2 acre, the engineer's formula resembles this: (2x4)/(.5x43,560), or 8/21,780. The result, 0.0003673, is the volume of water, in cubic feet per second, flowing across the land. - Math Knowledge - Next Generation Science Standards.

Algebra and Geometry: When several of the factors of a problem are known and one or more are unknown, engineers use Algebra, including differential equations in cases when there are several unknowns. Because engineers work to arrive at a solution to a physical problem, Geometry -- with its planes, circles and angles -- determines such diverse things as the torque used to turn a wheel, and reduces the design of a roadway's curve to an accurate engineering or construction drawing.

Trigonometry:
Trigonometry is the science of measuring triangles. Engineers may use plane trigonometry to determine the size of an irregularly shaped parcel of land. It may also be used or to determine the height of an object based solely on the distance to the object and the angle, up or down, from the observer. Spherical trigonometry is used by naval engineers in ship design and by mechanical engineers working on such arcane projects as the design of mechanical hand for an underwater robot.

Statistics:
By statistical analysis of the design, the engineer can tell what percentage of a design will need armor or reinforcement or where any likely failures will occur. For the civil engineer, statistics appear as the concentration of rainfall, wind loads and bridge design. In many locations, engineers designing drainage systems must design for a 50- or 100-year storm in their calculations, a significant change from the normal rain concentration.

Calculus: Calculus is used by engineers to determine rates of change or rates by which factors, such as acceleration or weight, change. It might tell NASA scientists at what point the change in a satellite's orbit will cause the satellite to strike an object in space. A more mundane task for calculus might be determining how large a box must be to accommodate a specific number of things. An engineer who designs packaging, for example, might know that a product of a certain weight must be packaged in groups of no more than 10 because of their weight. Using calculus, he can calculate both the optimum number of objects per box, plus the optimum size of the box.



Architecture


Build Wood Frame House Architecture is both the process and the product of planning, designing, and constructing buildings and other physical structures. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural symbols and as works of art. Historical civilizations are often identified with their surviving architectural achievements. Architecture" can mean: A general term to describe buildings and other physical structures. The art and science of designing buildings and (some) nonbuilding structures. The style of design and method of construction of buildings and other physical structures. Knowledge of art, science, technology, and humanity. The practice of the architect, where architecture means offering or rendering professional services in connection with the design and construction of buildings, or built environments. The design activity of the architect, from the macro-level (urban design, landscape architecture) to the micro-level (construction details and furniture). Building Analyst.

Architectural Engineering is the application of engineering principles and technology to building design and construction. Definitions of an architectural engineer may refer to: An engineer in the structural, mechanical, electrical, construction or other engineering fields of building design and construction. A licensed engineering professional in parts of the United States. Architectural engineers are those who work with other engineers and architects for the designing and construction of buildings. Glossary of Architecture (wiki).

Architecture Articulation is a method of styling the joints in the formal elements of architectural design. Through degrees of articulation, each part is united with the whole work by means of a joint in such a way that the joined parts are put together in styles ranging from exceptionally distinct jointing to the opposite of high articulation—fluidity and continuity of joining. In highly articulated works, each part is defined precisely and stands out clearly. The articulation of a building reveals how the parts fit into the whole by emphasizing each part separately.

Modern Architecture uses advanced technology construction and modern building materials. Taller, lighter and stronger.

Contemporary Architecture - Great Images of Buildings.

Biomimetic Architecture is a contemporary philosophy of architecture that seeks solutions for sustainability in nature, not by replicating the natural forms, but by understanding the rules governing those forms. It is a multi-disciplinary approach to sustainable design that follows a set of principles rather than stylistic codes. It is part of a larger movement known as biomimicry, which is the examination of nature, its models, systems, and processes for the purpose of gaining inspiration in order to solve man-made problems.

Architectural Standards - Framing - Structural Engineering

Architectural Theory is the act of thinking, discussing, and writing about architecture. Architectural theory is taught in most architecture schools and is practiced by the world's leading architects.

Outline of Architecture (PDF)

Brutalist Architecture is characterized by simple, block-like structures that often feature bare building materials. Exposed concrete is favored in construction; however, some examples are primarily made of brick. Curbed Hands-On Architecture Explainer Brutalism (youtube).

Architectural Lighting Design is a field within architecture, interior design and electrical engineering that is concerned with the design of lighting systems, including natural light, electric light, or both, to serve human needs. The design process takes account of: The kind of human activity for which lighting is to be provided. The amount of light required. The color of the light as it may affect the views of particular objects and the environment as a whole. The distribution of light within the space to be lighted, whether indoor or outdoor. The effect of the lightened system itself on the user. The objective of lighting design is the human response, to see clearly and without discomfort. The objective of architectural lighting design is to further the design of architecture or the experience of buildings and other physical structures. Light Meters or Light Detectors are also used in illumination. Their purpose is to measure the illumination level in the interior and to switch off or reduce the output level of luminaires. This can greatly reduce the energy burden of the building by significantly increasing the efficiency of its lighting system. It is therefore recommended to use light meters in lighting systems, especially in rooms where one cannot expect users to pay attention to manually switching off the lights. Examples include hallways, stairs, and big halls. Facing the Sun.


Function - Form


Proportion Architecture is a central principle of architectural theory and an important connection between mathematics and art. It is the visual effect of the relationships of the various objects and spaces that make up a structure to one another and to the whole. These relationships are often governed by multiples of a standard unit of length known as a "module".

Form Follows Function is the principle of design that the shape of a building or object should be primarily based upon its intended Function or Purpose. The principle is associated with modernist architecture and industrial design in the 20th century. Safety.

Functionalism in architecture is the principle that buildings should be designed based solely on the purpose and function of the building. This principle is less self-evident than it first appears, and is a matter of confusion and controversy within the profession, particularly in regard to modern architecture.

Green Building - Working Together - Human Body

Functional Design is a paradigm used to simplify the design of hardware and software devices such as computer software and increasingly, 3D Models. A functional design assures that each modular part of a device has only one responsibility and performs that responsibility with the minimum of side effects on other parts. Functionally designed modules tend to have low coupling.

Structure Follows Strategy is a business principle that states that the divisions, departments, teams, processes and technology of an organization are designed to achieve a firm's strategy.

Aesthetics (Feng Shui) - Building Design Guidelines - Obsolescence

Loose Coupling system is one in which each of its components has, or makes use of, little or no knowledge of the definitions of other separate components. Subareas include the coupling of classes, interfaces, data, and services. Loose coupling is the opposite of tight coupling. Multi-Use.

Coupling in computer programming is the degree of interdependence between software modules; a measure of how closely connected two routines or modules are; the strength of the relationships between modules. Coupling is usually contrasted with cohesion. Low coupling often correlates with high cohesion, and vice versa. Low coupling is often a sign of a well-structured computer system and a good design, and when combined with high cohesion, supports the general goals of high readability and maintainability

Cohesion in computer science refers to the degree to which the elements inside a module belong together. In one sense, it is a measure of the strength of relationship between the methods and data of a class and some unifying purpose or concept served by that class. In another sense, it is a measure of the strength of relationship between the class’s methods and data themselves. Cohesion is an ordinal type of measurement and is usually described as “high cohesion” or “low cohesion”. Modules with high cohesion tend to be preferable, because high cohesion is associated with several desirable traits of software including robustness, reliability, reusability, and understandability. In contrast, low cohesion is associated with undesirable traits such as being difficult to maintain, test, reuse, or even understand. Cohesion is often contrasted with coupling, a different concept. High cohesion often correlates with loose coupling, and vice versa.

Function in engineering is interpreted as a specific process, action or task that a system is able to perform. Requirements usually specifies the most important attributes of the requested system. In the Design specification documents, physical or software processes and systems are frequently the requested functions.

Models - 3D Models - Drawings

Design - Location of Building

Building Commissioning is the process of verifying, in new construction, all (or some, depending on scope) of the subsystems for mechanical (HVAC), plumbing, electrical, fire/life safety, building envelopes, interior systems (example laboratory units), co-generation, utility plants, sustainable systems, lighting, wastewater, controls, and building security to achieve the owner's project requirements as intended by the building owner and as designed by the building architects and engineers. Recommissioning is the methodical process of testing and adjusting the aforementioned systems in existing buildings.

General Contractors

Cybernetics is a transdisciplinary approach for exploring regulatory systems—their structures, constraints, and possibilities.

Energy - Management

City Planning - Green Building - Hakerspace

Architecture-Engineering-Construction (ACE) - ACE Mentor

Engineering Process Outsourcing for the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry is a resource for the industries of the built environment. The EPO industry supports architecture, engineering and construction industries worldwide.

Architecture and Vision

Passivity Engineering is a property of engineering systems, used in a variety of engineering disciplines, but most commonly found in analog electronics and control systems. A passive component, depending on field, may be either a component that consumes (but does not produce) energy (thermodynamic passivity), or a component that is incapable of power gain (incremental passivity).

Why do most Church Facades have 3 door design with 1 big door in center with 2 small doors on either side of the big door?
Triptych is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divided into three sections, or three carved panels that are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. Arches.

Architecture of Cathedrals and Great Churches (wiki) - Romanesque Architecture (wiki)

Facade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually the front. Facadism refers to an architectural and construction practice where the facade of a building was designed or constructed separately from the rest of a building.

Vestibule or small foyer leading into a larger space, such as a lobby, entrance hall, passage, etc., for the purpose of waiting, withholding the larger space view, reducing heat loss, providing space for outwear, etc.

Pillar is a tall vertical structure of stone, wood, or metal, used as a support for a building, or as an ornament or monument.
Column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member.

Pedestal or plinth is the support of a statue or a vase, and of a column in architecture. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape may be called socles.

Antoni Gaudí was a Spanish architect known as the greatest exponent of Catalan Modernism. Gaudí's works have a highly individualized, one-of-a-kind style. Most are located in Barcelona, including his main work, the church of the Sagrada Família. Gaudí's work was influenced by his passions in life: architecture, nature, and religion. He considered every detail of his creations and integrated into his architecture such crafts as ceramics, stained glass, wrought ironwork forging and carpentry. He also introduced new techniques in the treatment of materials, such as trencadís which used waste ceramic pieces. Under the influence of neo-Gothic art and Oriental techniques, Gaudí became part of the Modernista movement which was reaching its peak in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His work transcended mainstream Modernisme, culminating in an organic style inspired by natural forms. Gaudí rarely drew detailed plans of his works, instead preferring to create them as three-dimensional scale models and moulding the details as he conceived them. Gaudí's work enjoys global popularity and continuing admiration and study by architects. His masterpiece, the still-incomplete Sagrada Família, is the most-visited monument in Spain. Between 1984 and 2005, seven of his works were declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. Gaudí's Roman Catholic faith intensified during his life and religious images appear in many of his works. This earned him the nickname "God's Architect" and led to calls for his beatification. (June 25th 1852 – June 10th 1926 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain). Stone Work.

American Institute of Architects
National Professional Association of Architects
Arch Kidecture

Baroque is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1740s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including the Iberian Peninsula it continued, together with new styles, until the first decade of the 1800s. It followed Renaissance art and Mannerism and preceded the Rococo (in the past often referred to as "late Baroque") and Neoclassical styles. It was encouraged by the Catholic Church as a means to counter the simplicity and austerity of Protestant architecture, art and music, though Lutheran Baroque art developed in parts of Europe as well. The Baroque style used contrast, movement, exuberant detail, deep colour, grandeur and surprise to achieve a sense of awe. The style began at the start of the 17th century in Rome, then spread rapidly to France, northern Italy, Spain and Portugal, then to Austria, southern Germany and Russia. By the 1730s, it had evolved into an even more flamboyant style, called rocaille or Rococo, which appeared in France and Central Europe until the mid to late 18th century. In the decorative arts there is an excess of ornamentation. The departure from Renaissance classicism has its own ways in each country. But a general feature is that everywhere the starting point is the ornamental elements introduced by the Renaissance. The classical repertoire is crowded, dense, overlapping, loaded, in order to provoke shock effects. New motifs introduced by Baroque are: the cartouche, trophies and weapons, baskets of fruit or flowers, and others, made in marquetry, stucco, or carved.

Bird Friendly Glass. Researchers estimate that hundreds of millions of birds are killed each year in North America due to collisions with glass on human-built structures, making bird collisions one of the most significant causes of avian mortality globally. It is the reflective and transparent characteristics of glass that create the danger for birds, as they cannot see it as a barrier. They fly to sky and trees reflected by or on the other side of a window or railing and collide fatally with the glass. To prevent these collisions, glass must somehow be made visible to birds. Birds are able to see light in the ultraviolet spectrum. So we created visual markers alerting birds to a barrier while keeping the aesthetic transparency of glass.


Building Codes - Rules for Building


Building Code is a set of rules that specify the Architectural Standards for constructed objects such as buildings and nonbuilding structures. The main purpose of building codes is to protect public health, safety and general welfare as they relate to the construction and occupancy of buildings and structures. The building code becomes law of a particular jurisdiction when formally enacted by the appropriate governmental or private authority. Regulations - Statute.

City Development - Surveying - Building Analyst - Earthquakes

Zoning describes the control by authority which designates legal areas in a municipality to permit and prohibit land uses. Zoning may specify a variety of outright and conditional uses of land. It may also indicate the size and dimensions of land area as well as the form and scale of buildings. These guidelines are set in order to guide urban growth and development.

Jay Austin's Beautiful, Illegal Tiny House (youtube) There are Cities that have no Zoning Rules.

International Code Council - Public Codes - Nuisance

Housing Types - Location - Orientation - Design Guides

Construction Permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation) in some jurisdictions.

Fire Safety (PDF) - Fire Code (PDF) - Safety Engineering

Planning and Zoning Commission is a local elected or appointed government board charged with recommending to the local town or city council the boundaries of the various original zoning district and appropriate regulations to be enforced therein and any proposed amendments thereto and shall collect data and keep itself informed as to the best practices generally in effect in the matter city planning and zoning to the end that it may be qualified to act on measures affecting the present and future movement of traffic, the segregation of residential and business districts and the convenience and safety of persons and property in any way dependent on city planning and zoning. Some jurisdictions may refer to them also planning commissions, planning boards, zoning commissions, and zoning boards. The chairman of the Planning and Zoning Commission (or a staff member) is responsible for publishing public hearing in the newspaper about certain matters that come before the commission. Most municipal or county Planning and Zoning Commissions consist of five to seven members. This number does not include alternates. In some states, planning and zoning commissions are regional or county. Some communities elect planning and zoning commission members. In other jurisdictions, the Planning and Zoning Commissioners are appointed by the Mayor or First Selectman of the city or town and approved by the city's legislative body, i.e. city council, board of aldermen, etc. (some planning commissioners are appointed by the City Commission as a whole). Please note that planning and zoning commissions may also be approving agencies for development permits, variances to the zoning code. Other jurisdictions may have separate zoning board of adjustments or appeals appointed by the governing body that perform the function instead of the planning and zoning commission doing it. Some jurisdictions have featured court appointed zoning boards/boards of adjustment and appeals due to the quasi-judicial functions. Town Ordinance.

Change Order refers to the changes in the scope of work agreed to by the owner, contractor, and architect or engineer. A change order is work that is added to or deleted from the original scope of work of a contract, however, depending on the magnitude of the change, it may or may not alter the original contract amount and/or completion date. A change order may force a new project to handle significant changes to the current project. Change Request (wiki). Warning: some contractors use change requests to charge the customer more money over the original price that was bid. So the lowest bid might not be the price you pay. Construction Fraud.

Contractor is a person or company that undertakes a contract to provide materials or labor to perform a service or do a job.

Subcontractor is an individual or in many cases a business that signs a contract to perform part or all of the obligations of another's contract.

Accessory use and an accessory structure typical accessory use to a residence, like a swimming pool or a tennis court.

Home Inspection is a limited, non-invasive examination of the condition of a home, often in connection with the sale of that home. Home inspections are usually conducted by a home inspector who has the training and certifications to perform such inspections. The inspector prepares and delivers to the client a written report of findings. The client then uses the knowledge gained to make informed decisions about their pending real estate purchase. The home inspector describes the condition of the home at the time of inspection but does not guarantee future condition, efficiency, or life expectancy of systems or components. International Association of Certified Home Inspectors.

Private Certifications and inspections are only as good as the people doing the inspections, and only if they are following and conforming to high quality standards, and that the inspection proves that there's no substandard materials or substandard craftsmanship. Corrupt developers love to cut corners and use low quality products just so they make more money at other peoples expense. They love to farm out to subcontractors who are unaware of the defects. When criminal developers don't follow building standards and exploit weak or relax regulations and use non-conforming standards or non-compliance building methods, then homeowners suffer the consequences and become victimized by greedy and narrow minded developers.

Structural Engineering - Electrical Work (electricity)

Building Performance of a building or built environment is the efficiency of functioning of buildings and the construction industry, its impact on natural environment, urban environment and its users. It is achieved through means such as architectural design values, building science, architectural engineering, efficient energy use and sustainability.

Sim Scale Simulation Software and Design Validation.

Southeastern Consulting Engineers, Inc. provides professional engineering services in whatever capacity best fits our client's needs. Professionalism in all facets of civil and structural engineering including commercial and residential structural engineering, site planning, land use planning, utility engineering, construction engineering inspection, FDEP permitting, subdivision planning and design, and more. Our team of professionals currently provide our services to clients in Florida but are capable within the entire southeast.

Energy Monitoring - Indoor Air

Recreational Vehicle Industry Association certifies Tiny Homes to make sure they're up to recreational vehicle building codes and are safe for habitation.

Plumbing is any system that conveys fluids for a wide range of applications. Plumbing uses pipes, valves, plumbing fixtures, tanks, and other apparatuses to convey fluids. Heating and cooling (HVAC), Waste Water Removal, and potable water delivery are among the most common uses for plumbing, but it is not limited to these applications. In the developed world, plumbing infrastructure is critical to public health and sanitation. Boilermakers and pipefitters are not plumbers, although they work with piping as part of their trade, but their work can include some plumbing.


Building Sciences


Building Science is the collection of scientific knowledge and experience that focuses on the analysis and control of the physical phenomena affecting buildings and architecture. It traditionally includes areas such as building materials, building envelope, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, natural and electrical lighting, acoustic, indoor air quality, passive strategies, fire protection, and renewable energies in buildings.

Transformation Design is a human-centered, interdisciplinary process that seeks to create desirable and sustainable changes in behavior and form – of individuals, systems and organizations – often for socially progressive ends.

Human Factors Ergonomics, comfort design, functional design, and systems, is the practice of designing products, systems, or processes to take proper account of the interaction between them and the people who use them. Posture - Safety Engineering.

Air Flow Control in Buildings - Effect of High-Rise open ground floor to wind flow and Natural Ventilation.

Air Rights are the property interest in the "space" above the earth's surface. Generally speaking, owning, or renting, land or a building includes the right to use and develop the space above the land without interference by others.


Constructions


Construction is the process of constructing a building or infrastructure. There are three sectors of construction: buildings, infrastructure and industrial. Building construction is usually further divided into residential and non-residential. Infrastructure, also called heavy civil or heavy engineering, includes large public works, dams, bridges, highways, railways, water or wastewater and utility distribution. Industrial construction includes offshore construction (mainly of energy installations), mining and quarrying, refineries, chemical processing, power generation, mills and manufacturing plants.

Constructing is to make something by combining materials and parts. To put together something out of artificial or natural components or parts. Create by organizing and linking ideas, arguments, constructs or concepts. Manufacturing.

Construction Worker is a manual laborer employed in the physical construction of the built environment and its  infrastructure. Labourers carry out a wide range of practical tasks to help tradespersons on construction sites. Labourers clean the construction site on a regular basis. They use tools such as rakes, shovels, and wheelbarrows to remove rubble, scraps of metal, and wood or they might also need to sweep out certain areas, and get building supplies in order. Construction workers may also colloquially be referred to as "hard hat workers" or "hard hats", as they often wear hardhats for safety.

Build is to make by combining materials and parts. Give form to something according to a plan. Form or accumulate steadily. Develop and grow. Bolster or strengthen. To create something abstract.

Building is the act of constructing something. The commercial activity involved in repairing old structures or constructing new ones. Building is a structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place on a foundation, such as a house or factory. Models.

Make is to give certain properties to something. To be engaged in an activity that causes something to be or to become. To give rise to something or cause something to happen or to occur. Appear to begin an activity. Proceed along a path. To create, design or manufacture a man-made product. Be or be capable of being changed or made into. Make by shaping or bringing together constituents or by combining materials and parts. Change from one form into another. Achieve a point or goal. Perform or carry out. Undergo fabrication or creation. Calculate as being. Favor the development of. To formulate, or derive in the mind. Behave in a certain way.

Built Environment refers to the human-made environment that provides the setting for human activity, ranging in scale from buildings to cities and beyond. It has been defined as "the human-made space in which people live, work and recreate on a day-to-day basis." The built environment encompasses places and spaces created or modified by people to serve their needs of accommodation, organisation and representation. The sciences of the built environment cover architecture, urbanism, building technology, civil engineering, landscaping and the management of built stock mutations and operations. In recent years, public health research has expanded the definition of "built environment" to include healthy food access, community gardens, mental health, physical health,"walkability", and "bikeability".

Building Material is any material which is used for construction purposes. Many naturally occurring substances, such as clay, rocks, sand, and wood, even twigs and leaves, have been used to construct buildings. Apart from naturally occurring materials, many man-made products are in use, some more and some less synthetic. The manufacturing of building materials is an established industry in many countries and the use of these materials is typically segmented into specific specialty trades, such as carpentry, insulation, plumbing, and roofing work. They provide the make-up of habitats and structures including homes.

Scaffolding - Framing - Wood Work - Playground

Makeshift is something serving as a temporary substitute and sufficient for the time being.


Foundations


Foundation is the element of an architectural structure which connects it to the ground, and transfers loads from the structure to the ground. Foundations are generally considered either shallow or deep. Foundation engineering is the application of soil mechanics and rock mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering in the design of foundation elements of structures.

Knowledge Foundation

Concrete - Cement - Stone Work - Earthquakes - Metal Working


Bridges


Bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles without closing the way underneath such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, usually something that can be detrimental to cross otherwise. There are many different designs that each serve a particular purpose and apply to different situations. Designs of bridges vary depending on the function of the bridge, the nature of the terrain where the bridge is constructed and anchored, the material used to make it, and the funds available to build it. Geotechnical Engineering.

Suspension Bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (the load-bearing portion) is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple Suspension Bridges, which lack vertical suspenders, have a long history in many mountainous parts of the world. This type of bridge has cables suspended between towers, plus vertical suspender cables that carry the weight of the deck below, upon which traffic crosses. This arrangement allows the deck to be level or to arc upward for additional clearance. Like other suspension bridge types, this type often is constructed without falsework. The suspension cables must be anchored at each end of the bridge, since any load applied to the bridge is transformed into a tension in these main cables. The main cables continue beyond the pillars to deck-level supports, and further continue to connections with anchors in the ground. The roadway is supported by vertical suspender cables or rods, called hangers. In some circumstances, the towers may sit on a bluff or canyon edge where the road may proceed directly to the main span, otherwise the bridge will usually have two smaller spans, running between either pair of pillars and the highway, which may be supported by suspender cables or may use a truss bridge to make this connection. In the latter case there will be very little arc in the outboard main cables. Tacoma Narrows Bridge (1940) (wiki).

Truss is an assembly of beams or other elements that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assemblage as a whole behaves as a single object". A "two-force member" is a structural component where force is applied to only two points. Although this rigorous definition allows the members to have any shape connected in any stable configuration, trusses typically comprise five or more triangular units constructed with straight members whose ends are connected at joints referred to as nodes. In this typical context, external forces and reactions to those forces are considered to act only at the nodes and result in forces in the members that are either tensile or compressive. For straight members, moments (torques) are explicitly excluded because, and only because, all the joints in a truss are treated as revolutes, as is necessary for the links to be two-force members. A planar truss is one where all members and nodes lie within a two-dimensional plane, while a space truss has members and nodes that extend into three dimensions. The top beams in a truss are called top chords and are typically in compression, the bottom beams are called bottom chords, and are typically in tension. The interior beams are called webs, and the areas inside the webs are called panels, or from graphic statics (see Cremona diagram) polygons.

Tensegrity is a structural principle based on a system of isolated components under compression inside a network of continuous tension, and arranged in such a way that the compressed members (usually bars or struts) do not touch each other while the prestressed tensioned members (usually cables or tendons) delineate the system spatially.

Rio-Antirrion Bridge is one of the world's longest multi-span cable-stayed bridges and longest of the fully suspended type. It crosses the Gulf of Corinth near Patras, linking the town of Rio on the Peloponnese peninsula to Antirrio on mainland Greece by road. It opened one day before the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics, on 12 August 2004, and was used to transport the Olympic Flame.

Footbridge is a bridge designed for pedestrians and in some cases cyclists, animal traffic, and horse riders, instead of vehicular traffic. Footbridges complement the landscape and can be used decoratively to visually link two distinct areas or to signal a transaction. In many developed countries, footbridges are both functional and can be beautiful works of art and sculpture.

Leonardo da Vinci's Self Supporting Bridge - How to Build Your Own (youtube) - Vebjørn Sand Da Vinci Project is a laminated-wood parabolic-arch pedestrian bridge in Norway.

Which is the Strongest Bridge? Hydraulic Press Test!(youtube)

The Unfoldable Bridge Construction - Die Brücke zum Aufklappen (youtube)

How are Underwater Structures Built? (youtube)

Caisson is a watertight retaining structure used, for example, to work on the foundations of a bridge pier, for the construction of a concrete dam, or for the repair of ships. Caissons are constructed in such a way that the water can be pumped out, keeping the work environment dry. When piers are being built using an open caisson, and it is not practical to reach suitable soil, friction pilings may be driven to form a suitable sub-foundation. These piles are connected by a foundation pad upon which the column pier is erected. Underwater Construction Corporation.

Tremie is a watertight pipe, usually of about 250mm inside diameter (150 to 300 mm), with a conical hopper at its upper end above the water level. It may have a loose plug or a valve at the bottom end. A tremie is used to pour concrete underwater in a way that avoids washout of cement from the mix due to turbulent water contact with the concrete while it is flowing. This produces a more reliable strength of the product. Common applications include the following. Caissons, which are the foundations of bridges, among other things, that span bodies of water. Pilings. Monitoring wells. Builders use tremie methods for materials other than concrete, and for industries other than construction. For example, bentonite slurries for monitoring wells are often emplaced via tremie pipe. Hole Drilling.

Dewatering is the removal of water from solid material or soil by wet classification, centrifugation, filtration, or similar solid-liquid separation processes, such as removal of residual liquid from a filter cake by a filter press as part of various industrial processes. Construction dewatering, unwatering, or water control are common terms used to describe removal or draining groundwater or surface water from a riverbed, construction site, caisson, or mine shaft, by pumping or evaporation. On a construction site, this dewatering may be implemented before subsurface excavation for foundations, shoring, or cellar space to lower the water table. This frequently involves the use of submersible "dewatering" pumps, centrifugal ("trash") pumps, eductors, or application of vacuum to well points.

Cofferdam is an enclosure built within, or in pairs across, a body of water to allow the enclosed area to be pumped out. This pumping creates a dry work environment for the work to be carried out. Enclosed coffers are commonly used for construction or repair of permanent dams, oil platforms, bridge piers, et cetera, built within or over water. These cofferdams are usually welded steel structures, with components consisting of sheet piles, wales, and cross braces. Such structures are usually dismantled after the construction work is completed.



Earthquake Resistant Construction


Earthquake Building Isolation Bearings Earthquake Resistant Structures are structures designed to withstand earthquakes. While no structure can be entirely immune to damage from earthquakes, the goal of earthquake-resistant construction is to erect structures that fare better during seismic activity than their conventional counterparts.

Strength of Materials - Safety Engineering - Center of Gravity

Build an Earthquake Proof Building
Earthquake News
Earthquake Engineering Research Center
Earthquake Resistant Building
World's Largest Earthquake Test (youtube)
Energy Absorbing Structure
NS Honeycombs Demonstration (youtube)
Tech 21
Building to withstand Disasters pays off big, study shows

Seismic Isolation Floor Systems. There are two types, including the base-isolated foundations SKID for two dimensions and the base-isolated foundations KEEP for two / three dimensions. They can be installed into both new and existing buildings.

Server room with seismic isolation floor in East Japan Great Earthquake disaster (youtube)

Seismic Retrofit is the modification of existing structures to make them more resistant to seismic activity, ground motion, or soil failure due to earthquakes. Earthquake Retrofitting.

Seismic Analysis is a subset of structural analysis and is the calculation of the response of a building (or nonbuilding) structure to earthquakes. It is part of the process of structural design, earthquake engineering or structural assessment and retrofit (see structural engineering) in regions where earthquakes are prevalent.

Flexible is the property of being flexible and easy to bend or easily shaped. The quality of being adaptable or variable.

Flexibility in Engineering (repurpose) - Structural Analysis

Mechanical Impedance is a measure of how much a structure resists motion when subjected to a harmonic force. It relates forces with velocities acting on a mechanical system. The mechanical impedance of a point on a structure is the ratio of the force applied at a point to the resulting velocity at that point.

Compliant Mechanism are flexible mechanisms that transfer an input force and displacement at one port to an output force and displacement at another port through elastic body deformation. These may be monolithic (single-piece) or jointless structures. Since many compliant mechanisms are single-piece structures, there is no need of assembly. With no joints, "rubbing" between two parts or friction as seen at the joints of rigid body mechanisms is absent. Compliant mechanisms are elastic.

Displacement is the moving of something from its place or position. The action of uniform movement without rotation. Cause to move or shift into a new position or place, both in a concrete and in an abstract sense. Deformation.

Displacement vector is a vector whose length is the shortest distance from the initial to the final position of a point P. It quantifies both the distance and direction of an imaginary motion along a straight line from the initial position to the final position of the point. A displacement may be identified with the translation that maps the initial position to the final position. A displacement may be also described as a 'relative position', that is, as the final position xf of a point relatively to its initial position xi. The corresponding displacement vector can be defined as the difference between the final and initial positions.

Simple Harmonic Motion is a special type of periodic motion or oscillation motion where the restoring force is directly proportional to the displacement and acts in the direction opposite to that of displacement.

Building Resonance: Structural stability during earthquakes. All buildings have a natural period, or resonance, which is the number of seconds it takes for the building to naturally vibrate back and forth. Structural Engineering.

Control of Floor Vibration. Excessive floor vibration has become a greater problem as new rhythmic activities, such as aerobics, and long-span floor structures have become more common.

Anti-Vibration Pads or vibration isolators, are used in a variety of applications, such as to reduce the transmitted vibration from a washing machine to the surrounding area. ... Foam, neoprene, and rubber vibration isolation pads are commonly used with appliances such as washing machines.

Pile Rafts are structural foundation systems that derive their strength from the combined pile and base soil resistance. The term “raft” in pile rafts, refers to the fact that the combined foundation is “floating” in soil.

End Bearing Piles are the bottom end of the pile rests on a layer of especially strong soil or rock. The load of the building is transferred through the pile onto the strong layer. In a sense, this pile acts like a column.

Rod End Bearing also known as a heim joint (N. America) or rose joint (U.K. and elsewhere), is a mechanical articulating joint. Such joints are used on the ends of control rods, steering links, tie rods, or anywhere a precision articulating joint is required, and where a clevis end (which requires perfect 90 degree alignment between the attached shaft and the second component) is unsuitable. A ball swivel with an opening through which a bolt or other attaching hardware may pass is pressed into a circular casing with a threaded shaft attached. The threaded portion may be either male or female. The heim joint's advantage is that the ball insert permits the rod or bolt passing through it to be misaligned to a limited degree (an angle other than 90 degrees). A link terminated in two heim joints permits misalignment of their attached shafts (viz., other than 180 degrees).

Girder is a support beam used in construction. It is the main horizontal support of a structure which supports smaller beams.

Deflection is the degree to which a structural element is displaced under a load. It may refer to an angle or a distance.

Tuned Mass Damper is a device mounted in structures to reduce the amplitude of mechanical vibrations. Their application can prevent discomfort, damage, or outright structural failure. They are frequently used in power transmission, automobiles, and buildings.

Twist Building Design - Time-Frequency Analysis of Postural Sway (sway Frequency)

Shear Wall is a vertical element of a seismic force resisting system that is designed to resist in-plane lateral forces, typically wind and seismic loads. In many jurisdictions, the International Building Code and International Residential Code govern the design of shear walls. A shear wall resists loads parallel to the plane of the wall. Collectors, also known as drag members, transfer the diaphragm shear to shear walls and other vertical elements of the seismic force resisting system. Shear walls are typically light-framed or braced wooden walls with shear panels, reinforced concrete walls, reinforced masonry walls, or steel plates. Plywood is the conventional material used in wood (timber) shear walls, but with advances in technology and modern building methods, other prefabricated options have made it possible to inject shear assemblies into narrow walls that fall at either side of an opening. Sheet steel and steel-backed shear panels in the place of structural plywood in shear walls has proved to provide stronger seismic resistance.

Designing a flexible material to protect buildings, military personnel. A team of engineers has designed a flexible material that can help buildings withstand multiple waves of energy traveling through a solid material, including the simultaneous forward and backward and side-to-side motions found in earthquakes.

Vortex Shedding is an oscillating flow that takes place when a fluid such as air or water flows past a bluff (as opposed to streamlined) body at certain velocities, depending on the size and shape of the body. In this flow, vortices are created at the back of the body and detach periodically from either side of the body. See Von Kármán vortex street. The fluid flow past the object creates alternating low-pressure vortices on the downstream side of the object. The object will tend to move toward the low-pressure zone. (Rounded Edges - Round Corners). If the bluff structure is not mounted rigidly and the frequency of vortex shedding matches the resonance frequency of the structure, then the structure can begin to resonate, vibrating with harmonic oscillations driven by the energy of the flow. This vibration is the cause for overhead power line wires humming in the wind, and for the fluttering of automobile whip radio antennas at some speeds. Tall chimneys constructed of thin-walled steel tubes can be sufficiently flexible that, in air flow with a speed in the critical range, vortex shedding can drive the chimney into violent oscillations that can damage or destroy the chimney. Vortex shedding was one of the causes proposed for the failure of the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge (Galloping Gertie) in 1940, but was rejected because the frequency of the vortex shedding did not match that of the bridge. The bridge actually failed by aeroelastic flutter. A thrill ride, "VertiGo" at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio suffered vortex shedding during the winter of 2001, causing one of the three towers to collapse. The ride was closed for the winter at the time. In northeastern Iran, the Hashemi-Nejad natural gas refinery's flare stacks suffered vortex shedding seven times from 1975 to 2003. Some simulation and analyses were done, which revealed that the main cause was the interaction of the pilot flame and flare stack. The problem was solved by removing the pilot. High Winds.

Strake is an aerodynamic surface generally mounted on the fuselage of an aircraft to improve the flight characteristics either by controlling the airflow (acting as large vortex generators) or by simple stabilising effect. In general a strake is longer than it is wide, in contrast to a winglet or a moustache. Leading edge root extensions (LERX) are also sometimes referred to as wing strakes.

Tapering is to become thinner or narrower towards one end.

Stack Effect is the movement of air into and out of buildings, chimneys, flue-gas stacks, or other containers, resulting from air buoyancy. Buoyancy occurs due to a difference in indoor-to-outdoor air density resulting from temperature and moisture differences. The result is either a positive or negative buoyancy force. The greater the thermal difference and the height of the structure, the greater the buoyancy force, and thus the stack effect. The stack effect helps drive natural ventilation, air infiltration, and fires (e.g. the Kaprun tunnel fire and King's Cross underground station fire).

Revolving Door typically consists of three or four doors that hang on a central shaft and rotate around a vertical axis within a cylindrical enclosure. Revolving doors are energy efficient as they (acting as an airlock) prevent drafts, thus decreasing the loss of heating or cooling for the building. Revolving doors were designed to relieve stack effect pressure in buildings. High-rise buildings experience immense pressure caused by air rushing through the building, referred to as 'Stack Effect' pressure. At the same time, revolving doors allow large numbers of people to pass in and out, and the door is always closed.

Airlock is a device which permits the passage of people and objects between a pressure vessel and its surroundings while minimizing the change of pressure in the vessel and loss of air from it. The lock consists of a small chamber with two airtight doors in series which do not open simultaneously. An airlock may be used for passage between environments of different gases rather than different pressures, to minimize or prevent the gases from mixing. An airlock may also be used underwater to allow passage between an air environment in a pressure vessel and the water environment outside, in which case the airlock can contain air or water. This is called a floodable airlock or an underwater airlock, and is used to prevent water from entering a submersible vessel or an underwater habitat.

Skyscraper Design and Construction involves creating safe, habitable spaces in very high buildings. The buildings must support their weight, resist wind and earthquakes, and protect occupants from fire. Yet they must also be conveniently accessible, even on the upper floors, and provide utilities and a comfortable climate for the occupants. The problems posed in skyscraper design are considered among the most complex encountered given the balances required between economics, engineering, and construction management. Keeping Skyscrapers From Blowing in the Wind - The New York Times.

Worlds Tallest Buildings (image)

Skyscraper is a large continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least 100 metres or 150 metres in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Historically, the term first referred to buildings with between 10 and 20 stories when these types of buildings began to be constructed in the 1880s. Skyscrapers may host offices, hotels, residential spaces, and retail spaces. One common feature of skyscrapers is having a steel framework that supports curtain walls. These curtain walls either bear on the framework below or are suspended from the framework above, rather than resting on load-bearing walls of conventional construction. Some early skyscrapers have a steel frame that enables the construction of load-bearing walls taller than of those made of reinforced concrete. Modern skyscrapers' walls are not load-bearing, and most skyscrapers are characterised by large surface areas of windows made possible by steel frames and curtain walls. However, skyscrapers can have curtain walls that mimic conventional walls with a small surface area of windows. Modern skyscrapers often have a tubular structure, and are designed to act like a hollow cylinder to resist wind, seismic, and other lateral loads. To appear slenderer, allow less wind exposure and transmit more daylight to the ground, many skyscrapers have a design with setbacks, which in some cases is also structurally required. As of January 2020, only nine cities have more than 100 skyscrapers that are 150 m (492 ft) or taller: Hong Kong (355), Shenzhen (289), New York City (284), Dubai (201), Shanghai (163), Tokyo (158), Chongqing (127), Chicago (127), and Guangzhou (118).

Hurricane-Proof Building is a variety of methods can help a building survive strong winds and storm surge.

Expansive Soils cause more property damage per year than earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes combined.

Soil Liquefaction occurs when a saturated or partially saturated Soil substantially loses strength and stiffness in response to an applied stress such as shaking during an earthquake or other sudden change in stress condition, in which material that is ordinarily a solid behaves like a liquid.

Sink Holes - Soil Mechanics - Erosion

Free Surface Effect is a mechanism which can cause a watercraft to become unstable and capsize. It refers to the tendency of liquids — and of unbound aggregates of small solid objects, like seeds, gravel, or crushed ore, whose behavior approximates that of liquids — to move in response to changes in the attitude of a craft's cargo holds, decks, or liquid tanks in reaction to operator-induced motions (or sea states caused by waves and wind acting upon the craft). When referring to the free surface effect, the condition of a tank that is not full is described as a "slack tank", while a full tank is "pressed up". Baffle is a flat plate that controls or directs the flow of fluid or energy.

New Earthquake Risk Model could better inform Disaster Planning. Researchers have developed a new way to model seismic risk, which they hope will better inform disaster risk reduction planning in earthquake-prone areas.

Viscous Damping are hydraulic devices that dissipate the kinetic energy of seismic events and cushion the impact between structures. They are versatile and can be designed to allow free movement as well as controlled damping of a structure to protect from wind load, thermal motion or seismic events. Viscous damping force is a formulation of the damping phenomena, in which the source of damping force is modeled as a function of the volume, shape, and velocity of an object traversing through a real fluid with viscosity. Typical examples of viscous damping in mechanical systems include: Fluid films between surfaces. Fluid flow around a piston in a cylinder. Fluid flow through an orifice. Fluid flow within a journal bearing. Viscous damping also refers to damping devices. Most often they damp motion by providing a force or torque opposing motion proportional to the velocity. This may be effected by fluid flow or motion of magnetic structures. The intended effect is to improve the damping ratio. Shock absorbers in cars. Tuned Mass Dampers in tall buildings. Deployment actuators in spacecraft.

Fast, accurate estimation of the Earth's Magnetic Field for natural Disaster Detection. Deep neural networks to detect magnetic field anomalies for faster warnings before earthquakes and tsunamis. Researchers have applied machine-learning techniques to achieve fast, accurate estimates of local geomagnetic fields using data taken at multiple observation points, potentially allowing detection of changes caused by earthquakes and tsunamis. A deep neural network (DNN) model was developed and trained using existing data; the result is a fast, efficient method for estimating magnetic fields for unprecedentedly early detection of natural disasters. This is vital for developing effective warning systems that might help reduce casualties and widespread damage.



Stone Working - Masonry - Bricks


Stone Work Rock Wall and Stairs Bricklayer is a craftsman who lays bricks to construct brickwork. Union of Bricklayers

Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar; The common materials of masonry construction are brick, building stone such as marble, granite, travertine, and limestone, cast stone, concrete block, glass block, and cob. Masonry Institute.

Stonemasonry is creating buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone from the earth.

Cyclopean Masonry is a type of stonework found in Mycenaean architecture, built with massive limestone boulders, roughly fitted together with minimal clearance between adjacent stones and with clay mortar or no use of mortar. The boulders typically seem unworked, but some may have been worked roughly with a hammer and the gaps between boulders filled in with smaller chunks of limestone.

Megalith is a large pre-historic stone that has been used to construct a structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, ranging from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea.

Building Science - Professions - Vocational Training

She's a Brick House - Cement

Stones under pressure are more durable and stable than stones under tension. As long as there is pressure on the stone, the stone will be stronger and more stable. Stones with no support or without a foundation will be more vulnerable to stress and fractures. Mountains take a long time to wither and crumble, look at the pyramids.

Arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it. Arches may be synonymous with vaults, but a vault may be distinguished as a continuous arch forming a roof. Arches appeared as early as the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamian brick architecture, and their systematic use started with the ancient Romans, who were the first to apply the technique to a wide range of structures.

Guastavino Arches (youtube) Guastavino Tile (wiki) - Matrix - Domes - Churches

Construction Craft Worker Foundations Program (youtube)
Architectural Display Glass (youtube)

How "Stonehenge" Was Built? (youtube) - Wally Wallington from Flint Michigan has demonstrated that he can lift a Stonehenge-sized pillar weighing 22,000 lbs and moved a barn over 300 ft. What makes this so special is that he does it using only himself, gravity, and his incredible ingenuity. Matter Design Studio.

Leverage is a force compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot, which is the point of rotation in a lever system; Torque. Lever is a machine consisting of a beam or rigid rod pivoted at a fixed hinge, or fulcrum, which is the support about which a lever pivots. Lever is a rigid body capable of rotating on a point on itself. On the basis of the location of fulcrum, load and effort, the lever is divided into three types. It is one of the six simple machines identified by Renaissance scientists. A lever amplifies an input force to provide a greater output force, which is said to provide leverage. The ratio of the output force to the input force is the mechanical advantage of the lever.

Mechanical Advantage
is the ratio of the output force produced by a machine, especially a simple machine, to the applied input force.

Lever is a simple machine consisting of a beam or rigid rod pivoted at a fixed hinge, or fulcrum. A lever is a rigid body capable of rotating on a point on itself. On the basis of the location of fulcrum, load and effort, the lever is divided into three types. It is one of the six simple machines identified by Renaissance scientists. A lever amplifies an input force to provide a greater output force, which is said to provide leverage. The ratio of the output force to the input force is the mechanical advantage of the lever. Crowbar (wiki).

Fulcrum
is the point on which a lever rests or is supported and on which it pivots.
Pivot is the axis consisting of a short shaft that supports something that turns.
Axis is the center around which something rotates. Angles.

Mechanical Advantage is a measure of the force amplification achieved by using a tool, mechanical device or machine system. The device preserves the input power and simply trades off forces against movement to obtain a desired amplification in the output force. The model for this is the law of the lever. Machine components designed to manage forces and movement in this way are called mechanisms. An ideal mechanism transmits power without adding to or subtracting from it. This means the ideal mechanism does not include a power source, is frictionless, and is constructed from rigid bodies that do not deflect or wear. The performance of a real system relative to this ideal is expressed in terms of efficiency factors that take into account departures from the ideal. Mechanical Advantage Device (wiki).

Pulley is a wheel on an axle or shaft that is designed to support movement and change of direction of a taut cable or belt, or transfer of power between the shaft and cable or belt. In the case of a pulley supported by a frame or shell that does not transfer power to a shaft, but is used to guide the cable or exert a force, the supporting shell is called a block, and the pulley may be called a sheave. Block and Tackle or Snatch Block. Zip Line consists of a pulley suspended on a cable, usually made of stainless steel, mounted on a slope.

Building the Pyramids of Egypt ...a detailed step by step guide (youtube) - Water shaft theory, limestone is soft when quarried, and when added to water it can be easily shaped using the water as a constant level. Water Lift Shafts and causeways and canal linking and high pressure water springs. (Base to Height ratio of the Pyramid - Height of pyramid X 43,200 = the polar radius of earth. The base of pyramid X 43,200 = the circumference of earth). Stone Cutting Tools.

Archimedes' Principle indicates that the upward buoyant force that is exerted on a body immersed in a fluid, whether fully or partially submerged, is equal to the weight of the fluid that the body displaces and it acts in the upward direction at the centre of mass of the displaced fluid.

Lock in Water is a device used for raising and lowering boats, ships and other watercraft between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber in which the water level can be varied; whereas in a caisson lock, a boat lift, or on a canal inclined plane, it is the chamber itself (usually then called a caisson) that rises and falls. Falkirk Wheel (wiki).

Scaffolding is a temporary structure used to support a work crew and materials to aid in the construction, maintenance and repair of buildings, bridges and all other man made structures. Scaffolding is also used in adapted forms for formwork and shoring, grandstand seating, concert stages, access/viewing towers, exhibition stands, ski ramps, half pipes and art projects. Scaffolding is a temporary Structure on the outside of a building, made usually of wooden planks and metal poles, used by workers while building, repairing, or cleaning the building. Framing.

Plaster is a building material used for the protective and/or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "render" commonly refers to external applications. Another imprecise term used for the material is stucco, which is also often used for plasterwork that is worked in some way to produce relief decoration, rather than flat surfaces. The most common types of plaster mainly contain either gypsum, lime, or Cement, but all work in a similar way. The plaster is manufactured as a dry powder and is mixed with water to form a stiff but workable paste immediately before it is applied to the surface. The reaction with water liberates heat through crystallization and the hydrated plaster then hardens. Plaster can be relatively easily worked with metal tools or even sandpaper, and can be moulded, either on site or to make pre-formed sections in advance, which are put in place with adhesive. Plaster is not a strong material; it is suitable for finishing, rather than load-bearing, and when thickly applied for decoration may require a hidden supporting framework, usually in metal. Forms of plaster have several other uses. In medicine plaster orthopedic casts are still often used for supporting set broken bones. In dentistry plaster is used to make dental models. Various types of models and moulds are made with plaster. In art, lime plaster is the traditional matrix for fresco painting; the pigments are applied to a thin wet top layer of plaster and fuse with it so that the painting is actually in coloured plaster. In the ancient world, as well as the sort of ornamental designs in plaster relief that are still used, plaster was also widely used to create large figurative reliefs for walls, though few of these have survived. Cement.

Mason Twine is used to quickly and accurately ensure mason is Level. Mason's twine, is used to create Straight Lines and a level surface. It is needed when laying out posts, patios, footings and more. A mason's line is necessary when doing these projects because you will not have to pick up the level so many times.

String is a long flexible structure made from fibers twisted together into a single strand, or from multiple such strands which are in turn twisted together. String is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects. It is also used as a material to make things, such as textiles, and in arts and crafts. String is a simple tool, and its use by humans is known to have been developed tens of thousands of years ago. In Mesoamerica, for example, string was invented some 20,000 to 30,000 years ago, and was made by twisting plant fibers together. String may also be a component in other tools, and in devices as diverse as weapons, musical instruments, and toys.

Chalk Line is a tool for marking long, straight lines on relatively flat surfaces, much farther than is practical by hand or with a straightedge. They may be used to lay out straight lines between two points, or vertical lines by using the weight of the line reel as a plumb line. It is an important tool in carpentry, the working of timber in a rough and unplaned state, as it does not require the timber to have a straight or squared edge formed onto it beforehand.

Knot is an intentional complication in cordage which may be useful or decorative. Practical knots may be classified as hitches, bends, splices, or knots. A hitch fastens a rope to another object; a bend unites two rope ends; a splice is a multi-strand bend or loop. A knot in the strictest sense serves as a stopper or knob at the end of a rope to keep that end from slipping through a grommet or eye. Knots have excited interest since ancient times for their practical uses, as well as their topological intricacy, studied in the area of mathematics known as knot theory. Animated Knots - Real Knots - Untangling the mechanics of knots (youtube)

Water knot is a knot frequently used in climbing for joining two ends of webbing together, for instance when making a sling.

Cow Hitch is a hitch knot used to attach a rope to an object. The cow hitch comprises a pair of half-hitches tied in opposing directions, as compared to the clove hitch in which the half-hitches are tied in the same direction. It has several variations and is known under a variety of names. It can be tied either with the end of the rope or with a bight.



Wood Working - "Measure Twice, Cut Once"


Wood WorkingCarpentry is a skilled trade in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of Building Materials during the Construction of Buildings, ships, timber bridges, Concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters traditionally worked with natural wood and did the rougher work such as Framing, but today many other materials are also used and sometimes the finer trades of cabinetmaking and furniture building are considered carpentry.

Woodworking is the activity or skill of making items from wood, and includes cabinet making (Cabinetry and Furniture), wood carving, joinery, and carpentry.

Housing - Wood Working - Tools - Framing - Joinery

Hardwood is wood from dicot angiosperm trees. Common hardwood species in North America are oaks, maple, hickory, birch, beech, cherry, sycamore, elm, cottonwood and willow trees.

Lignum Vitae is the hardest wood in the world that has extraordinary combination of strength, toughness, and density. It is also the national tree of the Bahamas and the Jamaican national flower. Guaiacum Trees are indigenous to the Caribbean and the northern coast of South America. Sinks in water and does not float. Sharpest Wood Kitchen Knife in the World (youtube).

Super Wood could Replace Steel. New process could make wood as strong as titanium alloys but lighter and cheaper. New way to treat wood makes it twelve times stronger than natural wood and ten times tougher. The process begins by removing the wood’s lignin, the part of the wood that makes it both rigid and brown in color. Then it is compressed under mild heat, at about 150 F. This causes the cellulose fibers to become very tightly packed and form strong hydrogen bonds. Any defects like holes or knots are crushed together. The treatment process was extended a little further with a coat of paint.

Softwood is wood from gymnosperm trees such as conifers. Softwood trees have needles and exposed seeds, but do not have leaves. Examples of softwood trees are cedar, Douglas fir, juniper, pine, redwood, spruce, and yew.

Lumber is a type of wood that has been processed into beams and planks, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for structural purposes but has many other uses as well. There are two main types of lumber. It may be supplied either rough-sawn, or surfaced on one or more of its faces. Besides pulpwood, rough lumber is the raw material for furniture-making and other items requiring additional cutting and shaping. It is available in many species, usually hardwoods; but it is also readily available in softwoods, such as white pine and red pine, because of their low cost. Finished lumber is supplied in standard sizes, mostly for the construction industry – primarily softwood, from coniferous species, including pine, fir and spruce (collectively spruce-pine-fir), cedar, and hemlock, but also some hardwood, for high-grade flooring. It is more commonly made from softwood than hardwoods, and 80% of lumber comes from softwood.

Quarter sawing or quarter-cut, is a type of cut in the rip-sawing of logs into lumber. Quarter-sawn boards have greater stability of form and size with less cupping, shrinkage across the width, shake and splitting, and other good qualities.

Calculate Board Footage (thickness, width and length).

Rift Sawing as a technique of cutting boards from logs radially so the annular growth ring orientation is between 30 - 60 degrees to the face of the board, with 45 degrees being "optimum".

Wood Grain is the longitudinal arrangement of wood fibers or the pattern resulting from this. Important physical aspect of wood grain in woodworking is the grain direction or slope (e.g. against the grain). The two basic categories of grain are straight and cross grain. Straight grain runs parallel to the longitudinal axis of the piece. Cross grain deviates from the longitudinal axis in two ways, spiral grain or diagonal grain. The amount of deviation is called the slope of the grain. Grain alignment must be considered when joining pieces of wood, or designing wooden structures. For example, a stressed span is less likely to fail if tension is applied along the grain, rather than across the grain. Grain direction will also affect the type of warping seen in the finished item. Cutting with the grain (easy; giving a clean result). Cutting or working against the grain (heavy going; giving a poor result such as chipping or tear-out). Across the grain (direction of cut is across the grain lines, but the plane of the cut is still aligned with them). End grain (at right angles to the grain, for example trimming the end of a plank).

Wood Warping Wood Drying reduces the moisture content of wood before its use. When the drying is done in a kiln, the product is known as kiln-dried timber or lumber, whereas air drying is the more traditional method. Equilibration (usually drying) causes unequal shrinkage in the wood, and can cause damage to the wood if equilibration occurs too rapidly. The equilibration must be controlled to prevent damage to the wood. Moisture also affects the burning of wood, with unburnt hydrocarbons going up the chimney. Hardwood's are denser and a more complex structure making it more difficult to dry. Although there are about a hundred times more species of hardwood trees than softwood trees, the ability to be dried and processed faster and more easily makes softwood the main supply of commercial wood today. Dried wood Moisture should be below 22%.

Joinery involves joining together pieces of timber or lumber, to produce more complex items. Some wood joints employ fasteners, bindings, or adhesives, while others use only wood elements. The characteristics of wooden joints - strength, flexibility, toughness, appearance, etc. - derive from the properties of the materials involved and the purpose of the joint. Therefore, different joinery techniques are used to meet differing requirements. For example, the joinery used to construct a house can be different from that used to make puzzle toys, although some concepts overlap. Woodworking Joints (wiki).

Joint or a building joint is a junction where building elements meet without applying a static load from one element to another. When one or more of these vertical or horizontal elements that meet are required by the local building code to have a fire-resistance rating, the resulting opening that makes up the joint must be firestopped in order to restore the required compartmentalisation. Bonding.

Joint is a junction by which parts or objects are joined together and a connection is made. Trigonometry.

Bridle Joint is a woodworking joint, similar to a mortise and tenon, in that a tenon is cut on the end of one member and a mortise is cut into the other to accept it. The distinguishing feature is that the tenon and the mortise are cut to the full width of the tenon member. The corner bridle joint (also known as a slot mortise and tenon) joins two members at their respective ends, forming a corner. This form of the joint is commonly used to house a rail in uprights, such as legs. It provides good strength in compression and is fairly resistant to Stacking, although a mechanical fastener or pin is often required. The bridle joint is very popular in workbench construction. Corner bridles are often used to join frame components when the frame is to be shaped. Material can be removed from the joined members after assembly without sacrificing joint integrity. A variation of the bridle joint is the T-bridle, which joins the end of one member to the middle of another. The tee bridle joint is very strong and good for joining 2 pieces together.

Traditional Joints (youtube)

Connector is a thing which links two or more things together.

Fastener is a hardware device that mechanically joins or affixes two or more objects together. In general, fasteners are used to create non-permanent joints; that is, joints that can be removed or dismantled without damaging the joining components. Welding is an example of creating permanent joints. Steel fasteners are usually made of stainless steel, carbon steel, or alloy steel. Other alternative methods of joining materials include: crimping, welding, soldering, brazing, taping, gluing, cement, or the use of other adhesives. Force may also be used, such as with magnets, vacuum (like suction cups), or even friction (like sticky pads). Some types of woodworking joints make use of separate internal reinforcements, such as dowels or biscuits, which in a sense can be considered fasteners within the scope of the joint system, although on their own they are not general purpose fasteners. Furniture supplied in flat-pack form often uses cam dowels locked by cam locks, also known as conformat fasteners. Fasteners can also be used to close a container such as a bag, a box, or an envelope; or they may involve keeping together the sides of an opening of flexible material, attaching a lid to a container, etc. There are also special-purpose closing devices, e.g. a bread clip. Items like a rope, string, wire, cable, chain, or plastic wrap may be used to mechanically join objects; but are not generally categorized as fasteners because they have additional common uses. Likewise, hinges and springs may join objects together, but are ordinarily not considered fasteners because their primary purpose is to allow articulation rather than rigid affixment.

Household Hardware is equipment that can be touched or held by hand such as nuts, screws, washers, keys, locks, hinges, latches, handles, wire, chains, belts, plumbing supplies, electrical supplies, tools, utensils, cutlery and machine parts. Household hardware is typically sold in hardware stores.

Gender of Connectors and Fasteners each half of a pair of mating connectors or fasteners is conventionally assigned the designation male or female. The "female" connector is generally a receptacle that receives and holds the "male" connector. On occasion, the terms "male" and "female" are respectively referred to as the A and B ends, though the names of some standards conflict with this as they contain the letters A or B within the name; unambiguous, though rare, terms include plug and socket or jack (although this may cause confusion when used in everyday conversation).

Wood Glue is an adhesive used to tightly bond pieces of wood together. Many substances have been used as glues.
Animal glue, especially hide glue, was the primary adhesive of choice for many types of woodworking, including furniture and lutherie, for many centuries. Animal glue is an adhesive that is created by prolonged boiling of animal connective tissue.

Framing is the fitting together of pieces to give a structure support and shape. Framing materials are usually wood, engineered wood, or structural steel. Building framing is divided into two broad categories, heavy-frame construction (heavy framing) if the vertical supports are few and heavy such as in timber framing, pole building framing, or steel framing or many and smaller called light-frame construction (light framing) including balloon, platform and light-steel framing. Light-frame construction using standardized dimensional lumber has become the dominant construction method in North America and Australia because of its economy. Use of minimal structural material allows builders to enclose a large area with minimal cost, while achieving a wide variety of architectural styles. Advanced Framing with 24 inch centers instead of 16 inch.

Timber Framing are methods of building with heavy timbers (posts and beams) rather than dimensional lumber such as 2x4s. Traditional timber framing is the method of creating structures using heavy squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs (larger versions of the mortise and tenon joints in furniture). It is commonplace in wooden buildings from the 19th century and earlier. The method comes from making things out of logs and tree trunks without modern high tech saws to cut lumber from the starting material stock. Hewing with broadaxes, adzes, and draw knives and using hand-powered braces and augers (brace and bit) and other laborious woodworking, artisans or farmers could gradually assemble a building capable of bearing heavy weight without excessive use of interior space given over to vertical support posts. Since this building method has been used for thousands of years in many parts of the world, many styles of historic framing have developed. These styles are often categorized by the type of foundation, walls, how and where the beams intersect, the use of curved timbers, and the roof framing details. Three basic types of timber frames in English-speaking countries are the box frame, cruck frame, and aisled frame.

Wall Sheathing is usually applied to the framing. Earthquakes (sheer wall).

Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured boards which includes medium-density fibreboard (MDF) and particle board (chipboard).

Oriented Strand Board is a type of engineered wood similar to particle board, formed by adding adhesives and then compressing layers of wood strands (flakes) in specific orientations.

Cavity Wall is a type of wall that has a hollow center. They can be described as consisting of two "skins" separated by a hollow space (cavity). The skins typically are masonry, such as brick or cinder block. Masonry is an absorbent material and therefore slowly draw rainwater or even humidity into the wall. One function of the cavity is to drain water through weep holes at the base of the wall system or above windows. The weep holes allow wind to create an air stream through the cavity that exports evaporated water from the cavity to the outside. Usually, weep holes are created by separating several vertical joints approximately two meters apart at the base of each story. Weep holes are also placed above windows to prevent dry rot of wooden window frames. A cavity wall with masonry as both inner and outer skins is more commonly referred to as a double wythe masonry wall.

Wood Veneer refers to thin slices of wood and sometimes bark, usually thinner than 3 mm (1/8 inch), that typically are glued onto core panels (typically, wood, particle board or medium-density fiberboard) to produce flat panels such as doors, tops and panels for cabinets, parquet floors and parts of furniture.

Housewrap generally denotes a synthetic material used to protect buildings. Housewrap functions as a weather-resistant barrier, preventing rain from getting into the wall assembly while allowing water vapor to pass to the exterior. If moisture from either direction is allowed to build up within stud or cavity walls, mold and rot can set in and fiberglass or cellulose insulation will lose its R-value due to heat-conducting moisture. House wrap may also serve as an Air Barrier if it is sealed carefully at seams.

Rainscreen is an exterior wall detail where the siding (wall cladding) stands off from the moisture-resistant surface of an air barrier applied to the sheathing (sheeting) to create a capillary break and to allow drainage and evaporation. The rain screen is the siding itself.

Masonry Veneer Walls consist of a single non-structural external layer of masonry, typically made of brick, stone or manufactured stone. Masonry veneer can have an air space behind it and is technically called "anchored veneer". A masonry veneer attached directly to the backing is called "adhered veneer". The innermost element is usually structural wall, and may consist of concrete masonry (often called a Cavity wall where inner and outer layers are both structural), concrete, wood or metal frame.

Siding is the protective material attached to the exterior side of a wall of a house or other building. Along with the roof, it forms the first line of defense against the elements, most importantly sun, rain/snow, heat and cold, thus creating a stable, more comfortable environment on the interior side. The siding material and style also can enhance or detract from the building's beauty. There is a wide and expanding variety of materials to side with, both natural and artificial, each with its own benefits and drawbacks. Masonry walls as such do not require siding, but any wall can be sided. Walls that are internally framed, whether with wood, or steel I-beams, however, must always be sided. Most siding consists of pieces of weather-resistant material that are smaller than the wall they cover, to allow for expansion and contraction of the materials due to moisture and temperature changes. There are various styles of joining the pieces, from board and batton, where the butt joints between panels is covered with a thin strip (usually 1 to 2 inches wide) of wood, to a variety of clapboard, also called lap siding, in which planks are laid horizontally across the wall starting from the bottom, and building up, the board below overlapped by the board above it. These techniques of joinery are designed to prevent water from entering the walls. Siding that does not consist of pieces joined together would include stucco, which is widely used in the Southwest. It is a plaster-like siding and is applied over a lattice, just like plaster. However, because of the lack of joints, it eventually cracks and is susceptible to water damage. Rainscreen construction is used to improve siding's ability to keep walls dry.

Home Building - Tools - Wood Mizer

Carpentry Hand Tools: Hammer. Tape Measure. Chalk Line. Carpenter's Pencil. Utility Knife. Tin Snips. Nail Puller. Speed Square. Drill. Top 40 Woodworking Tools - 12 Tools Every Carpenter Needs (youtube).

Boat Building is one of the oldest branches of engineering, is concerned with constructing the hulls of boats and, for sailboats, the masts, spars and rigging.

Planing Mill is a facility that takes cut and seasoned boards from a sawmill and turns them into finished dimensional lumber. Machines used in the mill include the planer and matcher, the molding machines, and varieties of saws. In the planing mill planer operators use machines that smooth and cut the wood for many different uses.

Plane is a Tool for shaping wood using muscle power to force the cutting blade over the wood surface. Some rotary power planers are motorized power tools used for the same types of larger tasks, but are unsuitable for fine scale planing where a miniature hand plane is used.

Thickness Planer is a woodworking machine to trim boards to a consistent thickness throughout their length and flat on both surfaces.

Jointer Plane is a type of hand plane used primarily to straighten the edges of boards in the operation known as jointing. A jointer plane may also be used to flatten the face of a board. Its long length is designed to 'ride over' the undulations of an uneven surface, skimming off the peaks, gradually creating a flat surface. In thicknessing or preparing rough stock, the jointer plane is usually preceded by the fore plane or jack plane and followed by the smoothing plane.

Jointer is a woodworking machine used to produce a flat surface along a board's length.

Edge Jointing is the process of making the edge of a wooden board straight and true in preparation for subsequent operations, often ultimately leading to joining two or more components together. Traditionally, jointing was performed using a jointer plane. Modern techniques include the use of a jointer machine, a hand held router and straight edge, or a table-mounted router.

Router in woodworking is a tool used to rout out (hollow out) an area in the face of a relatively hard workpiece, typically of wood or plastic. The main application of routers is in woodworking, especially cabinetry. The router is most commonly used as a plunging tool and also inverted in a router table.

CNC Wood Router (wiki)
How to Use a Router With Edge Bits and Groove Bits

Woodturning is the craft of using the wood lathe with hand-held tools to cut a shape that is symmetrical around the axis of rotation. Like the potter's wheel, the wood lathe is a simple mechanism which can generate a variety of forms. The operator is known as a turner, and the skills needed to use the tools were traditionally known as turnery.

Things to consider when choosing wood: Common Name(s), Scientific Name, Distribution, Tree Size, Average Dried Weight, Specific Gravity, Janka Hardness, Modulus of Rupture, Elastic Modulus, Crushing Strength, Shrinkage, Grain, Color, Uses and Workability.

Oak tree is turned into a traditional post and rung stool (video)
Wooden Wheel making, wheelwrights (youtube)
Woodworking Tips & Techniques: Joinery - Strength of Glue Joints (youtube)
Wood Saw
Behold! The Samurai Workbench (youtube)
Samurai Carpenter
Make A Bow And Arrow (youtube)
SPYNDI Sticks Furniture Invention

Remove a Water Stain from a Wood Table. Gently rub in a circular motion with some non-gel toothpaste on the wood using a soft cloth. Then wipe it off with a damp cloth and then let it dry before applying furniture polish. Or mix equal parts white toothpaste and baking soda. Or use mayonnaise or petroleum jelly. If not working, then try an Iron with a piece of cloth over the stain for a few minutes, use some steam too. Or do the same method using a hair dryer on low.



Metal Working


Steel Frame is a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal I-beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame. The development of this technique made the construction of the skyscraper possible.

Metal Working - Metallurgy

Welding - Check List - Tools

Screw Thread is a helical structure used to convert between rotational and linear movement or force. A screw thread is a ridge wrapped around a cylinder or cone in the form of a helix, with the former being called a straight thread and the latter called a tapered thread. A screw thread is the essential feature of the screw as a simple machine and also as a fastener. 

Skyscrapers around the World (image)

Metal and Plastic Machine Workers
Foundry Mold and Coremakers

Winding Machine is a machine for wrapping string, twine, cord, thread, yarn, rope, wire, ribbon, tape, etc. onto a spool, bobbin, reel, etc.

Textile is a flexible material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres (yarn or thread). Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, hemp, or other material to produce long strands. Textiles are formed by weaving, knitting, crocheting, knotting, or felting.

Conveyor System is a common piece of mechanical handling equipment that moves materials from one location to another. Conveyors are especially useful in applications involving the transportation of heavy or bulky materials. Conveyor systems allow quick and efficient transportation for a wide variety of materials, which make them very popular in the material handling and packaging industries. Many kinds of conveying systems are available and are used according to the various needs of different industries. There are chain conveyors (floor and overhead) as well. Chain conveyors consist of enclosed tracks, I-Beam, towline, power & free, and hand pushed trolleys.

Composites (Bioplastics)

TRUMPF Lasersysteme: TruLaser Cell 3000 - Hochflexibles Schneiden und Schweißen (youtube)
Electron Beam Can Sculpt Textured Surfaces In Seconds  (Surfi-Sculpt on youtube)

Product Finishing Electroplaters, anodizers, liquid and powder coaters have all come to rely on Products Finishing magazine as their No. 1 source for surface finishing news and technology for more than 80 years.

Suction Cup also known as a sucker, is a device or object that uses the negative fluid pressure of air or water to adhere to nonporous surfaces, creating a partial vacuum. Suction cups are peripherial traits of some animals such as octopuses and squids, and have been reproduced artificially for numerous purposes. Vacuum Pump (wiki).

Self-Sealing Suction Cup is a suction cup that exerts a suction force only when it is in physical contact with an object. Unlike most other suction cups, it does not exert any suction force when it is not in contact with an object. Its grasping ability is achieved entirely through passive means without the use of sensors, valves, or actuators.



Molding


Iinjection Molding Machine Diagram Molding is the process of manufacturing by shaping liquid or pliable raw material using a rigid frame called a mold or matrix. This itself may have been made using a pattern or model of the final object.

Injection Molding is a manufacturing process for producing parts by injecting material into a mould. Injection moulding can be performed with a host of materials mainly including metals, (for which the process is called die-casting), glasses, elastomers, confections, and most commonly thermoplastic and thermosetting polymers. Material for the part is fed into a heated barrel, mixed, and forced into a mould cavity, where it cools and hardens to the configuration of the cavity. Plastic Injection Molding (youtube, Bill Hammack, UI).

Resin Casting is a method of plastic casting where a mold is filled with a liquid synthetic resin, which then hardens. It is primarily used for small-scale production like industrial prototypes and dentistry. It can be done by amateur hobbyists with little initial investment, and is used in the production of collectible toys, models and figures, as well as small-scale jewelry production. The synthetic resin for such processes is a monomer for making a plastic thermosetting polymer. During the setting process, the liquid monomer polymerizes into the polymer, thereby hardening into a solid.

Casting (metal working)

Plastic is a material consisting of any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic compounds that are malleable and can be molded into solid objects. Plastics are typically organic polymers of high molecular mass, but they often contain other substances. They are usually synthetic, most commonly derived from petrochemicals, but many are made from renewable materials such as polylactic acid from corn or cellulosics from cotton linters. Plasticity is the general property of all materials that are able to irreversibly deform without breaking, but this occurs to such a degree with this class of moldable polymers that their name is an emphasis on this ability.

Bio-Plastics - Carbon Fiber

Thermoplastic is a plastic material, a polymer, that becomes pliable or moldable above a specific temperature and solidifies upon cooling. Most thermoplastics have a high molecular weight. The polymer chains associate through intermolecular forces, which weaken rapidly with increased temperature, yielding a viscous liquid. Thus, thermoplastics may be reshaped by heating and are typically used to produce parts by various polymer processing techniques such as injection molding, compression molding, calendering, and extrusion. Thermoplastics differ from thermosetting polymers, which form irreversible chemical bonds during the curing process. Thermosets do not melt, but decompose and do not reform upon cooling. Above its glass transition temperature and below its melting point, the physical properties of a thermoplastic change drastically without an associated phase change. Some thermoplastics do not fully crystallize below the glass transition temperature, retaining some or all of their amorphous characteristics. Amorphous and semi-amorphous plastics are used when high optical clarity is necessary, as light is scattered strongly by crystallites larger than its wavelength. Amorphous and semi-amorphous plastics are less resistant to chemical attack and environmental stress cracking because they lack a crystalline structure. Brittleness can be decreased with the addition of plasticizers, which increases the mobility of amorphous chain segments to effectively lowers the glass transition temperature. Modification of the polymer through copolymerization or through the addition of non-reactive side chains to monomers before polymerization can also lower it. Before these techniques were employed, plastic automobile parts would often crack when exposed to cold temperatures. These are linear or slightly branched long chain molecules capable of repeatedly softening on heating and hardening on cooling.

Thermosetting Polymer is a prepolymer in a soft solid or viscous liquid state that changes irreversibly into an infusible, insoluble polymer network by curing. Curing is induced by the action of heat or suitable radiation often under high pressure, or by mixing with a catalyst or crosslinking agent often under atmospheric conditions at ambient temperature.

Thermoset Polymer Matrix act as binder or matrix to secure in place incorporated particulates, fibres or other reinforcements, can be formulated with a diversity of properties for a wide variety of structural end uses.

Thermoforming is a manufacturing process where a plastic sheet is heated to a pliable forming temperature, formed to a specific shape in a mold, and trimmed to create a usable product. The sheet, or "film" when referring to thinner gauges and certain material types, is heated in an oven to a high-enough temperature that permits it to be stretched into or onto a mold and cooled to a finished shape. Its simplified version is vacuum forming.

Vacuum Forming is a simplified version of thermoforming, where a sheet of plastic is heated to a forming temperature, stretched onto a single-surface mold, and forced against the mold by a vacuum. This process can be used to form plastic into permanent objects such as turnpike signs and protective covers. Normally draft angles are present in the design of the mold (a recommended minimum of 3°) to ease removal of the formed plastic part from the mold. Relatively deep parts can be formed if the formable sheet is mechanically or pneumatically stretched prior to bringing it into contact with the mold surface and applying vacuum. Suitable materials for use in vacuum forming are conventionally thermoplastics. The most common and easiest to use thermoplastic is high impact polystyrene sheeting (HIPS). This is molded around a wood, structural foam or cast or machined aluminium mold, and can form to almost any shape. Vacuum forming is also appropriate for transparent materials such as acrylic, which are widely used in applications for aerospace such as passenger cabin window canopies for military fixed wing aircraft and compartments for rotary wing aircraft. Vacuum forming is often used in low-level technology classes for an easy way to mold.

Metal - Iron - Steel

Materials Science involves the discovery and design of new materials, with an emphasis on solids.

Two-Dimensional Materials sometimes referred to as single layer materials, are crystalline materials consisting of a single layer of atoms. Since the isolation of graphene, a single-layer of graphite, in 2004, a large amount of research has been directed at isolating other 2D materials due to their unusual characteristics and for use in applications such as photovoltaics, semiconductors, electrodes and water purification. 2D materials can generally be categorised as either 2D allotropes of various elements or compounds (consisting of two or more covalently bonding elements).

The Fine-Tuning of Two-Dimensional Materials. A new understanding of why synthetic 2-D materials often perform orders of magnitude worse than predicted was reached by teams of researchers led by Penn State.

Chemistry - Thermodynamics

Recyclable, Strong Thermosets and Organogels via Paraformaldehyde Condensation with Diamines

Graphene (nano) - 3-D Printing

Resin is a "solid or highly viscous substance" of plant or synthetic origin that is typically convertible into polymers. They are often mixtures of organic compounds, principally terpenes. Many plants, particularly woody plants, produce resin in response to injury. The resin acts as a bandage protecting the plant from invading insects and pathogens.

Synthetic Resin are materials with properties similar to natural plant resins. They are viscous liquids capable of hardening permanently. Chemically they are very different from resinous compounds secreted by plants (see resin for discussion of the natural products).



Strength of Materials - Capacities - Structural


Stress Types in Strength of MaterialsStructural Load are forces, deformations, or accelerations applied to a structure or its components. Loads cause stresses, deformations, and displacements in structures. Assessment of their effects is carried out by the methods of structural analysis. Excess load or overloading may cause structural failure, and hence such possibility should be either considered in the design or strictly controlled. Mechanical structures, such as aircraft, satellites, rockets, space stations, ships, and submarines, have their own particular structural loads and actions. Engineers often evaluate structural loads based upon published regulations, contracts, or specifications. Accepted technical standards are used for acceptance testing and inspection.

Spheres - Surfaces - Fabrics - Concrete - Safety Engineering

Thermodynamics - Earthquake Proof

Structural Engineering is mainly a sub-division of civil engineering where structural engineers are trained to understand, predict, and calculate the stability, strength and rigidity of built structures for buildings and non-building structures, to develop designs and integrate their design with that of other designers, and to supervise construction of projects on site. They can also be involved in the design of machinery, medical equipment, vehicles etc. where structural integrity affects functioning and safety. Structural engineering theory is based upon applied physical laws and empirical knowledge of the structural performance of different materials and geometries. Structural engineering design utilizes a number of relatively simple structural elements to build complex structural systems. Structural engineers are responsible for making creative and efficient use of funds, structural elements and materials to achieve these goals.

Structural Engineers specialize in determining the integrity of a home or building. They evaluate problems and establish solutions. Often, homeowners are told they have structural damage that requires extensive repairs, especially older homes. The difference between a structural engineering report and an unlicensed contractor's evaluation is expertise.

Tolerance is an allowable amount of variation of a specified quantity, especially in the dimensions of a machine or part. The power or capacity of an organism to tolerate unfavorable environmental conditions. Force (Action Physics).

Engineering Tolerance is the permissible limit or limits of variation in: a physical dimension; a measured value or physical property of a material, manufactured object, system, or service; other measured values (such as temperature, humidity, etc.); in engineering and safety, a physical distance or space (tolerance), as in a truck (lorry), train or boat under a bridge as well as a train in a tunnel (see structure gauge and loading gauge); in mechanical engineering the space between a bolt and a nut or a hole, etc.. Dimensions, properties, or conditions may have some variation without significantly affecting functioning of systems, machines, structures, etc. A variation beyond the tolerance (for example, a temperature that is too hot or too cold) is said to be noncompliant, rejected, or exceeding the tolerance. ISO Tolerances.

Statistical Interference is when two probability distributions overlap. Knowledge of the distributions can be used to determine the likelihood that one parameter exceeds another, and by how much. This technique can be used for dimensioning of mechanical parts, determining when an applied load exceeds the strength of a structure, and in many other situations. This type of analysis can also be used to estimate the probability of failure or the frequency of failure.

Statics is the branch of mechanics that is concerned with the analysis of loads (force and torque, or "moment") acting on physical systems that do not experience an acceleration (a=0), but rather, are in static equilibrium with their environment. When in static equilibrium, the acceleration of the system is zero and the system is either at rest, or its center of mass moves at constant velocity. Newton's Second Law - Dynamics.

Parameter is any factor that defines a system and determines its performance or limits in its performance. Parameter in computer science is a reference or value that is passed to a Function, procedure, subroutine, command, or program. A quantity such as the mean or variance that characterizes a statistical population and that can be estimated by calculations from sample data.

Factor of Safety expresses how much stronger a system is than it needs to be for an intended load. Safety factors are often calculated using detailed analysis because comprehensive testing is impractical on many projects, such as bridges and buildings, but the structure's ability to carry a load must be determined to a reasonable accuracy. Many systems are intentionally built much stronger than needed for normal usage to allow for emergency situations, unexpected loads, misuse, or degradation

Probabilistic Design is the consideration of the effects of random variability upon the performance of an engineering system during the design phase. Typically, these effects are related to quality and reliability. Thus, probabilistic design is a tool that is mostly used in areas that are concerned with quality and reliability.

Engineering Fit are generally used as part of geometric dimensioning and tolerancing when a part or assembly is designed. In engineering terms, the "fit" is the clearance between two mating parts, and the size of this clearance determines whether the parts can move independently from each other, or are then temporarily or even permanently joined. Engineering fits are generally described as a "shaft and hole" but are not limited to just round components. ISO is the internationally accepted standard for defining engineering fits, but ANSI is often still used in North America. ISO and ANSI both group fits into three categories: clearance, location or transition, and interference. Within each category are several codes to define the size limits of the hole or shaft - the combination of which determines the type of fit. A fit is usually selected at the design stage according to whether the mating parts need to be accurately located, free to slide or rotate, separated easily, or resist separation. Cost is also a major factor in selecting a fit, as more accurate fits will be more expensive to produce, and tighter fits will be more expensive to assemble. Clearance Fits - Transition Fits - Interference Fits - Force Fits - Shrink Fits.

Thermal Expansion is the tendency of matter to change its shape, area, and volume in response to a change in temperature. Temperature is a monotonic function of the average molecular kinetic energy of a substance. When a substance is heated, the kinetic energy of its molecules increases. Thus, the molecules begin vibrating/moving more and usually maintain a greater average separation. Materials which contract with increasing temperature are unusual; this effect is limited in size, and only occurs within limited temperature ranges (see examples below). The relative expansion (also called strain) divided by the change in temperature is called the material's coefficient of thermal expansion and generally varies with temperature.

Limits is the greatest possible degree of something. As far as something can go. The greatest amount of something that is possible or allowed. Thinking Capacity - Odds - Measurement Problem - Equilibrium - Sustainable.

Limit State Design refers to a design method used in structural engineering. A limit state is a condition of a structure beyond which it no longer fulfills the relevant design criteria. Span Limits Calculator.

Threshold is the magnitude or intensity that must be exceeded for a certain reaction, phenomenon, result, or condition to occur or be manifested. The starting point for a new state or experience. The smallest detectable sensation.

Megapascal is a x1000000 multiple of the pascal unit which is the SI unit for pressure. 1 megapascal equals 1,000,000 pascals. Primarily used for higher range pressure measurement due to its larger value (e.g. 1 MPa = 10 bar), the MPa is mainly used to describe the pressure ranges and ratings of hydraulic systems.

Compression in physics is the application of balanced inward ("pushing") forces to different points on a material or structure, that is, forces with no net sum or torque directed so as to reduce its size in one or more directions. It is contrasted with tension or traction, the application of balanced outward ("pulling") forces; and with shearing forces, directed so as to displace layers of the material parallel to each other. The compressive strength of materials and structures is an important engineering consideration. In uniaxial compression, the forces are directed along one direction only, so that they act towards decreasing the object's length along that direction. The compressive forces may also be applied in multiple directions; for example inwards along the edges of a plate or all over the side surface of a cylinder, so as to reduce its area (biaxial compression), or inwards over the entire surface of a body, so as to reduce its volume. Technically, a material is under a state of compression, at some specific point and along a specific direction x, if the normal component of the stress vector across a surface with normal direction x is directed opposite to x. If the stress vector itself is opposite to x, the material is said to be under normal compression or pure compressive stress along x. In a solid, the amount of compression generally depends on the direction x, and the material may be under compression along some directions but under traction along others. If the stress vector is purely compressive and has the same magnitude for all directions, the material is said to be under isotropic or hydrostatic compression at that point. This is the only type of static compression that liquids and gases can bear. In a mechanical longitudinal wave, or compression wave, the medium is displaced in the wave's direction, resulting in areas of compression and rarefaction.

Deformation in continuum mechanics is the transformation of a body from a reference configuration to a current configuration. A configuration is a set containing the positions of all particles of the body. A deformation may be caused by external loads, body forces (such as gravity or electromagnetic forces), or changes in temperature, moisture content, or chemical reactions, etc. Strain is a description of deformation in terms of relative displacement of particles in the body that excludes rigid-body motions. Different equivalent choices may be made for the expression of a strain field depending on whether it is defined with respect to the initial or the final configuration of the body and on whether the metric tensor or its dual is considered. In a continuous body, a deformation field results from a stress field induced by applied forces or is due to changes in the temperature field inside the body. The relation between stresses and induced strains is expressed by constitutive equations, e.g., Hooke's law for linear elastic materials. Deformations which are recovered after the stress field has been removed are called elastic deformations. In this case, the continuum completely recovers its original configuration. On the other hand, irreversible deformations remain even after stresses have been removed. One type of irreversible deformation is plastic deformation, which occurs in material bodies after stresses have attained a certain threshold value known as the elastic limit or yield stress, and are the result of slip, or dislocation mechanisms at the atomic level. Another type of irreversible deformation is viscous deformation, which is the irreversible part of viscoelastic deformation. In the case of elastic deformations, the response function linking strain to the deforming stress is the compliance tensor of the material. Earth Quakes.

Stress in continuum mechanics is a physical quantity that expresses the internal forces that neighboring particles of a continuous material exert on each other, while strain is the measure of the deformation of the material. For example, when a solid vertical bar is supporting an overhead weight, each particle in the bar pushes on the particles immediately below it. When a liquid is in a closed container under pressure, each particle gets pushed against by all the surrounding particles. The container walls and the pressure-inducing surface (such as a piston) push against them in (Newtonian) reaction. These macroscopic forces are actually the net result of a very large number of intermolecular forces and collisions between the particles in those molecules. Stress is frequently represented by a lowercase Greek letter sigma (σ).

structure failures Shear Stress is the component of stress coplanar with a material cross section. Shear stress arises from the force vector component parallel to the cross section of the material. Normal stress, on the other hand, arises from the force vector component perpendicular to the material cross section on which it acts. (often denoted by τ (Greek: tau). Shear stress arises from shear forces, which are pairs of equal and opposing forces acting on opposite sides of an object.

Stress Corrosion Cracking is the growth of crack formation in a corrosive environment. It can lead to unexpected sudden failure of normally ductile metal alloys subjected to a tensile stress, especially at elevated temperature. SCC is highly chemically specific in that certain alloys are likely to undergo SCC only when exposed to a small number of chemical environments. The chemical environment that causes SCC for a given alloy is often one which is only mildly corrosive to the metal. Hence, metal parts with severe SCC can appear bright and shiny, while being filled with microscopic cracks. This factor makes it common for SCC to go undetected prior to failure. SCC often progresses rapidly, and is more common among alloys than pure metals. The specific environment is of crucial importance, and only very small concentrations of certain highly active chemicals are needed to produce catastrophic cracking, often leading to devastating and unexpected failure. The stresses can be the result of the crevice loads due to stress concentration, or can be caused by the type of assembly or residual stresses from fabrication (e.g. cold working); the residual stresses can be relieved by annealing or other surface treatments.

Permissible Stress Design is a design philosophy used by civil engineers where the designer ensures that the stresses developed in a structure due to service loads do not exceed the elastic limit. This limit is usually determined by ensuring that stresses remain within the limits through the use of factors of safety. The permissible stress design approach has generally been replaced internationally by limit state design (also known as ultimate stress design, or in USA, Load and Resistance Factor Design, LRFD) as far as structural engineering is considered, except for some isolated cases. In USA construction, allowable stress design (ASD) has not yet been completely superseded by limit state design except in the case of Suspension bridges, which changed from allowable stress design to limit state design in the 1960s. Wood, steel, and other materials are still frequently designed using allowable stress design, although LRFD is probably more commonly taught in the USA university system.

Shear Force are unaligned forces pushing one part of a body in one specific direction, and another part of the body in the opposite direction. When the forces are aligned into each other, they are called compression forces.

Continuum Mechanics is a branch of mechanics that deals with the analysis of the kinematics and the mechanical behavior of materials modeled as a continuous mass rather than as discrete particles. The French mathematician Augustin-Louis Cauchy was the first to formulate such models in the 19th century.

Ultimate Tensile Strength is the capacity of a material or structure to withstand loads tending to elongate, as opposed to compressive strength, which withstands loads tending to reduce size. Steel - Plastics.

Tension in physics describes the pulling force transmitted axially by means of a string, cable, chain, or similar one-dimensional continuous object, or by each end of a rod, truss member, or similar three-dimensional object; tension can also be described as the action-reaction pair of forces acting at each end of said elements. Tension is the opposite of compression.

Strength of Materials is a subject which deals with the behavior of solid objects subject to stresses and strains.

Hardness is a measure of the resistance to localized plastic deformation induced by either mechanical indentation or abrasion. Some materials (e.g. metals) are harder than others (e.g. plastics, wood). Macroscopic hardness is generally characterized by strong intermolecular bonds, but the behavior of solid materials under force is complex; therefore, there are different measurements of hardness: scratch hardness, indentation hardness, and rebound hardness. Hardness is dependent on ductility, elastic stiffness, plasticity, strain, strength, toughness, viscoelasticity, and viscosity. Common examples of hard matter are ceramics, concrete, certain metals, and superhard materials, which can be contrasted with soft matter. Glass - Metal.

Mohs Scale of Mineral Hardness is a qualitative ordinal scale characterizing scratch resistance of various minerals through the ability of harder material to scratch softer material. Hardness Comparison testing methods.

Rigidity is the physical property of being stiff and resisting bending. Ice.

Stiffness is the rigidity of an object — the extent to which it resists deformation in response to an applied force. The complementary concept is flexibility or pliability: the more flexible an object is, the less stiff it is.

Structural Rigidity is a combinatorial theory for predicting the flexibility of ensembles formed by rigid bodies connected by flexible linkages or hinges. Composites.

Structural Analysis is the determination of the effects of loads on physical structures and their components. Structures subject to this type of analysis include all that must withstand loads, such as buildings, bridges, vehicles, furniture, attire, soil strata, prostheses and biological tissue. Structural analysis employs the fields of applied mechanics, materials science and applied mathematics to compute a structure's deformations, internal forces, stresses, support reactions, accelerations, and stability. The results of the analysis are used to verify a structure's fitness for use, often precluding physical tests. Structural analysis is thus a key part of the engineering design of structures. Earthquakes.

Stress Testing is a form of deliberately intense or thorough testing used to determine the stability of a given system, critical infrastructure or entity. It involves testing beyond normal operational capacity, often to a breaking point, in order to observe the results. Reasons can include: To determine breaking points or safe usage limits. To confirm mathematical model is accurate enough in predicting breaking points or safe usage limits. To confirm intended specifications are being met. To determine modes of failure (how exactly a system fails). To test stable operation of a part or system outside standard usage. Reliability engineers often test items under expected stress or even under accelerated stress in order to determine the operating life of the item or to determine modes of failure. The term "stress" may have a more specific meaning in certain industries, such as material sciences, and therefore stress testing may sometimes have a technical meaning – one example is in fatigue testing for materials. Load Testing is the process of putting demand on a system and measuring its response. Burn-in is the process by which components of a system are exercised prior to being placed in service (and often, prior to the system being completely assembled from those components). This testing process will force certain failures to occur under supervised conditions so an understanding of load capacity of the product can be established.

Destructive Testing are tests that are carried out to the specimen's failure, in order to understand a specimen's performance or material behavior under different loads. Crash Test is a form of destructive testing usually performed in order to ensure safe design standards in crashworthiness and crash compatibility for various modes of transportation (see automobile safety) or related systems and components.

Finite Element Method is a numerical method for solving problems of engineering and mathematical physics. Typical problem areas of interest include structural analysis, heat transfer, fluid flow, mass transport, and electromagnetic potential. The analytical solution of these problems generally require the solution to boundary value problems for partial differential equations. The finite element method formulation of the problem results in a system of algebraic equations. The method approximates the unknown function over the domain. To solve the problem, it subdivides a large system into smaller, simpler parts that are called finite elements. The simple equations that model these finite elements are then assembled into a larger system of equations that models the entire problem. FEM then uses variational methods from the calculus of variations to approximate a solution by minimizing an associated error function. Studying or analyzing a phenomenon with FEM is often referred to as finite element analysis (FEA).

Elasticity in physics is the ability of a body to resist a distorting influence and to return to its original size and shape when that influence or force is removed. Solid objects will deform when adequate forces are applied on them. If the material is elastic, the object will return to its initial shape and size when these forces are removed. Rubber.

Vehicle Payload Capacities - Tensile Strength Calculator

Structural Integrity and Failure is an aspect of engineering which deals with the ability of a structure to support a designed load (weight, force, etc...) without breaking, and includes the study of past structural failures in order to prevent failures in future designs.

Tensiometer as it applies to physics is an instrument used to measure the surface tension of liquids or surfaces. Tensiometers are used in research and development laboratories to determine the surface tension of liquids like coatings, lacquers or adhesives. A further application field of tensiometers is the monitoring of industrial production processes like parts cleaning or electroplating.

Torque Wrench is a tool used to apply precisely a specific torque to a fastener such as a nut or bolt. It is usually in the form of a socket wrench with special internal mechanisms. It was designed to prevent overtightening bolts on water main and steam pipe repairs underground. A torque wrench is used where the tightness of screws and bolts is crucial. It allows the operator to measure the torque applied to the fastener so it can be matched to the specifications for a particular application. This permits proper tension and loading of all parts. A torque wrench measures torque as a proxy for bolt tension. The technique suffers from inaccuracy due to inconsistent or un-calibrated friction between the fastener and its mating hole. Measuring bolt tension (indirectly via bolt stretch) is actually what is desired, but often torque is the only practical measurement which can be made. Torque screwdrivers and torque wrenches have similar purposes and mechanisms.

Big data technique reveals previously unknown capabilities of common materials. New research reveals possible applications of nickel, from data storage to biosensors. when nickel is made into extremely small, single-crystal nanowires and subjected to mechanical energy, a huge magnetic field is produced, a phenomenon known as giant magnetostriction. Inversely, if a magnetic field is applied to the material, then the atoms within will change shape. This displacement could be exploited to harvest energy, which is useful for data storage and data harvesting, even biosensors. A system with large areas of nanowires could be put in an external magnetic field and it would harvest a very huge amount of mechanical energy, but it would be extremely small.


Materials


Material is a chemical substance or mixture of substances that constitute a thing. The matter from which a thing is or can be made, something important, essential or relevant.

Textile - Biomaterial - Meta-Materials - Bio-Plastics - Building

Composite Material is a material made from two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties that, when combined, produce a material with characteristics different from the individual components. The individual components remain separate and distinct within the finished structure, differentiating composites from mixtures and solid solutions. Layers.

Materials Science involves the discovery and design of new materials, with an emphasis on solids.

Alchemy - Polymers

Controllable Shape-Shifting Material that can morph, reverse itself using heat and light. A new material can transform into complex, pre-programmed shapes via light and temperature stimuli. Can repeatedly oscillate back and forth between two independent shapes. Researchers installed a light-activated trigger to LCE networks that can set a desired molecular alignment in advance by exposing the object to particular wavelengths of light. The trigger then remains inactive until exposed to the corresponding heat stimuli.

Developable Mechanisms can reside inside the Surface of a Structure. Engineers detail new technology that allows them to build complex mechanisms into the exterior of a structure without taking up any actual space below the surface. This new class of mechanisms, called 'developable mechanisms,' get their name from developable surfaces, or materials that can take on 3-D shapes from flat conformations without tearing or stretching, like a sheet of paper or metal.

Molecular Engineering is the design and testing of molecular properties, behavior and interactions in order to assemble better materials, systems, and processes for specific functions. This approach, in which observable properties of a macroscopic system are influenced by direct alteration of a molecular structure, falls into the broader category of “bottom-up” design.

Researchers use Artificial Neural Networks to streamline Materials Testing. Investigators have paired artificial neural networks (ANN) with dynamic mechanical analysis to quickly formulate and provide analytics on theoretical graphene-enhanced advanced composites.

Self-growing materials that strengthen in response to force.

A Mollusk with teeth that can grind down rock may hold the key to making next generation abrasion-resistant materials and nanoscale materials for energy. The mollusk, called a gumboot chiton, scrapes algae off ocean rocks using a specialized set of teeth made from the magnetic mineral magnetite. The teeth have the maximum hardness and stiffness of any known biomineral. Although magnetite is a geologic mineral commonly found in Earth's crust, only a few animals are known to produce it, and little is known about how they make it.


Surfaces


Surface Finish also known as surface texture or surface topography, is the nature of a surface as defined by the three characteristics of lay direction, surface roughness, and waviness. It comprises the small local deviations of a surface from the perfectly flat ideal (a true plane). Surface texture is one of the important factors that control friction and transfer layer formation during sliding. Considerable efforts have been made to study the influence of surface texture on friction and wear during sliding conditions. Surface textures can be isotropic or anisotropic. Sometimes, stick-slip friction phenomena can be observed during sliding depending on surface texture. Each manufacturing process (such as the many kinds of machining) produces a surface texture. The process is usually optimized to ensure that the resulting texture is usable. If necessary, an additional process will be added to modify the initial texture. The latter process may be grinding (abrasive cutting), polishing, lapping, abrasive blasting, honing, electrical discharge machining (EDM), milling, lithography, industrial etching/chemical milling, laser texturing, or other processes. Lay direction is the predominant surface pattern ordinarily determined by the production method used.

Non-Stick Surface is a surface engineered to reduce the ability of other materials to stick to it.

Superhydrophobic Coating is a nanoscopic surface layer that repels water. Droplets hitting this kind of coating can fully rebound in the shape of a column or a pancake. Breakthrough in ice-repelling materialsa using a durable silicone polymer coating.

Surface Engineering is the sub-discipline of materials science which deals with the surface of solid matter. It has applications to chemistry, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering (particularly in relation to semiconductor manufacturing). Solids are composed of a bulk material covered by a surface. The surface which bounds the bulk material is called the Surface phase. It acts as an interface to the surrounding environment. The bulk material in a solid is called the Bulk phase. The surface phase of a solid interacts with the surrounding environment. This interaction can degrade the surface phase over time. Environmental degradation of the surface phase over time can be caused by wear, corrosion, fatigue and creep. Surface engineering involves altering the properties of the Surface Phase in order to reduce the degradation over time. This is accomplished by making the surface robust to the environment in which it will be used. Surface Finishing. It provides a cost effective material for robust design. A spectrum of topics that represent the diverse nature of the field of surface engineering includes Plating technologies, Nano and emerging technologies and Surface engineering, characterization and testing.

Surface Tension (fluid) - Capacitors (batteries)

Surface Stress is the amount of the reversible work per unit area needed to elastically stretch a pre-existing surface.

Surface Energy quantifies the disruption of intermolecular bonds that occurs when a surface is created. In the physics of solids, surfaces must be intrinsically less energetically favorable than the bulk of a material (the molecules on the surface have more energy compared with the molecules in the bulk of the material), otherwise there would be a driving force for surfaces to be created, removing the bulk of the material (see sublimation). The surface energy may therefore be defined as the excess energy at the surface of a material compared to the bulk, or it is the work required to build an area of a particular surface. Another way to view the surface energy is to relate it to the work required to cut a bulk sample, creating two surfaces. Cutting a solid body into pieces disrupts its bonds, and therefore increases free energy. If the cutting is done reversibly, then conservation of energy means that the energy consumed by the cutting process will be equal to the energy inherent in the two new surfaces created. The unit surface energy of a material would therefore be half of its energy of cohesion, all other things being equal; in practice, this is true only for a surface freshly prepared in vacuum. Surfaces often change their form away from the simple "cleaved bond" model just implied above. They are found to be highly dynamic regions, which readily rearrange or react, so that energy is often reduced by such processes as passivation or adsorption. Surface Tension (spheres).

Surface Science is the study of physical and chemical phenomena that occur at the interface of two phases, including solid–liquid interfaces, solid–gas interfaces, solid–vacuum interfaces, and liquid–gas interfaces. It includes the fields of surface chemistry and surface physics. Some related practical applications are classed as surface engineering.

Developable Surface is a smooth surface with zero Gaussian curvature. That is, it is a surface that can be flattened onto a plane without distortion (i.e. "stretching" or "compressing"). Conversely, it is a surface which can be made by transforming a plane (i.e. "folding", "bending", "rolling", "cutting" and/or "gluing"). In three dimensions all developable surfaces are ruled surfaces (but not vice versa). There are developable surfaces in R4 which are not ruled.

Surface Metrology is the measurement of small-scale features on surfaces, and is a branch of metrology. Surface primary form, surface fractality and surface roughness are the parameters most commonly associated with the field. It is important to many disciplines and is mostly known for the machining of precision parts and assemblies which contain mating surfaces or which must operate with high internal pressures. Surface finish may be measured in two ways: contact and non-contact methods. Contact methods involve dragging a measurement stylus across the surface; these instruments are called profilometers. Non-contact methods include: interferometry, digital holography, confocal microscopy, focus variation, structured light, electrical capacitance, electron microscopy, and photogrammetry.

Interface in matter is the boundary between two spatial regions occupied by different matter, or by matter in different physical states. The interface between matter and air, or matter and vacuum, is called a surface, and studied in surface science. In thermal equilibrium, the regions in contact are called phases, and the interface is called a phase boundary. An example for an interface out of equilibrium is the grain boundary in polycrystalline matter. The importance of the interface depends on the type of system: the bigger the quotient area/volume, the greater the effect the interface will have. Consequently, interfaces are very important in systems with large interface area-to-volume ratios, such as colloids. Interfaces can be flat or curved. For example, oil droplets in a salad dressing are spherical but the interface between water and air in a glass of water is mostly flat. Surface tension is the physical property which rules interface processes involving liquids. For a liquid film on flat surfaces, the liquid-vapor interface keeps flat to minimize interfacial area and system free energy. For a liquid film on rough surfaces, the surface tension tends to keep the meniscus flat, while the disjoining pressure makes the film conformal to the substrate. The equilibrium meniscus shape is a result of the competition between the capillary pressure and disjoining pressure. Interfaces may cause various optical phenomena, such as refraction. Optical lenses serve as an example of a practical application of the interface between glass and air. One topical interface system is the gas-liquid interface between aerosols and other atmospheric molecules. Bonds.

Young's Modulus also known as the elastic modulus, is a measure of the stiffness of a solid material. It is a mechanical property of linear elastic solid materials. It defines the relationship between stress (force per unit area) and strain (proportional deformation) in a material.

Engineering Tolerance is the permissible limit or limits of variation in: A physical dimension, a measured value or physical property of a material manufactured object, system, or service, other measured values (such as temperature, humidity, etc.). In engineering and safety, a physical distance or space (tolerance), as in a truck (lorry), train or boat under a bridge as well as a train in a tunnel (see structure gauge and loading gauge). In mechanical engineering the space between a bolt and a nut or a hole, etc.. Dimensions, properties, or conditions may have some variation without significantly affecting functioning of systems, machines, structures, etc. A variation beyond the tolerance (for example, a temperature that is too hot or too cold) is said to be noncompliant, rejected, or exceeding the tolerance, which is the capacity of an organism or material to tolerate unfavorable environmental conditions.

Specification or technical standard is a requirement specification and a set of documented requirements to be satisfied by a material, design, product, or service. A functional specification is closely related to the requirement specification and may show functional block diagrams. A design or product specification describes the features of the solutions for the Requirement Specification, referring to the designed solution or final produced solution. Sometimes the term specification is here used in connection with a data sheet (or spec sheet). This may be confusing. A data sheet describes the technical characteristics of an item or product as designed and/or produced. It can be published by a manufacturer to help people choose products or to help use the products. A data sheet is not a technical specification as described in this article. A "in-service" or "maintained as" specification, specifies the conditions of a system or object after years of operation, including the effects of wear and maintenance (configuration changes).

Shapes (geography)

Honeycomb Structure are natural or man-made structures that have the geometry of a honeycomb to allow the minimization of the amount of used material to reach minimal weight and minimal material cost.

Mechanical Characterization of Structured Sheet Materials (youtube) - Planar rod networks whose mechanics and aesthetics are inextricably linked. We establish a connection between the complex mesoscopic deformation behavior of such structures and their macroscopic elastic properties through numerical homogenization. Our approach leverages 3D Kirchhoff rod simulation in order to capture nonlinear effects for both in-plane and bending deformations. We apply our method to different families of structures based on isohedral tilings— a simple yet extensive and aesthetically interesting group of space filling patterns. We show that these tilings admit a wide range of material properties, and our homogenization approach allows us to create concise and intuitive descriptions of a material’s direction dependent macromechanical behavior that are easy to communicate even to non-experts. We perform this characterization for an extensive set of structures and organize these data in a material browser to enable efficient forward exploration of the aesthetic-mechanical space of structured sheet materials. We also propose an inverse design method to automatically find structure parameters that best approximate a user-specified target behavior.

Disaster Proof Architecture Structures - Strong Structure Shapes

Earthquakes

Structural Health Monitoring is the process of implementing a damage detection and characterization strategy for engineering structures, referred to as structural health monitoring (SHM). Here damage is defined as changes to the material and/or geometric properties of a structural system, including changes to the boundary conditions and system connectivity, which adversely affect the system's performance. The SHM process involves the observation of a system over time using periodically sampled dynamic response measurements from an array of sensors, the extraction of damage-sensitive features from these measurements, and the statistical analysis of these features to determine the current state of system health. For long term SHM, the output of this process is periodically updated information regarding the ability of the structure to perform its intended function in light of the inevitable aging and degradation resulting from operational environments. After extreme events, such as earthquakes or blast loading, SHM is used for rapid condition screening and aims to provide, in near real time, reliable information regarding the integrity of the structure.

Deep Foundation is a type of foundation which transfers building loads to the earth farther down from the surface than a shallow foundation does, to a subsurface layer or a range of depths. A pile or piling is a vertical structural element of a deep foundation, driven or drilled deep into the ground at the building site.

Pile Bridge is a structure that uses foundations consisting of long poles (referred to as piles), which are made of wood, concrete or steel and which are hammered into the soft soils beneath the bridge until the end of the pile reaches a hard layer of compacted soil or rock. Piles in such cases are hammered to a depth where the grip or friction of the pile and the soil surrounding it will support the load of the bridge deck. Bridging solely using the pile method is nowadays a rare occurrence.

Magnifying Motion (youtube)

Goethite is an iron bearing hydroxide mineral of the diaspore group. It is found in soil and other low-temperature environments. Goethite has been well known since ancient times for its use as a pigment (brown ochre). Evidence has been found of its use in paint pigment samples taken from the caves of Lascaux in France.

Engineers develop smart material that changes stiffness when twisted or bent. Scientists have developed a rubbery material that transforms itself into a hard composite when bent, twisted or squeezed. The new material could be used in medicine to support delicate tissues or in industry to protect valuable sensors.



Automation - Machines


Automation Factory Automation is the use of various control systems for operating equipment such as machinery, processes in factories, boilers and heat treating ovens, switching on telephone networks, steering and stabilization of ships, aircraft and other applications with minimal or reduced human intervention.

Do Robots take Jobs? - Automaton - Autonomous

Machine is a tool containing one or more parts that uses Energy to perform an intended action. Machines are usually powered by mechanical, chemical, thermal, or electrical means, and are often motorized. Historically, a power tool also required moving parts to classify as a machine. However, the advent of electronics has led to the development of power tools without moving parts that are considered machines. Machine is any mechanical or electrical device that transmits or modifies energy to perform or assist in the performance of human tasks. An intricate organization that accomplishes its goals efficiently. A device for overcoming resistance at one point by applying force at some other point.

Equipment is something instrumentality needed for an undertaking or to perform a service. A set of tools or other objects commonly used to achieve a particular objective or purpose.

Robotics - Robot Building - Computers (software / hardware) - Artificial Intelligence

Machine element refers to an elementary component of a machine. These elements consist of three basic types: Structural components such as frame members, bearings, axles, splines, fasteners, seals, and lubricants. Mechanisms that control movement in various ways such as gear trains, belt or chain drives, linkages, cam and follower systems, including brakes and clutches. Control components such as buttons, switches, indicators, sensors, actuators and computer controllers.

Mechanics is an area of science concerned with the behaviour of physical bodies when subjected to forces or displacements, and the subsequent effects of the bodies on their environment.

Mechanization is the process of changing from working largely or exclusively by hand or with animals to doing that work with machinery. Every machine is constructed for the purpose of performing certain mechanical operations, each of which supposes the existence of two other things besides the machine in question, namely, a moving power, and an object subject to the operation, which may be termed the work to be done. Machines, in fact, are interposed between the power and the work, for the purpose of adapting the one to the other.

Mechanism
is the technical aspects of doing something. A device consisting of a piece of machinery; has moving parts that perform some function. The atomic process that occurs during a chemical reaction. Mechanism in philosophy is the philosophical theory that all phenomena can be explained in terms of physical or biological causes. A natural object resembling a machine in structure or function. Interface.

Mechanistic is something explained in terms of physical forces. Relating to the philosophical theory of mechanism.

Mechatronics is a multidisciplinary field of science that includes a combination of mechanical engineering, electronics, computer engineering, telecommunications engineering, systems engineering and control engineering. As technology advances, the subfields of engineering multiply and adapt. Mechatronics' aim is a design process that unifies these subfields. Originally, mechatronics just included the combination of mechanics and electronics, therefore the word is a combination of mechanics and electronics; however, as technical systems have become more and more complex the definition has been broadened to include more technical areas.

Degrees of Freedom of a mechanical system is the number of independent parameters that define its configuration or state. It is important in the analysis of systems of bodies in mechanical engineering, structural engineering, aerospace engineering, robotics, and other fields. The position of a single railcar (engine) moving along a track has one degree of freedom because the position of the car is defined by the distance along the track. A train of rigid cars connected by hinges to an engine still has only one degree of freedom because the positions of the cars behind the engine are constrained by the shape of the track. An automobile with highly stiff suspension can be considered to be a rigid body traveling on a plane (a flat, two-dimensional space). This body has three independent degrees of freedom consisting of two components of translation and one angle of rotation. Skidding or drifting is a good example of an automobile's three independent degrees of freedom. The position and orientation of a rigid body in space is defined by three components of translation and three components of rotation, which means that it has six degrees of freedom. The exact constraint mechanical design method manages the degrees of freedom to neither underconstrain nor overconstrain a device.

Engines - Generators

Elevator is a type of vertical transportation device that moves people or goods between floors (levels, decks) of a building, vessel, or other structure. Elevators are typically powered by electric motors that drive traction cables and counterweight systems like a hoist, although some pump hydraulic fluid to raise a cylindrical piston like a jack. In agriculture and manufacturing, an elevator is any type of conveyor device used to lift materials in a continuous stream into bins or silos. Several types exist, such as the chain and bucket elevator, grain auger screw conveyor using the principle of Archimedes' screw, or the chain and paddles or forks of hay elevators. Languages other than English may have loanwords based on either elevator or lift. Because of wheelchair access laws, elevators are often a legal requirement in new multistory buildings, especially where wheelchair ramps would be impractical. There are also some elevators which can go sideways in addition to the usual up-and-down motion. Elisha Graves Otis invented the braking device which prevented an elevator from falling in case the hoisting cables broke. His invention was critical. Without it, the elevator was hopeless, unsafe, and impractical.

Conveyor System is a common piece of mechanical handling equipment that moves materials from one location to another. Conveyors are especially useful in applications involving the transportation of heavy or bulky materials. Conveyor systems allow quick and efficient transportation for a wide variety of materials, which make them very popular in the material handling and packaging industries. They also have popular consumer applications, as they are often found in supermarkets and airports, constituting the final leg of item/ bag delivery to customers. Many kinds of conveying systems are available and are used according to the various needs of different industries. There are chain conveyors (floor and overhead) as well. Chain conveyors consist of enclosed tracks, I-Beam, towline, power & free, and hand pushed trolleys.

Sountrive Industrial JP (youtube)

Industrial Technology is the use of engineering and manufacturing technology to make production faster, simpler and more efficient. The industrial technology field employs creative and technically proficient individuals who can help a company achieve efficient and profitable Productivity.

Machine to Machine refers to direct communication between devices using any communications channel, including wired and wireless. Machine to machine communication can include industrial instrumentation, enabling a sensor or meter to communicate the data it records (such as temperature, inventory level, etc.) to application software that can use it (for example, adjusting an industrial process based on temperature or placing orders to replenish inventory). Such communication was originally accomplished by having a remote network of machines relay information back to a central hub for analysis, which would then be rerouted into a system like a personal computer.

Gears Wear is the damaging, gradual removal or deformation of material at solid surfaces. Causes of wear can be mechanical (e.g., erosion) or chemical (e.g., corrosion). The study of wear and related processes is referred to as tribology. Wear in machine elements, together with other processes such as fatigue and creep, causes functional surfaces to degrade, eventually leading to material failure or loss of functionality. Thus, wear has large economic relevance as first outlined in the Jost Report. Wear of metals occurs by plastic displacement of surface and near-surface material and by detachment of particles that form wear debris. The particle size may vary from millimeters to nanometers. This process may occur by contact with other metals, nonmetallic solids, flowing liquids, solid particles or liquid droplets entrained in flowing gasses. The wear rate is affected by factors such as type of loading (e.g., impact, static, dynamic), type of motion (e.g., sliding, rolling), and temperature. Depending on the tribosystem, different wear types and wear mechanisms can be observed. Abrasion is the process by which particles trapped between two sliding surfaces cut, score and gouge material from a softer machine surface. Corrosive wear is the result of a chemical reaction that is accelerated by temperature.

Friction loss at first contact: The material does not forgive. Materials researchers study the causes of wear.

Manufacturing is the value added Production of merchandise for use or sale using labour and machines, tools, chemical and biological processing, or formulation.

Technology (technology education)

Development Mistakes - Quality Control (QC)

Cars - Computers - Electrical

Product Lifecycle is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from inception, through engineering design and manufacture, to service and disposal of manufactured products.


Hydraulics


Hydraulic Machinery are machinery and tools that use liquid fluid power to do simple work. Heavy equipment is a common example. Fluid Mechanics.

Hydraulic Cylinder is a mechanical actuator that is used to give a unidirectional force through a unidirectional stroke. It has many applications, notably in construction equipment (engineering vehicles), manufacturing machinery, and civil engineering.

Fluid Power is the use of fluids under pressure to generate, control, and transmit power.

Pneumatics makes use of gas or pressurized air.

Valve is a device that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fittings, but are usually discussed as a separate category. In an open valve, fluid flows in a direction from higher pressure to lower pressure. The word is derived from the Latin valva, the moving part of a door, in turn from volvere, to turn, roll. The simplest, and very ancient, valve is simply a freely hinged flap which drops to obstruct fluid (gas or liquid) flow in one direction, but is pushed open by flow in the opposite direction. This is called a check valve, as it prevents or "checks" the flow in one direction. Modern control valves may regulate pressure or flow downstream and operate on sophisticated automation systems. Valves have many uses, including controlling water for irrigation, industrial uses for controlling processes, residential uses such as on/off and pressure control to dish and clothes washers and taps in the home. Even aerosols have a tiny valve built in. Valves are also used in the military and transport sectors.

Control Valve is a valve used to control fluid flow by varying the size of the flow passage as directed by a signal from a controller. This enables the direct control of flow rate and the consequential control of process quantities such as pressure, temperature, and liquid level. In automatic control terminology, a control valve is termed a "final control element".

Solenoid Valve is an electromechanical device in which the solenoid uses an electric current to generate a magnetic field and thereby operate a mechanism which regulates the opening of fluid flow in a valve.

Check Valve is a valve that normally allows fluid (liquid or gas) to flow through it in only one direction.

Safety Valve is a valve that acts as a fail-safe. An example of safety valve is a pressure relief valve (PRV), which automatically releases a substance from a boiler, pressure vessel, or other system, when the pressure or temperature exceeds preset limits. Pilot-operated relief valves are a specialized type of pressure safety valve. A leak tight, lower cost, single emergency use option would be a rupture disk.



Drawing - Blueprints - Design Software


Blueprint House Construction Plans Technical Drawing composing drawings that visually communicate how something functions or is to be constructed. Model.

Architectural Drawing is a technical Drawing of a building used to develop a design idea into a coherent proposal, to communicate ideas and concepts, to convince clients of the merits of a design, to enable a building contractor to construct it, as a record of the completed work, and to make a record of a building that already exists. Document Writing.

Engineering Drawing is a type of technical drawing, is used to fully and clearly define requirements for engineered items.

Drafter is a person who makes detailed technical drawings or plans for machinery, buildings, electronics, infrastructure, sections, etc. Drafters use computer software and manual sketches to convert the designs, plans, and layouts of engineers and architects into a set of technical drawings. Drafters operate as the supporting developers and sketch engineering designs and drawings from preliminary design concepts. Drafting work has many specialties such as: Aeronautical drafters prepare engineering drawings detailing plans and specifications used in the manufacture of aircraft, missiles, and related parts. Architectural drafters draw architectural and structural features of buildings and other structures. These designs are used in the construction or remodeling of homes, commercial buildings and power stations. These workers may specialize in a type of structure, such as residential or commercial, or in a kind of building material used, such as reinforced concrete, masonry, steel, or timber. Civil drafters prepare drawings and topographical and relief maps used in major construction or civil engineering projects such as buildings, highways, bridges, pipelines, flood-control projects, and water and sewage systems. Electrical drafters prepare wiring and layout diagrams used by workers who erect, install, and repair electrical equipment and wiring in communication centers, power plants, electrical distribution systems, and buildings. Electronics drafters draw wiring diagrams, circuit board assembly diagrams, schematics, and layout drawings used in the manufacture, installation, and repair of electronic devices and components. Mechanical drafters prepare drawings showing the detail and assembly of a wide variety of machinery and mechanical devices, indicating dimensions, fastening methods, manufacturing equipment, and mechanical installation infrastructure. Process piping or pipeline drafters prepare drawings used in the layout, construction, and operation of oil and gas fields, refineries, chemical plants, and process piping systems. Photovoltaic drafters prepare drawings showing inverter Pad location drawings and slab construction drawings, also prepare specific photovoltaic system assembly details and some wiring diagrams.

Hand Drawing (design) - Charts and Graphs - Maps

Drawing Board is a kind of multipurpose desk which can be used for any kind of drawing, writing or impromptu sketching on a large sheet of paper or for reading a large format book or other oversized document or for drafting precise technical illustrations (such as engineering drawings or architectural drawings). The drawing table used to be a frequent companion to a pedestal desk in a gentleman's study or private library, during the pre-industrial and early industrial era.

Blueprint is a reproduction of a technical drawing, documenting an architecture or an engineering design, using a contact print process on light-sensitive sheets.

2D Computer Graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from two-dimensional models (such as 2D geometric models, text, and digital images) and by techniques specific to them. The word may stand for the branch of computer science that comprises such techniques, or for the models themselves. 2D computer graphics are mainly used in applications that were originally developed upon traditional printing and drawing technologies, such as typography, cartography, technical drawing, advertising, etc. In those applications, the two-dimensional image is not just a representation of a real-world object, but an independent artifact with added semantic value; two-dimensional models are therefore preferred, because they give more direct control of the image than 3D computer graphics (whose approach is more akin to photography than to typography). In many domains, such as desktop publishing, engineering, and business, a description of a document based on 2D computer graphics techniques can be much smaller than the corresponding digital image—often by a factor of 1/1000 or more. This representation is also more flexible since it can be rendered at different resolutions to suit different output devices. For these reasons, documents and illustrations are often stored or transmitted as 2D graphic files. 2D computer graphics started in the 1950s, based on vector graphics devices. These were largely supplanted by raster-based devices in the following decades. The PostScript language and the X Window System protocol were landmark developments in the field.

Visual Maps - Graphs - Plots

Computer Simulation - VR

Prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from. A prototype is generally used to evaluate a new design to enhance precision by system analysts and users. Prototyping serves to provide specifications for a real, working system rather than a theoretical one.

Exploratory Engineering describes the process of designing and analyzing detailed hypothetical models of systems that are not feasible with current technologies or methods, but do seem to be clearly within the bounds of what science considers to be possible within the narrowly defined scope of operation of the hypothetical system model. It usually results in paper or video prototypes, or (more likely nowadays) computer models that are as convincing as possible to those that know the relevant science, given the lack of experimental confirmation. By analogy with protoscience, it might be considered a form of protoengineering.

Rapid Prototyping is a group of techniques used to quickly fabricate a scale model of a physical part or assembly using three-dimensional computer aided design (CAD) data. Construction of the part or assembly is usually done using 3D printing or "additive layer manufacturing" technology. Development Iterations.


Models


Building Model demonstrates and promotes buildings before they are constructed.

Scale Model is most generally a physical representation of an object, which maintains accurate relationships between all important aspects of the model, although absolute values of the original properties need not be preserved. This enables it to demonstrate some behavior or property of the original object without examining the original object itself. The most familiar scale models represent the physical appearance of an object in miniature, but there are many other kinds. .

Architectural Model Building Kits

Architectural Model is a type of scale model - a physical representation of a structure - built to study aspects of an architectural design or to communicate design ideas.

Origamic Architecture involves the three-dimensional reproduction of architecture, geometric patterns, everyday objects, or other images, on various scales, using cut-out and folded paper, usually thin paperboard.

Building Information Modeling is a process involving the generation and management of digital representations of physical and functional characteristics of places.


3D Modeling


3D Modeling Software Modeling is a preliminary sculpture in wax or clay from which a finished work can be copied. The act of representing something on a smaller scale or larger scale.

Art Skills - 3D Printing Technology - Building Blocks

Scale Model a physical representation of an object which enables it to demonstrate some behavior or property of the original object without examining the original object itself. Scale Ratio - Sizes.

Conceptual Model is a representation of a system, made of the composition of concepts which are used to help people know, understand, or simulate a subject the model represents. Some Models are physical objects; for example, a toy model which may be assembled, and may be made to work like the object it represents.

Similitude Model is a concept applicable to the testing of engineering Physical Model, which is a smaller or larger physical copy of an object.

Physical Model allow visualization, from examining the model, of information about the thing the model represents.

Function Model in systems engineering and software engineering is a structured representation of the functions (activities, actions, processes, operations) within the modeled system or subject area. A function model, similar with the activity model or process model, is a graphical representation of an enterprise's function within a defined scope. The purposes of the function model are to describe the functions and processes, assist with discovery of information needs, help identify opportunities, and establish a basis for determining product and service costs.

Simulations (virtual reality) - Communication - Wolfram

Mathematical Model is a description of a system using mathematical concepts and language.

Numerical models are mathematical models that use some sort of numerical time-stepping procedure to obtain the models behavior over time. The mathematical solution is represented by a generated table and/or Graph.

3D Modeling is the process of developing a mathematically representation of any three-dimensional surface of an object (either inanimate or living) via specialized software.

3D-Printing - Building Kits (educational models)

Solid Modeling is a consistent set of principles for mathematical and computer modeling of three-dimensional solids. Solid modeling is distinguished from related areas of geometric modeling and computer graphics by its emphasis on physical fidelity. Together, the principles of geometric and solid modeling form the foundation of computer-aided design and in general support the creation, exchange, visualization, animation, interrogation, and annotation of digital models of physical objects.

Modelling Clay is any of a group of malleable substances used in building and sculpting. The material compositions and production processes vary considerably.

Geometric Modeling is a branch of applied mathematics and computational geometry that studies methods and algorithms for the mathematical description of shapes. The shapes studied in geometric modeling are mostly two- or three-dimensional, although many of its tools and principles can be applied to sets of any finite dimension. Today most geometric modeling is done with computers and for computer-based applications. Two-dimensional models are important in computer typography and technical drawing. Three-dimensional models are central to computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM), and widely used in many applied technical fields such as civil and mechanical engineering, architecture, geology and medical image processing.

Wolfram System Modeler. Modeling and simulation environment for cyber-physical systems. Using drag and drop from the large selection of built-in and expandable modeling libraries, you can build industrial strength, multidomain models of your complete system. Adding the power of the Wolfram Language gives you a fully integrated environment for analyzing, understanding and quickly iterating system designs. Driving insight, innovation and results.

Rosetta Commons modeling software The Rosetta software suite includes algorithms for computational modeling and analysis of protein structures.

Digital Mockup is a concept that allows the description of a product, usually in 3D, for its entire life cycle. Digital Mockup is enriched by all the activities that contribute to describing the product. The product design engineers, the manufacturing engineers, and the support engineers work together to create and manage the DMU. One of the objectives is to have an important knowledge of the future or the supported product to replace any physical prototypes with virtual ones, using 3D computer graphics techniques.

CAD or Computer-Aided Design, is the use of computer systems (or workstations) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. CAD software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve communications through documentation, and to create a database for manufacturing. CAD output is often in the form of electronic files for print, machining, or other manufacturing operations. The term CADD (for Computer Aided Design and Drafting) is also used. Auto-Cad - List of Computer-Aided Design Software (wiki).

Production File is a file produced by processing the content in one or more archival master files, resulting in a new file or files with levels of quality that rival those of the archival master. The first type of processing consists of the assembly of a set of segments into a unified reproduction of an item. 3D Files.

Design Engineer is a general term for a person who may be involved in any of various engineering disciplines including electrical, mechanical, chemical, textiles, aerospace, nuclear, manufacturing, civil, systems, and structural /building/architectural. Design engineers tend to work on products and systems that involve the use and adaption of complex scientific and mathematical techniques. The emphasis tends to be on utilizing engineering physics and sciences to develop solutions for society.

Pro-E or PTC Creo, formerly known as Pro/ENGINEER, is a 3D CAD/CAM/CAE feature-based, associative solid modeling software. It is one of a suite of 10 collaborative applications that provide solid modeling, assembly modelling, 2D orthographic views, finite element analysis, direct and parametric modelling, sub-divisional and NURBS surfacing, and NC and tooling functionality for mechanical designers. Creo Elements/Parametric compete directly with Solidworks, CATIA, and NX/Solid Edge. It was created by Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC) and was the first of its kind to market.

MATLAB is a multi-paradigm numerical computing environment and proprietary programming language developed by MathWorks. MATLAB allows matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data, implementation of algorithms, creation of user interfaces, and interfacing with programs written in other languages, including C, C++, C#, Java, Fortran and Python. Although MATLAB is intended primarily for numerical computing, an optional toolbox uses the MuPAD symbolic engine, allowing access to symbolic computing abilities. An additional package, Simulink, adds graphical multi-domain simulation and model-based design for dynamic and embedded systems.As of 2018, MATLAB has more than 3 million users worldwide. MATLAB users come from various backgrounds of engineering, science, and economics.

Micro-Station is a CAD software product for two and three dimensional design and drafting, developed and sold by Bentley Systems. The latest versions of the software are released solely for Microsoft Windows operating systems, but historically MicroStation was available for Macintosh platforms and a number of Unix-like operating systems.

Fusion 360 - Blender 2.8 (digital sculpting)

Tinker CAD is a free, easy-to-use app for 3D design, electronics, and coding. It's used by teachers, kids, hobbyists, and designers to imagine, design, and make anything!

Solid Works is a solid modeling computer-aided design and computer-aided engineering computer program that runs on Microsoft Windows.

Autodesk - Sketch Up

E Plans
Building Cost
Owner Builder 
Total Take Offs
Home Plans

FlatCAM: Free and Open-source PCB CAM, lets you take your designs to a CNC Router.

Tellart consist of designers, architects, filmmakers, and technologists deeply experienced in shaping ideas from concept to execution. interactive prototypes.

Proto.io creates fully-interactive high-fidelity prototypes that look and work exactly like your app should. No coding required.

Mach 3 - Lazy-Cam

G-Code is the common name for the most widely used numerical control (NC) programming language. It is used mainly in computer-aided manufacturing to control automated machine tools. G-code is sometimes called G programming language, not to be confused with LabVIEW's G programming language.

Project-Wise is a suite of engineering project collaboration software from Bentley Systems designed for the architecture, engineering, construction (AEC) industries.

Industrial Design is a process of design applied to products that are to be manufactured through techniques of mass production. Its key characteristic is that design is separated from manufacture: the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features takes place in advance of the physical act of making a product, which consists purely of repeated, often automated, replication. This distinguishes industrial design from craft-based design, where the form of the product is determined by the product's creator at the time of its creation.

Engineers Without Borders is used by a number of non-governmental organizations in various countries to describe their activity based on engineering and oriented to international development work. All of these groups work worldwide to serve the needs of disadvantaged communities and people through engineering projects Many EWB national groups are developed independently from each other, and so they are not all formally affiliated with each other, and their level of collaboration and organizational development varies. The majority of the EWB/ISF (French, Ingénieurs Sans Frontières) organizations are strongly linked to academia and to students, with many of them being student-led.

Engineering - Harvard - Math Works

Quality Assurance (Quality Control)

Design Controls designates the application of a formal methodology to the conduct of product development activities. It is often mandatory (by regulation) to implement such practice when designing and developing products within regulated industries (e.g. medical devices).



Tools - Instruments


Hand Tools Tool is any physical item that can be used to achieve a goal, especially if the item is not consumed in the process. Tool use by humans dates back millions of years, and other animals are also known to employ simple tools, such as "instrument", "utensil", "implement", "machine", "device," or "apparatus". The set of tools needed to achieve a goal is "equipment".

Hand Tools List (wiki) - Tools Info-Graph (image) - Martinez Tools - Business & Industrial Supplies

Metalworking Tools - Farm Tools - Stone Tools - Science Tools

Instrument is a device that requires skill for proper use. The means whereby some act is accomplished. Equip with instruments for measuring, recording, or controlling. A tool or implement, especially one for delicate work or scientific work. Surgical Instruments.

Device is an instrument invented for a particular purpose. Interface.

Tools with Names Toolbox refers to several types of storage to hold tools. It could mean a small portable box that can carry a few tools to a project location or a large storage system set on casters. Modern toolboxes are predominantly metal or plastic. Wood was the material of choice for toolboxes built beginning in the early 19th century. (also called toolkit, tool chest or workbox). Human Brain.

Tool Management is needed in metalworking so that the information regarding the tools on hand can be uniformly organized and integrated. The information is stored in a database and is registered and applied using tool management. Tool data management consists of specific data fields, graphics and parameters that are essential in production, as opposed to managing general production equipment.

Retool is to adapt or alter someone or something to make them more useful or suitable. Equip a factory with new or adapted tools.


Machining Tools


Machine Tool is a machine for shaping or machining metal or other rigid materials, usually by cutting, boring, grinding, shearing, or other forms of deformation. Machine tools employ some sort of tool that does the cutting or shaping. All machine tools have some means of constraining the workpiece and provide a guided movement of the parts of the machine. Thus the relative movement between the workpiece and the cutting tool (which is called the toolpath) is controlled or constrained by the machine to at least some extent, rather than being entirely "offhand" or "freehand".

Machining is any of various processes in which a piece of raw material is cut into a desired final shape and size by a controlled material-removal process. The processes that have this common theme, controlled material removal, are today collectively known as subtractive manufacturing, in distinction from processes of controlled material addition, which are known as additive manufacturing. Exactly what the "controlled" part of the definition implies can vary, but it almost always implies the use of machine tools (in addition to just power tools and hand tools).

Machine Shop Equipment - Outline of Industrial Machinery (wiki)

Welding - Construction - Fasteners - Connectors

Machinist is a person who uses machine tools to make or modify parts, primarily metal parts. This process of machining is accomplished by using machine tools to cut away excess material much as a woodcarver cuts away excess wood to produce his work. In addition to metal, the parts may be made of many other kinds of materials, such as plastic or wood products. The goal of these cutting operations is to produce a part that conforms to a set of specifications, or tolerances, usually in the form of engineering drawings commonly known as blueprints.

Motor Controls - Vocabulary Tools - Failure Criteria

E Machine Shop - Design and order Custom Parts. 

Lathe is a tool that rotates the work-piece on its axis to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, or deformation, facing, turning, with tools that are applied to the workpiece to create an object with symmetry about an axis of rotation. Lathes are used in woodturning, metalworking, metal spinning, thermal spraying, parts reclamation, and glass-working. Lathes can be used to shape pottery, the best-known design being the potter's wheel.

Building a Lathe from Scratch (youtube)
Matthias Wandel (youtube channel)

Metal Fabrication is the building of metal structures by cutting, bending, and assembling processes. It is a value added process that involves the construction of machines and structures from various raw materials.

Prefabrication (houses)

Forging - Casting - Molding

Zero Waste is a philosophy that encourages the redesign of resource life cycles so that all products are reused.

Milling Machine Parts Milling Machine is the machining process of using rotary cutters to remove material from a workpiece by advancing (or feeding) in a direction at an angle with the axis of the tool. It covers a wide variety of different operations and machines, on scales from small individual parts to large, heavy-duty gang milling operations. It is one of the most commonly used processes in industry and machine shops today for machining parts to precise sizes and shapes. Heavy Tool Arm.

Multiaxis Machining is a manufacturing process where computer numerically controlled tools that move in 4 or more ways are used to manufacture parts out of metal or other materials by milling away excess material, by water jet cutting or by laser cutting. Typical CNC tools support translation in 3 axis; multiaxis machines also support rotation around one or multiple axis. There are now many CAM (computer aided manufacturing) software systems available to support multiaxis machining including software that can automatically convert 3-axis toolpaths into 5-axis toolpaths. Five-axis machine tools are known to have 41 basic geometric errors. The way you want the machine to move (when making a large part) is different than the way it actually moves due to inherent geometric errors." Because of these errors, manufacturers must make adjustments in calibrating their CNC machines. Researchers develop ways to improve machining, milling processes

Computer Numerical Control or CNC, is the automation of machine tools by means of computers executing pre-programmed sequences of machine control commands. This is in contrast to machines that are manually controlled by hand wheels or levers, or mechanically automated by cams alone. Taig CNC Mills.

The Evolution Of Cutting Tools (youtube) - The story begins with how cutting tools evolved from simple paleolithic stone edges to the knives, axes and other basic metal cuttings tools via the copper, bronze, and iron age. From there we look at the discoveries of metallurgy during the industrial era, the rise of steel, and the evolution of machine tools. We explore the advancements of the tooling mills, lathes and shapers used as cutting tool materials moved from high-speed steel to carbides, and other exotic cutting materials.

Hand Tools List Cutting Tool in machining is any tool that is used to remove material from the workpiece by means of shear
deformation.

Math (mathematics)

Technology Interactivity - Interfaces

Laser Cutting is a technology that uses a Laser to cut materials, and is typically used for industrial manufacturing applications, but is also starting to be used by schools, small businesses, and hobbyists. Laser cutting works by directing the output of a high-power laser most commonly through optics. The laser optics and CNC (computer numerical control) are used to direct the material or the laser beam generated. A typical commercial laser for cutting materials would involve a motion control system to follow a CNC or G-code of the pattern to be cut onto the material. The focused Laser beam is directed at the material, which then either melts, burns, vaporizes away, or is blown away by a jet of gas, leaving an edge with a high-quality surface finish. Industrial laser cutters are used to cut flat-sheet material as well as structural and piping materials.

Plasma Cutting is a process that cuts through electrically conductive materials by means of an accelerated jet of hot plasma. Typical materials cut with a plasma torch include steel, Stainless steel, aluminum, brass and copper, although other conductive metals may be cut as well. Plasma cutting is often used in fabrication shops, automotive repair and restoration, industrial construction, and salvage and scrapping operations. Due to the high speed and precision cuts combined with low cost, plasma cutting sees widespread use from large-scale industrial CNC applications down to small hobbyist shops. Plasma Cutting Machine - Plasma Cutting Pantograph (youtube).

Electrical Discharge Machining is a manufacturing process whereby a desired shape is obtained by using electrical discharges (sparks). Material is removed from the work piece by a series of rapidly recurring current discharges between two electrodes, separated by a dielectric liquid and subject to an electric voltage. One of the electrodes is called the tool-electrode, or simply the "tool" or "electrode," while the other is called the workpiece-electrode, or "work piece." The process depends upon the tool and work piece not making actual contact. Drill through anything that is conductive with Electrical Discharge Machining (youtube).

Water Jet Cutter also known as a water jet or waterjet, is an industrial tool capable of cutting a wide variety of materials using a very high-pressure jet of water, or a mixture of water and an abrasive substance. The term abrasive jet refers specifically to the use of a mixture of water and abrasive to cut hard materials such as metal or granite, while the terms pure waterjet and water-only cutting refer to waterjet cutting without the use of added abrasives, often used for softer materials such as wood or rubber. Waterjet cutting is often used during fabrication of machine parts. It is the preferred method when the materials being cut are sensitive to the high temperatures generated by other methods. Waterjet cutting is used in various industries, including mining and aerospace, for cutting, shaping, and reaming.

Sonic Driller is a drilling device that uses vibrations in order to hammer its bit through materials, as opposed to traditional drilling methods. The drill uses a piezoelectric actuator as its source of power, and utilizes a variety of 'horns' to vibrate, or hammer, its bit through the material. A prototype of the drill was first released by NASA in April 2000, which weighed 1.5 lb. (.7 kg) and had the capacity to drill half-inch holes into granite using only 10 watts of power, whereas the modern household half-inch drill requires 750 watts. The USDC was originally designed to be able to drill through very rigid rock surfaces that would otherwise be damaged by a rotary drill, but has also shown potential usefulness to the field of medicine. It is the specific characteristics of the drill that make it ideal or practical for certain situations. The USDC is driven by a Piezoelectric stack actuator that creates the vibrations. The actuator vibrates at an extremely high frequency, making it ultrasonic, and it is these waves of vibration that are transmitted by the horn of the actuator all the way to the bit itself. The vibrations are created at the actuator and are transferred by the horn to a free mass. The free mass vibrates between the drill stem and the horn of the actuator to transmit the vibrations down the drill stem. The drill stem houses the drill bit, and the vibrations push the bit into the material. The repetitive impact on the drill stem by the free mass, creates stress pulses that transmit to the tip of the bit and into the rock. Ultimately, the repetitive strike of the bit produces enough strain on the surface to fracture it. Overall, the USDC requires little power to operate. The USDC requires a very low axial load, or downward force applied, to be able to drill through tough surfaces such as granite, rock, or ice. Near zero torque is needed to operate the drill, as it does not bore using a traditional rotary force. Comparatively, the USDC uses much less power to operate than other drill boring through hard surfaces. Tuning Fork.

Pascal is the SI derived unit of pressure used to quantify internal pressure, stress, Young's modulus and ultimate tensile strength. It is defined as one newton per square metre. It is named after the French polymath Blaise Pascal. Common multiple units of the pascal are the hectopascal (1 hPa = 100 Pa) which is equal to one millibar, and the kilopascal (1 kPa = 1000 Pa) which is equal to one centibar. The unit of measurement called standard atmosphere (atm) is defined as 101,325 Pa and approximates to the average pressure at sea-level at the latitude 45° N. Meteorological reports typically state atmospheric pressure in hectopascals.

Machine Shop consist of cutting, shaping, drilling, finishing, and other processes. The machine tools typically include metal lathes, milling machines, machining centers, multitasking machines, drill presses, or grinding machines, many controlled with CNC. Other processes, such as heat treating, electroplating, or painting of the parts before or after machining, are often done in a separate facility. A machine shop can contain some raw materials (such as bar stock for machining) and an inventory of finished parts. These items are often stored in a warehouse.

Saw Types Saw is a tool consisting of a tough blade, wire, or chain with a hard toothed edge. It is used to cut through material, very often wood. The cut is made by placing the toothed edge against the material and moving it forcefully forth and less forcefully back or
continuously forward. This force may be applied by hand, or powered by steam, water, electricity or other power source. An abrasive saw has a powered circular blade designed to cut through metal or ceramic.

Power Tool is a tool that is actuated by an additional power source and mechanism other than the solely manual labour used with hand tools. The most common types of power tools use electric motors.

Circular Saw is a power-saw using a toothed or abrasive disc or blade to cut different materials using a rotary motion spinning around an arbor. A hole saw and ring saw also use a rotary motion but are different from a circular saw. A circular saw is a tool for cutting many materials such as wood, masonry, plastic, or metal and may be hand-held or mounted to a machine. In woodworking the term "circular saw" refers specifically to the hand-held type and the table saw and chop saw are other common forms of circular saws. "Skill Saw" has become a generic trademark for conventional hand-held circular saws. Circular saw blades are specially designed for each particular material they are intended to cut and in cutting wood are specifically designed for making rip-cuts, cross-cuts, or a combination of both. Circular saws are commonly powered by electricity, but may be powered by a gasoline engine or a hydraulic motor which allows it to be fastened to heavy equipment, eliminating the need for a separate energy source. Miter Table Saw (wiki).

Carbide Saw are machine tools for cutting. The saw teeth are made of cemented carbide, so that hard materials can be cut.

Concrete Saw is a power tool used for cutting concrete, masonry, brick, asphalt, tile, and other solid materials. There are many types ranging from small hand-held saws, chop-saw models, and big walk-behind saws or other styles, and it may be powered by gasoline, hydraulic or pneumatic pressure, or an electric motor. The saw blades used on concrete saws are often diamond saw blades to cut concrete, asphalt, stone, etc. Abrasive cut-off wheels can also be used on cut-off saws to cut stone and steel. The significant friction generated in cutting hard substances like concrete usually requires the blades to be cooled to prolong their life and reduce dust.

Jigsaw power tool is a jigsaw made up of an electric motor and a reciprocating saw blade.

Pneumatic Tool is a type of power tool, driven by compressed air, supplied by an air compressor. Pneumatic tools can also be driven by compressed carbon dioxide (CO2) stored in small cylinders allowing for portability. Pneumatic tools are safer to run and maintain than their electric power tool equivalents, and have a higher power-to-weight ratio, allowing a smaller, lighter tool to accomplish the same task. General grade pneumatic tools with short life span are commonly cheaper and are also called disposable tools in tooling industries while industrial grade pneumatic tools with long life span are more expensive. In general, pneumatic tools are cheaper than the equivalent electric-powered tools.

Impact Wrench is a socket wrench power tool designed to deliver high torque output with minimal exertion by the user, by storing energy in a rotating mass, then delivering it suddenly to the output shaft. Compressed air is the most common power source, although electric or hydraulic power is also used, with cordless electric devices becoming increasingly popular since the mid-2000s. Employee Benefits: The Ultimate Guide For Small Business Owners.


Measuring Tools


Ruler Inch and Millimeter Calibrated Lines Ruler is an instrument used in geometry, technical drawing, printing, engineering and building to measure distances or to rule straight lines. The ruler is a straightedge which may also contain calibrated lines to measure distances.

Tape Measure is a flexible ruler. It consists of a ribbon of cloth, plastic, fibre glass, or metal strip with linear-measurement markings. It is a common measuring tool. Its design allows for a measure of great length to be easily carried in pocket or toolkit and permits one to measure around curves or corners. Today it is ubiquitous, even appearing in miniature form as a keychain fob, or novelty item. Surveyors use tape measures in lengths of over 100 m (300+ ft). Easy Way to Read a Tape Measure (youtube)

Yardstick is a straightedge used to physically measure lengths of up to a yard (0.9144 metres or 3.0 feet long) high. Yardsticks are flat wooden boards with markings at regular intervals.

Units of Measurement (standards) - Small Things (nano) - Calibration

Conversion of Units is the conversion between different units of measurement for the same quantity, typically through multiplicative conversion factors.

Conversion Calculator - Metric Conversions - Liquid Conversions (recipes)

1 Inch" = 25.4 Millimeters-MM (12 Inches in 1 Foot).
1 Foot' = 0.3048 Meters  (3.28084 Feet in 1 Meter).
1 Mile = 1.60934 Kilometers (1 Mile is 5,280 Feet).

Steel Square is a long-armed square that has additional uses for measurement, especially of angles, as well as simple right-angles. Today the steel square is more commonly referred to as the framing square. It consists of a long arm and a shorter one, which meet at an angle of 90 degrees (a right angle). It can also be made of metals like aluminum, which is light and resistant to rust.

Speed Square is a triangular carpenters' marking out tool manufactured and sold by Swanson Tool Co., Inc. The Speed Square combines common functions of the combination square, try square, and framing square into one. Carpenters use it to make basic measurements and mark lines on dimensional lumber, and as a saw guide for short 45 and 90 degree cuts.

Protractor is for measuring angles. Most protractors measure angles in degrees (°). Radian-scale protractors measure angles in radians. Most protractors are divided into 180 equal parts.

Gauge is a device used to make measurements or in order to display certain information, like time.

Micrometer is a device incorporating a calibrated screw widely used for precise measurement of components in mechanical engineering and machining as well as most mechanical trades, along with other metrological instruments such as dial, vernier, and digital calipers.

Calipers is a device used to measure the distance between two opposite sides of an object. A caliper can be as simple as a compass with inward or outward-facing points. The tips of the caliper are adjusted to fit across the points to be measured, the caliper is then removed and the distance read by measuring between the tips with a measuring tool, such as a ruler. It is used in many fields such as mechanical engineering, metalworking, forestry, woodworking, science and medicine.

Measuring Tools Vernier Caliper: Dial and digital calipers give a direct reading of the distance measured with high accuracy and precision. They are functionally identical, with different ways of reading the result. These calipers comprise a calibrated scale with a fixed jaw, and another jaw, with a pointer, that slides along the scale. The distance between the jaws is then read in different ways for the three types. The simplest method is to read the position of the pointer directly on the scale. When the pointer is between two markings, the user can mentally interpolate to improve the precision of the reading. This would be a simple calibrated caliper; but the addition of a vernier scale allows more accurate interpolation, and is the universal practice; this is the vernier caliper. Vernier, dial, and digital calipers can measure internal dimensions (using the uppermost jaws in the picture at right), external dimensions using the pictured lower jaws, and in many cases depth by the use of a probe that is attached to the movable head and slides along the centre of the body. This probe is slender and can get into deep grooves that may prove difficult for other measuring tools. The vernier scales may include metric measurements on the lower part of the scale and inch measurements on the upper, or vice versa, in countries that use inches. Vernier calipers commonly used in industry provide a precision to 0.01 mm (10 micrometres), or one thousandth of an inch. They are available in sizes that can measure up to 1,829 mm (72 in).

Dial Caliper: Instead of using a vernier mechanism, which requires some practice to use, the dial caliper reads the final fraction of a millimeter or inch on a simple dial. In this instrument, a small, precise rack and pinion drives a pointer on a circular dial, allowing direct reading without the need to read a vernier scale. Typically, the pointer rotates once every inch, tenth of an inch, or 1 millimeter. This measurement must be added to the coarse whole inches or centimeters read from the slide. The dial is usually arranged to be rotatable beneath the pointer, allowing for "differential" measurements (the measuring of the difference in size between two objects, or the setting of the dial using a master object and subsequently being able to read directly the plus-or-minus variance in size of subsequent objects relative to the master object). The slide of a dial caliper can usually be locked at a setting using a small lever or screw; this allows simple go/no-go checks of part sizes.

Digital Caliper: A refinement now popular is the replacement of the analog dial with an electronic digital display on which the reading is displayed as a single value. Rather than a rack and pinion, they have a linear encoder. Some digital calipers can be switched between centimeters or millimeters, and inches. All provide for zeroing the display at any point along the slide, allowing the same sort of differential measurements as with the dial caliper. Digital calipers may contain some sort of "reading hold" feature, allowing the reading of dimensions even in awkward locations where the display cannot be seen. Ordinary 6-in/150-mm digital calipers are made of stainless steel, have a rated accuracy of 0.001 in (0.02mm) and resolution of 0.0005 in (0.01 mm).  The same technology is used to make longer 8-in and 12-in calipers; the accuracy for bigger measurements declines to 0.001 in (0.03 mm) for 100–200 mm and 0.0015 in (0.04 mm) for 200–300 mm.



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