This is a neat gadget that’s like an acoustic version of FLIR. Technology like this is becoming more important as consumer products and stringent safety regulations are requiring more acoustic analysis. This could be very useful to quickly locate and troubleshoot annoying rattles in an industrial plant. Manufacturer page here
Machinery
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High Speed Chip Placement
This is the Samsung SM421 surface mount chip placement platform (not to be confused with the SM421 showerhead). The machine vacuum picks 6 tiny SMD components from cassettes in the front of the machine and moves to place them on a fixtured PCB. The high speed precision and motion is amazing. This video may not have the best clarity but the camera angles show a lot of the machine mechanics. The individual axes are ballscrew driven and the flashes […]
Machinery
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Assembling a Very Large Machine
How do you assemble a giant machine tool? Very carefully. A lot of thought needs to be put into the machine design early on to accommodate assembly, alignment, shipping, and installation. Simple things like providing lifting points and making sure fasteners are easily accessible can help things go smoothly in the field. The above video shows a time lapse of the installation of a Waldrich Coburg Powertec gantry style machining center for customer MAN Diesel. There’s a lot going on […]
Machinery
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Large Envelope Mill for Wind Turbine Blades
This has an impressive envelope for a mill and is used in the manufacturing process of wind turbine blades. I initially guessed this was for composite trimming operations but the manufacturer lists the machine for work with “polystyrene, resins and fibres.” This is possibly used for form or blade core manufacture? This is a high-rail gantry style mill which can make part loading more difficult due to the mill legs but ultimately decreases the moving mass of […]
Software
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Building a Solidworks PC – 2015 Edition
EDIT: This article has been updated in Building a Solidworks PC – 2017 Edition The core of a good Solidworks workstation should be a fast CPU, lots of RAM, and a Solidworks approved workstation graphics card. Solidworks performance is limited by the CPU and unfortunately only runs single-core for everything except simulation and rendering. An Intel i7-4770 processor will provide good performance for the price even if you’re using only a single core on the chip. 16GB […]
Software / Solidworks
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Move with Triad
This is by far my favorite Solidworks feature that no one seems to use or even know about. It’s called “move with triad” and it makes working with assemblies much easier. Right click on any part in an assembly and it should be an available option. The triad tool allows you to constrain part translation or rotation to a single axis. This removes a lot of frustration when positioning parts in an assembly prior to mating them. […]
Automotive
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Schematic of an Automatic Transmission
Hydraulic wizardry at its finest. Guess the manufacturer…
Machinery
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Manufacturing a Composite Rocket Fuel Tank
This is an interesting video from NASA showing the manufacture of what appear to be different composite spacecraft parts including a fuel tank. The center piece here is an articulated robot mounted on a “seventh” linear axis with a automated fiber placement end effector. The end effector heats the area and applies strips of resin impregnated composite “tape.” The whole process requires a high level of motion control especially with a rotating work piece. I’m not an expert […]
Machinery
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Stewart Platform Mill
The Giddings and Lewis Variax mill. They were definitely thinking outside the box on this one. Interesting concept but some of the claimed advantages seem dubious. The machining envelope appears limited for the size of the machine and the control enclosure is never shown in frame. The tool changer seems like a bit of a kludge and makes the whole system difficult to guard – everything would need to be isolated and caged as a cell. Work piece access […]
Meta
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The Enginoor
Welcome. The goal of this site is for me to share engineering videos, topics, or stories that I personally find interesting. I plan to cover a lot of automation, mechanical design, and maybe provide some light analysis. If you’re into machinery or manufacturing expect to see a lot of really cool stuff here. I am a BSME and have a background in aerospace assembly, manufacturing automation, and machine tool design.