Mechanical Engineering Concepts

Explanation

İbrahim Burkay TUĞLUCA

110410022

(1)   CAM Manufacturing Design

CAM abbrevition represents Computer-Aided Manufacturing concept. In the contemporary world, it is almost impossible to talk about serial production, or production line without the concept of CAM. CAM systems basically use computers and software packages to plan, and visualize the manufacturing process. Altough Computer-Aided Drawing and Computer- Aided Manufacturing are strictly classified as two different concepts, CAD might be tought a tool to be used in CAM concepts.

(2)   CNC Manufacturing Concepts

CNC means Computer-Numeric Control. CNC concept uses CA Drawings to guide itself. In the modern factories almost every kind of metal forming could be managed by CNC. CNC milling, lathe, folding, punch, and etc. CNC systems basically use computers and CAD/CAM codes to control machining tools, and manufacturing tools.

(3) Siemens NX

First and second concepts were the most pronounced concepts of modern manufacturing approaches, however, as mentioned while defining CAM, there was also Computer-Aided Design concept. I would like to share of the examples of this concept. CAD softwares, and specificaly I will explain Siemens NX, usually used for the most rapid way of prototyping. Siemens NX is a software developed by the industry pioneer firm Siemens, in Germany. Many users of this software is also using SAP project management systems, or directly Siemens project management, archieving, and control software packages. So the companies use this software could be called as institutionally developed companies such as ASELSAN A.Ş. . This software comes with different packages according to the need of user. Some of these packages are solid modeling, technical drawing, analysis, motion animation, etc. 

(4) KISSoft

Design processes are mostly depend on engineer more than any software packages, or artificial intelligence. However, there can not be any design without any calculation, and pre-analysis on the paper; accordingly, with the evolution of the industry, the required calculation power need is also evloved. For instance, today a regular car consists gear box which involves dozens of gears inside very physically limited area, and the gears are significant members of machine elements to transmission of power, and motion. KISSoft is a software considers all neccessities as inputs which means it asks you about maximum gear outer diameter in the series of gears, the torque needs to be transmitted, required RPM I/O ratios, etc. At the and software recommends the user the all options that can operate under the determined conditions.

(5) EBSD

This is a scientific microstructural observation tool for metallurgy researches. EBSD systems use Secondary Electron Microscopes at the background, we can call them as some kind of apparatus and computational systems. EBSD systems are mostly used for measurement of average grain sizes, orientation texture files, misorientation angles, TWIN structures, and many more. Very contemporary usages of the EBSD will be seen in the further concepts again.

(6) Finite Element Analysis

CAD modeling packages usually used for designing, and prototyping in virtual environment. However, maybe their more useful capability is analysis. Nowadays, we can analyze beams for strength analysis, automobiles for vibration analysis, indoors for climate control analysis. All these analyses are very hard to do with hand work if very accurate results are sought, however, if we can use the computational power of computers, we can mesh every kind of environment into extremely small tiny parts. Starting from a very small portion, the concept can predict the reaction of the system under the given possible scenarios. 

(7) Fatigue

If we talk about relatively big mass systems, engineers are preferred to use steels, and other kinds of metallic materials. However, there is also very important phenomenon called fatigue of metals. Fatigue is deforming the metallic materials in plastic region, which is non-recoverable, frequently. Such as suspension systems of automobiles, hammers of forging machines, or railways. Fatigue fractures are dangerous if required maintenance is not applied since they are predictable but not easily observed. 

(8) Hydrogen Embrittlement

This is well known phenomenon for almost 150 years for metallic materials industry, however, it gets more and more critical area with the expanding hydrogen energy infrastructures. Hydrogen is somehow diffused in to the crystal or microstructure of metals, and behave like an interstitial element inside the system. This might be both a positive or negative effect, for instance, we are using carbon atoms to make steels more durable against loads, but even for carbon, after a specific concentration it deteriorate the mechanical properties. Same condition is valid for hydrogen too. So this field gets more and more attractive.

(9) Synthetic Microstructure Representations / DREAM.3D

Synthetic Microstructure Representation is a new concept compared to others. Previous concepts shows analysis, and computational analysis is how important for mechanical engineering fields from both time concerns, budget saving, and accurate/scientific data perspectives. Traditionally, mechanical properties of materials are measured by some real-world tests. However, within the progress in the technology, researchers are seeking the ways to eliminate these time and money consuming tests, and want to carry out these tests in computer environment. DREAM.3D is a newly developed software that creates a synthetic crystal in the computer environment via using the texture data taken with EBSD techniques. After SMR process is completed, there are several software that can import the SM, and apply mechanical tests on computer environment, for example ABAQUS.

(10) Tolerances in Design and Manufacturing

Almost all mechanical systems operate as a result of synchronous proper working of many machine elements together. For instance, if we thought about a simple hinge, it consists a hole and a rod which these are fit one into another. If the manufacturer produce these inner diameter of the hole and the outer diameter of the rod at the same dimension, these two will not properly operate, probably they will not even fit at the assembly at the beginning. That was very simple machine, however, if we think about more complex systems such as internal combustion engine, even one manufacturing dimension fault would make whole engine block workless. In order to prevent these kind of problems, engineering unions and quality inspector institutions publish some manuals that works similar to somehow using metric system in many countries. If a manufacturer will produce a rod, both the designer, and the worker using the lather should consider about the tolerances.