Thursday, August 29, 2013

Engineering Design: A Systematic Approach - Ken Wallace, Luciënne Blessing - 2007 - Book Information

Engineering Design: A Systematic Approach (Google eBook)


Ken Wallace, Luciënne Blessing

Springer, 06-Aug-2007 - Technology & Engineering - 639 pages
Engineering design must be carefully planned and systematically executed. In particular, engineering design methods must integrate the many different aspects of designing and the priorities of the end-user. Engineering Design (3rd edition) describes a systematic approach to engineering design. The authors argue that such an approach, applied flexibly and adapted to a particular task, is essential for successful product development. The design process is first broken down into phases and then into distinct steps, each with its own working methods. The third edition of this internationally-recognised text is enhanced with new perspectives and the latest thinking. These include extended treatment of product planning; new sections on organisation structures, simultaneous engineering, leadership and team behaviour; and updated chapters on quality methods and estimating costs. New examples have been added and existing ones extended, with additions on design to minimise wear, design for recycling, mechanical connections, mechatronics, and adaptronics. Engineering Design (3rd edition) is translated and edited from the sixth German edition by Ken Wallace, Professor of Engineering Design at the University of Cambridge, and Luciënne Blessing, Professor of Engineering Design and Methodology at the Technical University of Berlin. Topics covered include: fundamentals; product planning and product development; task clarification and conceptual design; embodiment design rules, principles and guidelines; mechanical connections, mechatronics and adaptronics; size ranges and modular products; quality methods; and cost estimation methods. The book provides a comprehensive guide to successful productdevelopment for practising designers, students, and design educators. Fundamentals are emphasised throughout and short-term trends avoided; so the approach described provides a sound basis for design courses that help students move quickly and effectively into design practice.

Google Book Link
http://books.google.co.in/books?id=57aWTCE3gE0C

The first chapter Tasks and Activities of Engineering Designer is very interesting.

Tasks and Activities of Engineering Designer



The main task of engineering designer is to apply their scientific and engineering knowledge to the solution of technical problems,and then to optimize those solutions within the requirements and constraints set by material, technological, economic, legal, environmental, and human-related considerations

Source:
Engineering Design: A Systematic Approach
Ken Wallace, Luciënne Blessing
Springer, 06-Aug-2007 - Technology & Engineering - 639 pages
Page 1
http://books.google.co.in/books?id=57aWTCE3gE0C

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Machine Design: An Integrated Approach, 2/E - Norton - Book Information



Machine Design: An Integrated Approach, 2/E

Norton

Pearson Education India, 01-Sep-2000 - 875 pages

Google Book Link
http://books.google.co.in/books?id=n1gQNGa2qMIC



A Design Process

1. Identification of Need
2. Background Research
3. Goal Statement
4. Task Specifications
5. Synthesis
6. Analysis
7. Selection
8. Analysis
9. Prototyping and testing
10. Production


In Synthesis many alternative designs or design approaches are sought without regard for value or quality. This is the ideation stage.

In step, the solutions that emerged in step 5 are analyzed and some rejected, some are modified.

The most promising solution is selected in step 7.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Hyperloop - New Transportation Technology - 2013



The system was presented by Elon Musk in his blog post.
http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/hyperloop_alpha-20130812.pdf

The system is capable of speed reaching 1,220 kilometres per hour, or Mach 0.91.

The estimated cost of connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco would be $6 billion and one way ticket would be $20.


Concept of Hyperloop


A closed car or carriage having passengers (termed as pod) travels in a tube on air cushion. The car travels at around 700 miles per hour speed. The air cushion is provided by an electric compressor fan driven by batteries in the car. The fan forces air the at the front of the car to the rear of the car and thus creates the air cushion on which the car travels. The energy to the car to travel is provided by an induction motor which is powered by solar power. The electric motor provides energy at 70 miles interval.

The cost involved is the tube in billions of dollar for the 350 mile track proposed by Elon Musk. Whereas the carriages and other equipment cost millions only.

Read for more details 57 page document.
http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/hyperloop_alpha-20130812.pdf


Hyperloop - Challenges Pointed out by Sam Jaffe


The compressor attached to the pod or car will be compressing air and expelling it downwards and backwards. All that air compression creates an enormous amount of heat, which has to be removed. Does the plan has a good heat exchange system?

Any structure elevated 100 feet off the ground is going to be under a lot of wind pressure, which will act on it in weird and sometimes multiple directions.  Will the concrete pylons be powerful enough to resist that pressure?
http://gigaom.com/2013/08/13/heres-some-hurdles-the-hyperloop-could-face/


Hyperloop - Challenges - Dr.Stephen Granade
http://jalopnik.com/a-physicist-explains-the-three-biggest-challenges-for-t-1123562141


Related News

http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/12/elon-musks-hyperloop-explained-a-technically-possible-sci-fi-dream-hes-to-busy-to-work-on-right-now/

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-12/revealed-elon-musk-explains-the-hyperloop#p2

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Automobile Related Patents 1951 - 2015



Analysis of Electric Car via Patents
50,852 patents were found in a research paper
http://www.insisoc.org/CIO2013/papers/EN-01%20S&E/Analysis%20of%20the%20Electric%20Car%20Via%20Patents.pdf

Industrial Engineering Conference 2013

2013

Automobile stabilizer bar manufacturing method - US 20130093153 A1  https://www.google.com/patents/US20130093153


2012

https://www.google.com/patents/US8317964  Gregory Thomas Hedderley  - Method of Manufacturing a Vehicle


2009

https://www.google.com/patents/US20110022545   Edward Gordon Dunny - Reinventing Car Making

Monday, August 5, 2013

Nanotechnology in Solar Power Generation - Plasmonic Black Metals - 2013


The LLNL Materials Engineering Division (MED) research team has made breakthroughs experimenting with black metals. These nanostructured metals are designed to have low reflectivity and high absorption of visible and infrared light. The MED research team recently published their black metals research results in a cover-page article in the May issue of Applied Physics Letters titled "Plasmonic Black Metals in Resonant Nanocavities."

Authored by MED physicist and research team member Mihail Bora, the article details the work of the nanophotonics and plasmonics research team led by LLNL engineer Tiziana Bond.

It describes the team's concept of black metals, which are not classic metals but can be thought of as an extension of the black silicon concept. When silicon is treated in a certain way, such as being roughened at the nanoscale level, it traps light by multiple reflections, increasing its solar absorption. This gives the silicon a black surface that's able to better trap the full sun's wavelength spectrum.

The investigation found  a plasmonic resonant structure tunable from ultra-violet to near infrared wavelengths with maximum absorbance strength over 95% due to a highly efficient coupling with incident light


Related news reports



Breakthroughs in Solar Technology 2013



29.7.2013

Simple solar cell splitting water into hydrogen


Using a simple solar cell and a photo anode made of a metal oxide, HZB and  TU Delft scientists have successfully stored nearly five percent of solar energy chemically in the form of hydrogen. This is a major feat as the design of the solar cell is much simpler than that of the high-efficiency triple-junction cells based on amorphous silicon or expensive III-V semiconductors that are traditionally used for this purpose.
http://www.helmholtz-berlin.de/pubbin/news_seite?nid=13764&sprache=en

13.7.06

Plasmonic black metals


The use of plasmonic black metals could someday provide a pathway to more efficient photovoltaics (PV) -- the use of solar panels containing photovoltaic solar cells -- to improve solar energy harvesting, according to researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).
https://www.llnl.gov/news/newsreleases/2013/Jul/NR-13-07-06.html#.Uf-2-9LqF_Y

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) investigated a plasmonic resonant structure tunable from ultra-violet to near infrared wavelengths with maximum absorbance strength over 95% due to a highly efficient coupling with incident light
http://apl.aip.org/resource/1/applab/v102/i25/p251105_s1?isAuthorized=no


20 July 2012

Transparent solar cells


UCLA researchers create highly transparent solar cells for windows that generate electricity
UCLA researchers have developed a new transparent solar cell that is an advance toward giving windows in homes and other buildings the ability to generate electricity while still allowing people to see outside. Their study appears in the journal ACS Nano.

The UCLA team describes a new kind of polymer solar cell (PSC) that produces energy by absorbing mainly infrared light, not visible light, making the cells nearly 70% transparent to the human eye. They made the device from a photoactive plastic that converts infrared light into an electrical current.

"These results open the potential for visibly transparent polymer solar cells as add-on components of portable electronics, smart windows and building-integrated photovoltaics and in other applications," said study leader Yang Yang, a UCLA professor of materials science and engineering, who also is director of the Nano Renewable Energy Center at California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI).
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/ucla-researchers-create-highly-236698.aspx


10.7.2012

More Efficient solar photovoltaic thermal (PVT) system

Two Queen’s University, Canda  researchers have contributed to a significant breakthrough in solar technology. Their research has led to a new solar photovoltaic thermal (PVT) system that generates both electricity and heat.


Solar PVTs are normally made with crystal silicon cells which generate electricity, but little heat. Stephen Harrison and Joshua Pearce (Mechanical and Materials Engineering) designed and tested amorphous silicon cells in a PVT system. Their research shows increased heat generation because of higher operating temperatures and 10 per cent more solar electric output.

The amorphous silicon has several advantages over crystal silicon. It requires less material, costs less to manufacture and offers a higher return on investment.
http://www.queensu.ca/news/articles/researchers-develop-new-possibilities-solar-power



Article covering four break throughs
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/comments-analysis/future-of-solar-power-how-about-transparent-solar-cells-that-can-be-put-on-windows/articleshow/21610519.cms




Patents

30 May 2013 Method for controlling a solar-thermal power plant having direct vaporization - WO 2013037909 A3  https://www.google.co.in/patents/WO2013037909A3

25 April 2013 - Solar energy power plant with supercritical water as working fluid and use of the solar energy power plant - WO 2013029943 A3  https://www.google.co.in/patents/WO2013029943A3

28 March 2013 -  Method of manufacturing thin film solar cells - US 20130078755 A1 -  https://www.google.co.in/patents/US20130078755


Sunday, August 4, 2013

Ransom E. Olds - Automobile Inventor - 1896



He was born Ransom Eli Olds on June 3, 1864, in Geneva, Ohio,  In 1886, Ransom began experimenting with a steam-powered engine. In 1886, he received his first patent for a gasoline-powered car, and founded the Olds Motor Vehicle Company to manufacture it in 1897.

Olds in 1899 relocated from Lansing to Detroit and started the company  Olds Motor Works. In 1901 Ransom designed the legendary Curved Dash Oldsmobile which was the first commercially successful car mass-produced on an assembly line in the U.S. It sold for $650.00. This was the first factory to employ an assembly line process in a manufacturing environment.

Although the factory was destroyed by fire in 1901, 600 models of the Curved Dash were sold. In 1904 sales were up to 5000 units. Because of issues within management, Olds left the company he founded. It was later sold to be part of the formation of GM, by William Durant in 1908 and eventually became the Oldsmobile Motor Division of GM. The Oldsmobile brand, after a successful production run of 107 years, was discontinued by GM in 2004.

After leaving Olds Motor works, Olds formed the REO Motor Company back in Lansing, MI based on . his initials (R.E.O.).  By 1907 he had built REO into one of the automotive industry’s leaders with a 25% market share. In 1938 it was reorganized as REO Motors, Inc. a bus and truck company.  In 1954, REO merged with Diamond T. and became Diamond Reo Trucks, Inc. known for high-quality trucks. It went out of business in 1975. Thus, Olds had 2 car companies named after him.


http://www.reoldsfoundation.org/ransom-e-olds

http://www.nndb.com/people/060/000203448/

http://www.historyofinformation.com/expanded.php?id=2535

Automobile Related Patents 1901 - 1950











1904
https://www.google.com/patents/US750684   - Ransom E. Olds  Valve Gear for Explosive Engines



1899
https://www.google.com/patents/US635506  - Ransom E. Olds - Electric Igniter for Gas Engines

1896
https://www.google.com/patents/US570263  Ransom E. Olds - Comined Gas and Steam Engine