So I know PLM tools are very common tools in hardware teams. But they often give you hard times. I wanted to know what problems people face with PLM tools (like: team center, windchill, enovia etc. )?

Btw I am also curious about how your company make decisions of what PLM tools they should use?

Ps: this is specifically for the hardware teams, where they have to manage CAD, drawings, BOM.

Hello,

I have a chandelier with many glass elements that touch each other. The chandelier is very heavy (30kg) The chandelier is attached to a hook which is attached to a ceiling beam. Every time my neighbour does a step the lamp is clanging. I have been searching for a product that can absorb this vibration. Could be a special hanger or maybe a material that is best to absorb this kind of mini vibrations that I can apply to the hook. I even tried to apply gummi spray to the elements.

As in the super-fine high speed rotary burs used in jewelry manufacture, or for shaping finger nails.

The harder the material the faster it cuts which seems counter intuitive.

You can safely run one against your skin and other than a slight heating effect there is no visible sign of material being removed. If you do the same against a finger nail then there is an immediate cloud of dust and obvious gouge where the tool has made contact.

https://podiatryburs.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Diamond-Bur-lineup-transparent-1024x668.png

I’m wondering if it’s like a burst disk. It’s an indent on a stamped aluminum water bottle that’s u-shaped, with the branches of the u being very long and following the curve around the centre of the bottle.

What I'm meaning is if you put the teeth 180 degrees out of phase, as one tooth pulls the chain as it gets to the next, the opposite gear would pull its next link in the transition between the first gear pulling the next link, therefore this would transmit power more evenly without quite as much of a difference between teeth (of course this would be an incredibly small difference) and therefore reduce wear in the gears and a light increase in efficiency

But would this work in reality? It was something I randomly thought of if it would do this but i could also be completly wrong.

At least maybe it would work for smaller lower teeth sprockets it might?

In the manner of if you have a low tooth sprocket pulling with one tooth or two teeth at a time it would beable to better pass of the load to the opistie gear in sequence without as much load drop off

Hello everyone,

As the title suggests, I'm trying to make a module that can quickly heat or cool a small piece of metal to a specific temperature within a few seconds. The required temperature range is 25°C to 80°C.

I asked about this on r/AskElectronics and have been referred to this subreddit.

After some research, I came up with a simple design, but I'd appreciate your feedback, as there may be more efficient ways to achieve this.

My Design

My current idea involves using a Peltier module in combination with an NTC thermistor and a BTS7960 H-Bridge module. The plan is to attach the thermistor and the metal piece to one side of the Peltier module to monitor the temperature. The H-Bridge module would act as a relay, allowing me to switch the Peltier module on, off, or reverse its polarity based on the desired temperature.

With this setup, I can set a target temperature, power the Peltier module until the metal reaches that temperature, and then turn it off. If the temperature drops below the target, the module would switch back on. For cooling, I could reverse the polarity and follow the same process.

My Concerns

My main concern is the Peltier module itself. I’ve already burned one by accident, letting it reach over 100°C. Additionally, the power consumption is substantial—I'm planning to use over 20 modules in a single system, with each drawing 3 amps at 12V. This means I would need a power supply capable of delivering at least 720W.

Final Thoughts

As I mentioned earlier, I think there might be more effective approaches to this, but I’m not an expert in electronics. So my question is, should I continue with this design, or is there a better solution I should consider?

With cars for example, you often hear, the older models of the same car are more reliable than their newer counterparts, and I’m guessing this would only be true due to the addition of electronics. Or survivor bias.

It also kind of make sense, like say the battery carks it, everything that runs of electricity will fail, it seems like a single point of failure that can be difficult to overcome.

With all the electrification, would the Grid be able to keep with the energy needed, I found this video about how the grid works but still have questions, https://youtu.be/e4QaqMi0WWQ?si=_ZSVSOa3lJp5uTvx

Hi

My husband likes swinging.

I want to build him a swing in our backyard. A huge swing.

I have found this website to guide me with dimensions of wooden poles - https://thetreehouse.shop/faqs/calculate-dimension-of-wooden-swing-beam/?lang=en

But I’m open to using any material and any design. I just want it to be a single axis swing, with chains for attachment.

Can anyone guide me to a resource to calculate the width of materials, depth of poles, and the maximum length the crossbeam can be for a very high swing? Let’s say 4m high for the crossbeam minimum.

Thanks Sam

Hey,

I've made myself a basic running wheel for my chinchillas, made from a cake-tin, some wooden backing plate and a simple holder with bearings I have made at work. I have the problem that it's extremely wobbly, along with it going on for ages which isn't suitable.

Here is a video of it running after one has jumped off.

Here is a picture of the mounting assembly.

So I am trying to slow it down, possibly by the use of a bearing made from aluminium-bronze. I also want some more stability, but also if possible keep things rather small and simple.

For example the boltholes are M5, placed 6 of them in a diameter of 36mm.

I've given it a try but I just am not engineer enough to design how things go together without falling apart. I just punch in numbers and make the parts after someone has used their brain on it.

Thank you!

i know almost nothing about engineering in general but want to get into it, i also love warhammer, im specifically taking about the contempor dreadnought. it has two legs and has to move atleast 6 tons worth of body. the proportions of the whole thing without legs is about 2.5 metres tall, 3.1 metres wide and 2.1 metres long it. it doesn’t have to be necessarily fast as they move about 6km/h

I need to attach a piece of 3" PVC to the side of a powder coated steel air tank, shown in this picture, where the orange part is the air tank and the white is the PVC. PVC is purely cosmetic, not structural, pressure bearing, etc. Since the tank holds compressed air, it cannot be drilled into, welded on, etc. The PVC is 16.5" (42 cm) long and weighs approx 2.4 pounds (1.09 kg), but obviously I'm gonna need a large buffer to ensure it stays on.

My first attempt was to create rails that allowed the PVC to slide onto the orange tank. The female side of the rail was on the orange tank and stuck with heavy duty foam mounting tape. The male side of the rail was screwed directly into the PVC. This works okay, but the PVC starts to fall off after a while since it is suspended in air and only supported by the tape. I also learned PVC isn't perfectly straight, so having the rails run down the entire length of it causes one end to be pulled off.

I was thinking putting a single rail on the PVC that matches the curvature of the orange tank, with magnetic tape in a "T" shape on both ends, with the tape side on the PVC and further securing it with screws. But, what I am seeing with the magnetic tape it will not be able to support the weight.

I have access to a wide variety of equipment so let me know your ideas no matter how wacky it is. 3D printed solutions are optimal as I can do that the quickest.

It can be permanent or removable, doesn't make a difference.

So I have a trailer that I'm replacing the gate ramp on and I'm not sure if I under designed it or not... Would this break/deform? Would it be safe?

Pieces:

Aluminum T bar 6063-t52 1"x1"x1/8"

Aluminum Angle 6063-t52 1"x3/4"x1/8"

Aluminum expanded sheet 3003 0.75"xNo.0.125

Aluminum Flat bar 6061-t6 3/4"x1/8"(if needed)

Design:

The ramp will be 36" long and 56" wide(60" wide trailer deck). There will be two distinct ramps each made out of 2 pieces of T bar(running down the length of the ramp) with the head of each T facing out and the expanded laying stop the legs of the T. Then the Ts will sit on top of the 1" side of the angle with the 3/4" side running up just past the leg of the T. The angle will run across the width of the trailer, one at the top connecting to the hinges, one at the bottom that will rest on the ground when in use. The width of each ramp will be 12in with 20in in between the two(so 8in gap on each side from outside edge of deck to outside edge of ramp). The angle that sits on the ground will only extend to the edge of each ramp, the hinge angle will go across the entire deck width.

Loads:

Walking up/down(point load one ramp ~200lbs)

Driving zero turn up/backing down. On a level surface the weight is ~300lb on each rear tire(with rider)and ~30lb on each front tire. Rear tires are 20x10x8(10in width).

Additional Details:

Top of Trailer deck is ~12in from the ground, so the angle made by the ramp and ground should be just under 20°.

I've used a free online calculator to check deflection and it seems like a lot. The calculator only lets me pick standard pieces and the closest is 20mmX20mmX3mm for the T bar(should be more like 25x25x3). Assuming an even load across the four T bars or 150lb on each I'm getting a deflection of ~0.4in with a point load 16in up the ramp. Also does it matter for the calculation that the Bars aren't parallel to the ground? Everything I see says L/120 should be the max deflection and this is more like L/90. Will this be an issue? Would this be safe? I'm not calculating for the expanded providing more stiffness but I don't think that'll make a difference?

Thanks in advance.

Also in case it isn't stiff enough I did also get some 6061-t6 flat bar 3/4"x1/8". My idea was to put that flat onto the head of the T if needed. Open to other ideas as well, I have plenty of the flat bar and ~5ft extra of the angle and T bar

I want to build a rotating tilted circular platform as the title says. My initial idea is to have a wheel that moves around the middle axis below the plate tilting it. Of course there will be friction but the weight is low, around 100g. I cannot just have the platform rotate because I need different corners of the circle (lol) to lift. Are there any other established designs for such a device.

I was attempting to remove this hex nut. After rounding the corners, I tried breaking the nut. This has not gone well. Any advice would be appreciated.

I used an air chisel to make the cuts, im afraid if I keep going I will damage the inside of the propeller.

For context this is an impeller to a chemflo water pump.

I bought a bench style paint booth off Craigslist. Previous owner had it hardwired but told me it could be used on low voltage, I now realize it's not 115.

Can I swap out the motor for a 115 motor that has the same HP and RPM without any issues?

I'm including pics of the current motor sticker, booth and a link to the motor I'm hoping I can use from Amazon as I don't have 220 electric running to the shop.

https://amzn.to/4cPAkyH

Edit: I guess I don't have the option to add pictures to my post as the buttons are greyed out. 🤔🤷🏻‍♂️

Motor details currently on the booth: 3 phase @ 200 volts it's 1.6 amps @ 230/460 it's 1.8/1.9 amps 60 hz SF 1.15 1/2 HP 1725 RPM

Is it a bunch of boffins trying to balance softness, strength and absorbency, or is it more often one of those things are focused on?

How are they testing? Do they wipe a real bottom, or have some sort of mechanical one that will measure the effectiveness as the roll passes over?

How do they decide how many pieces of paper to take? What is standard? Do they fold it over?

So many questions…

Hello all

I am working on creating forging procedures for wrought pipe fittings closed die products. Essentially we shape a pipe section into a 'tee' branched component. The pipe section is held between a top and bottom die with a negative volume for the branch (something like can be seen here https://www.oepipe.com/showroom/stainless-steel-sinlge-longitudinal-seam-welded-pipe-tee.html)

There is an internal oil pressure plus compression from two rams either side.

How can I evaluate at what stresses the pipe will yield and deform to create the branch area of the tee?

I have tried to split the stresses and use the Von Mises yield criterion, however the side rams use a driving pressure of 250bar which correlates to a ridiculous stress of over 10,000Mpa in the steel. I think even taking friction into account it shouldn't be that high!

Is this simply too complicated to evaluate with equations by hand and must I use a finite element analysis?

Thanks for any input

I just randomly realized that as something oxidizes (say iron rusting, but the same applies to many things) oxygen from the air is bonding to the material, but the material isnt going anywhere, so mass is being added to the structure as it ages.

Is this something you have to consider when building something? Or is this just absorbed into the safety factor?

So I've had a thought about electric vehicles, let's say you're on a camping trip with your electric vehicles.

One of the benefits of electricity is you can get it from anywhere in the world, (if conditions are right). So say you have a few solar panels you'll be able to hook them up to your car and you'll be able to charge your car in the middle of nowhere. Yes it'll be slow but since camping is a stationary activity for your car once you're setup, it won't matter that much since you'll be doing other things as well.

But solar panels only have like 20 volts DC, electric cars have 400-800v. So, after using an invertor, would you be able to hook this up to the charger? Or will you have to step it up with a transformer to match the voltage and go from there?

how much energy would a gallon of saturated salt water hold if it were to be charged. also, won't adding electricity to salt water result in electrolysis ?

Edit: I wanna make a project that involves having a mechanic arm that rearranges chess pieces and other shape patterns by itself. But first I need to know how the arm can't be confused for pieces like King/Queen and Pawn/Bishop, for example.

Hey guys. Are there any electrical engineers here with knowledge on using SPIDAcalc software? My father is a electrical engineer, he recently got a new job and is really stressing over this SPIDAcalc software. I tried looking it up on YouTube to understand it but this is beyond my scope as I'm in medical field and don't know much about engineering. I know he's used softwares like PLSCAD, PMP, and a few other names I've heard him talk about over the years but SPIDAcalc is new to him. If there is anyone on here that could please assist in showing him the basics of using SPIDAcalc. Or any other place online I can post to look for someone else who could assist or teach him? Any help would be nice, thanks you guys.

N46 BMW, had a stripped bolt for the oil filter housing by the previous tech who happily hid it with epoxy.

3 bolts in total, 2 were able to be helicoiled but ones damaged beyond the m6 helicoil size (and also beyond m7), so I tapped it to M8. Torque spec for the original bolts were 10 NM, but do I need to increase that since I'm moving to a larger bolt size, to maintain the same clamp force? Not planning to tap the remaining 2 m6 bolts that seem to be ok with the helicoil at present.

Bolts are stainless steel zinc coated, oil filter housing is aluminum.

Thanks in advance, guys. Appreciate it

Hi all,

I'm thinking about making one of those ridiculously powerful handheld air blowers. Most of them feature a ducted axial fan powered by a BLDC motor, but I came across the idea of using a small turbo compressor instead of a fan. From what I know, they provide pretty good pressure and flow speed, but I don't really know how they compare to a ducted axial fan, especially at around 5cm diameter.

Any thoughts/advice?

Trying to build an iPhone app which adapts music based on the way that the driver drives his car just like Mercedes' upcoming feature called "MBUX Sound Drive". We managed to capture the car's direction by getting compass data but we cannot understand whether the car is accelerating because any small distraction such as bad roads, bumps, or puddles makes the accelerometer go crazy. So my question is how can we understand whether the car is accelerating by using only an iPhone accelerometer (Not using GPS because GPS data is refreshed every second and it causes delay)?

I cannot believe that i cant find anything regarding this on the internet. Maybe its not that big of a deal? Anyway...

There exist 2 (main) automatic de-frosting mechanisms, called auto defrost and frost-free. Auto defrost basically has rods in the back of the freezer wall that warm up, melting the ice in case it builds up. Frost-free has like a fan that circulates air, removing moisture and preventing ice buildup. Apparently frost-free technology is newer, but i cant find any numbers on how efficient it is.

My questions:

1. which technology is more efficient? If there are 2 fridges, fridge A with auto defrost (manufacturer says it uses 200 kWh/a) and fridge B with frost-free (manufacturer says it uses 230 kWh/a), could the fridge B still be more efficient, or can i sinply rely on the number of kWh provided on the spec sheet?

2. which technology is longer lasting? My gut feeling tells me auto defrost fridges will hold up longer because there are fewer moving parts.

Thanks in advance.

I have no idea if this is the right place to ask about this, but I would appreciate some help with figuring out how to handle this.

Long story short, I collect old medical stuff and recently came across a phoropter (eye dr's option 1 or 2 thing with all the lenses inside). I bought it for my collection but I'm trying to mount it to a table. The goal here isn't to "play eye doctor" with it. It just needs to be roughly level and have a sturdy stand so people can look through it and turn the dials. As long as it won't fall off, that's almost I care about. Like I said, none of this is for medical purposes. It's just for fun and gives others a chance to touch the "forbidden eye doctor thingy".

A Google search came up with dozens of phopter stands that are designed to sit on a table. The only issue is that those stands have a horizontal arm that goes onto a horizontal mount built onto the phoropter. Since I have an older (and quirky) model, it uses a proprietary vertical mount that has since been discontinued by the manufacturer.

Essentially, I'm trying to figure out how to securely attach a clamp of sorts to the vertical rod that comes out of the top of the phoropter. I was thinking of using a lab ring stand, but I feel like there's a better solution. I'm okay if it uses a set screw to hold the clamp in place, but I'd prefer not to have to drill/alter anything on the actual phoropter.

This website has photos of the same model. (https://bimedis.com/a-item/phoropters-rodenstock-phorolux-2-1890583) Note the rod that comes out of the top. The stand I make has to also leave room for the person's face behind it and it cannot block the lenses in the front. Thank you :)

Hello everyone!

I have installed a used diesel pump from a gas station on my parents’ farm.

Another pump is separately housed in the diesel tank. (The pump is connected to the „gas station unit)

My goal is for the separate pump to automatically start and stop when I lift or lower the lever on the nozzle.

Unfortunately, this isn’t working so far because the internal gas recirculation/ vapour suction isnt installed & I dont have equipment to do it.

Does anyone have tips for the installation or know of any workarounds to solve this problem? (e.g circumvent the vapour suction system)

I would be very grateful for any help!