http://academy.cba.mit.edu/classes/mechanical_design/index.html
Reviews:
- Schmitt trigger: separate threshold levels for rising and falling edge
Mechanical Design
Principles
- Stress-Strain: stress = force per area; strain = reaction of the material
- Elasic range: where stress and strain linearly correlate
- Spalling: when rubbing two parts of the same material, they start to pill…
- Hysteresis: introduced by play between two parts (eg. screw + nut)
- Kinematic coupling: Arrange parts precisely towards each other by constructing a situation that has exactly one low-energy state that it’s gonna approach by itself
Materials
- Machinable / castable ceramics: http://www.aremco.com/
- Garolite is also a nicely machinable structural material
- Hydro-Stone, Dry-Stone
- Good machine building tends to not use adhesives: They’re irreversible (non-destructively) and represent points of failure
- Good machine design requires little and does not heavily rely on lubricants
Components
- Gears: involute
Construction
- Flextures, when used correctly, give very accurate degrees of freedom: http://academy.cba.mit.edu/classes/computer_cutting/56836505.pdf