Mechanical Engineering

Saturday, March 21, 2009
What is Mechanical Engineering?
Mechanical Engineering is an engineering discipline that involves the application of principles of science and mathematics for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. The ability in applying these fundamental approaches is aimed to develop economical solutions to technical problems. Mechanical engineering is one of the oldest and broadest engineering disciplines.

What do Mechanical Engineers do?
Many mechanical engineering jobs are available broadly since these engineers are employed in almost every industry. Their work is the link between scientific discoveries and the commercial applications that meet societal and consumer needs. Mechanical engineers do research, design, develop, manufacture, and test tools, engines, machines, and other mechanical devices. Engineers in this discipline work on power-producing machines such as electric generators, internal combustion engines, and steam and gas turbines. They also work on power-using machines such as refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment, machine tools, material handling systems, elevators and escalators, industrial production equipment, and robots used in manufacturing. Mechanical engineers also design tools that other engineers need for their work. In addition, mechanical engineers work in manufacturing or agriculture production, maintenance, or technical sales; many become administrators or managers.

Many engineers develop new products. During this process, they consider several factors. For example, in developing an industrial robot, engineers precisely specify the functional requirements; design and test the robot’s components; integrate the components to produce the final design; and evaluate the design’s overall effectiveness, cost, reliability, and safety. This process applies to the development of many different products, such as cars (electric or hybrid cars), bridges, power plants, aircrafts and helicopters, toys, sports facility buildings and tools. In addition to design and development, many engineers work in testing, production, or maintenance of mechanical systems, and risk based inspection as usually performed in oil and gas industries. These engineers supervise production in factories, determine the causes of component failure and test manufactured products to maintain quality. They also estimate the time and cost to complete projects. Supervisory engineers are responsible for major components or entire projects. Engineers use computers extensively to produce and analyze designs; to simulate and test how a machine, structure, or system operates; to generate specifications for parts; and to monitor product quality and control process efficiency. Nanotechnology, which involves the creation of high-performance materials and components by integrating atoms and molecules, also is introducing entirely new principles to the design process. Most engineers specialize. Mechanical engineering also includes materials engineering such as metallurgical and all about engineering materials selection used for design. Engineers also may specialize in one industry, such as motor vehicles (sand rail or go-karts), or in one type of technology, such as turbines or pipeline materials.


How do Mechanical Engineers solve the problems?
Many design works are directly solved by hand calculating and drawing solutions before it is manufactured and applied to the specific purposes. Modern analysis and design processes in mechanical engineering are aided by various computational tools like finite element analysis (FEA) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD), computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM). In system design and controls, a mechanical engineer may apply CAD/CAM systems to feed “instructions" to computer numerically-controlled (CNC) machines such as robots, milling machines, and lathes. In this way the engineer could automate the manufacturing process without the need for intermediate drawings. A mechanical engineer working in thermo-fluid might design a heat sink, an air conditioning system, or an internal combustion engine. Other processes might focus on the fluid itself, such as a fan to cool an electrical system, a turbine to power a submarine, or a spray gun to apply chemical coatings.

What are the requirements to become a Mechanical Engineer?
It requires a solid understanding of core concepts including mechanics, kinematics, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, energy, and selection of engineering materials. Mechanical engineers use the core principles as well as other knowledge in the field to design and analyze motor vehicles, aircraft, heating and cooling systems, watercraft, manufacturing plants, industrial equipment and machinery, robotics, medical devices and more.


 
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