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November 30, 2019

What’s The Difference Between Ferrous and Non-Ferrous Metal?

The simple answer is that ferrous metals contain iron and non-ferrous metals do not. The more in-depth answer is that ferrous metals and non-ferrous metals each have their own distinctive properties. These properties determine the applications they are most suited for.
Non-ferrous metals have been used since the beginning of civilization. The discovery of copper in 5,000 BC marked the end of the Stone Age and the beginning of the Copper Age. The later invention of bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, started the Bronze Age.
The use of ferrous metals started in around 1,200 BC when iron production started to become commonplace. This ushered in the Iron Age.

Which Metals Are Ferrous?

Some common ferrous metals include alloy steel, carbon steel, cast iron and wrought iron. These metals are prized for their tensile strength and durability. Carbon Steel – also known as structure steel – is a staple in the construction industry and is used in the tallest skyscrapers and longest bridges. Ferrous metals are also used in shipping containers, industrial piping, automobiles, railroad tracks, and many commercial and domestic tools.
Ferrous metals have a high carbon content which generally makes them vulnerable to rust when exposed to moisture. There are two exceptions to this rule: wrought iron resists rust due to its purity and stainless steel is protected from rust by the presence of chromium.
Most ferrous metals are magnetic which makes them very useful for motor and electrical applications. The use of ferrous metals in your refrigerator door allows you to pin your shopping list on it with a magnet.

Steel

Steel is made by adding iron to carbon which hardens the iron. Alloy steel becomes even tougher as other elements like chromium and nickel are introduced. Steel is made by heating and melting iron ore in furnaces. The steel can is tapped from the furnaces and poured into molds to form steel bars. Steel is widely used in the construction and manufacturing industries.

Carbon Steel

Carbon steel has a higher carbon content in comparison to other types of steel making it exceptionally hard. It is commonly used in the manufacturing of machine tools, drills, blades, taps, and springs. It can keep a sharp cutting edge.

Alloy Steel

Alloy steels incorporate elements such as chromium, nickel and titanium to impart greater strength and durability without increasing weight. Stainless steel is an important alloy steel made using chromium. Alloy steels are used in construction, machine tools, and electrical components.

Cast Iron

Cast iron is an alloy made from iron, carbon, and silicon. Cast iron is brittle and hard and resistant to wear. It’s used in water pipes, machine tools, automobile engines and stoves.

Wrought Iron

Wrought iron is an alloy with so little carbon content it’s almost pure iron. During the manufacturing process, some slag is added which gives wrought iron excellent resistance to corrosion and oxidation, however, it is low in hardness and fatigue strength. Wrought iron is used for fencing and railings, agricultural implements, nails, barbed wire, chains, and various ornaments.

Which Metals Are Non-Ferrous?

Non-ferrous metals include aluminum, copper, lead, zinc and tin, as well as precious metals like gold and silver. Their main advantage over ferrous materials is their malleability. They also have no iron content, giving them a higher resistance to rust and corrosion, and making them ideal for gutters, liquid pipes, roofing and outdoor signs. Lastly they are non-magnetic, which is important for many electronic and wiring applications.

Aluminum

Aluminum is lightweight, soft and low strength. Aluminum is easily cast, forged, machined and welded. It’s not suitable for high-temperature environments. Because aluminum is lightweight, it is a good choice for the manufacturing of aircraft and food cans. Aluminum is also used in castings, pistons, railways, cars, and kitchen utensils.

Copper

Copper is red in color, highly ductile, malleable and has high conductivity for electricity and heat. Copper is principally used in the electrical industry in the form of wire and other conductors. It’s also used in sheet roofing, cartridge cases, statutes, and bearings. Copper is also used to make brass, an alloy of copper and zinc.

Lead

Lead is a soft, heavy, malleable metal with a low melting point and low tensile strength. It can withstand corrosion from moisture and many acids. Lead is widely used in electrical power cables, batteries, building construction and soldering.

Zinc

Zinc is a medium to low strength metal with a very low melting point. It can be machined easily, but heating may be required to avoid cleavage of crystals. Zinc is most widely used in galvanizing, the process of applying a protective zinc coating to iron or steel to prevent rust.

Tin


Tin is very soft and malleable, ductile with low tensile strength. It’s often used to coat steel to prevent corrosion. Tinplate steel is used to make tin cans to hold food. In the late 19th century, tin foil was commonly used to wrap food products, but has since largely been replaced by aluminum foil. Tin can also be alloyed with copper to produce tin brass and bronze.
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November 29, 2019
There are many software solutions with advanced features that will allow you to work on really technical projects. Here is our selection of the best software to work with for your next mechanical engineering projects. Find out all the modeling and design tools that you need.

Fusion 360

Fusion 360 is a great CAD software tool developed by Autodesk. This a cloud-based program, that will allow you to improve your teamwork thanks to a better communication around your mechanical projects. This program has advanced software tools, you will be able to work on solid modeling, mesh modeling and parametric modeling.

credit: https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/fusion-forecast-drawings-necessary-evil/


KeyCreator

KeyCreator is a geometry centered 3D modeling software tool, perfect to create your 3D designs concepts. KeyCreator offers direct CAD modeling, 2 and 3 axis machining and a flexible design strategy.
You can both work on 2D and 3D projects with this CAD program in order to design engineering projects. This software tool has 3 different versions: Standard, Pro or Max, all offering different features. You will surely find the software package that will fit your project.



Inventor

This is one of the best modeling software tools available on the market to design your mechanical projects: Inventor. It has various modeling options and great simulation tools. No doubts, this CAD software solution will help you to improve your performance.
DIS-TRAN, a company specialized in the conception of complex steel structure arrangements such as H-Frame Transmission Structures, are actually using this software solution in order to design their electrical engineering projects. It is the proof that Inventor can help you to develop any of your complex mechanical parts, even the big ones.


Solid Edge

Solid Edge is developed by Siemens. It is the perfect 3D software for engineers for complex projects but also to give shape quite quickly to your ideas. It has a great 2D orthographic view functionality, really convenient for mechanical designers. It also has powerful engineering simulation capabilities for Computer Aided Engineering.This software is an essential and will surely allow you to go further with all of your technical 3D projects!

NX

NX is another program developed by Siemens PLM Software, it is allowing to work on conception, simulation and manufacturing. Their goal: improving your production process with an efficient program, offering a complete toolset perfectly matching your expectations.
This software solution will provide you all the necessary tools to work on free form designs or templates based design. This software tool also allows you to work on sheet metal parts. For example, you can quickly convert solid models to sheet metal components using NX, which can totally help you for your technical projects

SolidWorks

SolidWorks is the perfect 3D modeling software for engineers and 3D designers. SolidWorks is a powerful and complete tool that will help designers and engineers to build innovative mechanical models. This 3D software has a user friendly interface and can be used for design, or to create machinery parts, for example. It will perfectly fit engineering students looking for a great tool to make mechanical drawings!
We already saw in a previous post about car design programs that SolidWorks is used by automotive manufacturers such as The Knapheide Manufacturing Company, working on utility truck bodies, or the motorcycle manufacturer Orange Country Choppers.



CATIA

Catia is a professional software tool developed by Dassault Systèmes. Mostly used for aerospace projects, this program is particularly useful for complex and detailed designs. With this program, you can actually work on any product. If you are an engineer, it will perfectly meet your expectations to create your 3D CAD models, and it is really perfect for mechanical engineering projects.

ProE

ProE (also known as PTC Creo or Creo Parametric) is developed by Parametric Technology Corporation, and is an engineering design software tool. It is 3D CAD software providing assembly modeling, finite element analysis, NURBS surface modeling, but also great features dedicated to mechanical designers. This is a good and complete software solution to do some rapid prototyping for your mechanical parts, but also to produce your end-use products.

Mathematica

Mathematica is a technical computing system that could totally allow you to create solid parts for your future 3D printed mechanical parts. It is offering advanced features, such as 2D and 3D data visualization, function and geo visualization and animation tools. This program is particularly convenient for any scientific, mathematical or engineering project.

Alibre

Alibre is a parametric CAD software tool dedicated to mechanical systems. It is possible to use this 3D program to create quite complex parts. This mechanical software solution also has a good rendering tool.
This 3D software tool has great features, perfect to develop, prototype or produce all of your projects.
credit: https://www.alibre.com/3d-modeling/


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November 29, 2019
There are many software packages used by mechanical engineers, but there are a few that are used consistently throughout industry. The level of proficiency that is required with specific software packages is dependent on your role as an engineer. However, every mechanical engineer should have at least a basic familiarity with most of the software on this list.

Mathcad

Mathcad is possibly the one piece of software that is useful to every mechanical engineer, regardless of job function. Mathcad gives you the ability to do math within a document, as well as to add relevant images and text to explain your work. You can add plots which either read from arrays of data, or which can be linked to defined equations. The result is a beautifully formatted document containing your "hand" calculations.
●      Ability to write and evaluate equations
●      Unit conversion
●      Plotting
●      Linear algebra -- useful for solving 3D statics problems, for solving systems of linear equations, etc.
●      Symbolic equation solver -- useful for when you just don't feel like manually solving for the integral of some complex equation
●      Programming -- useful for numeric analysis
Mathcad

Computer Aided Design (CAD) Software

A 3D CAD (Computer Aided Design) package is especially useful to any engineer with a focus on design. This software allows you to build 3D models of parts and assemblies. For instance, you could model all of the individual parts of an engine, and then combine them into an assembly. This will allow you to ensure that all of the parts fit together as intended. Many CAD packages allow you to do things like allow motion of parts (i.e. to allow a shaft to rotate) and to check for interferences between parts. Most CAD packages have a drafting component that allows you to create 2D drawings of your parts so that they can be manufactured. Many CAD tools also have direct integration into an FEA (Finite Element Analysis) package so you can iterate seamlessly between design and analysis. Popular examples of 3D CAD software include SolidWorks, Unigraphics NX, CATIA, and Autodesk Inventor.
SolidWorks 3D CAD

Finite Element Analysis (FEA) Software

Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is useful to any engineer that needs to perform structural analysis. This software allows you to analyze stresses and deflections in complex structures. Popular examples include ANSYS and Nastran. Typically a structure will be modeled in a 3D CAD program and then ported over to the FEA software. Previously, the porting process involved exporting the CAD model to a file format that could then be interpreted by the FEA software, but now many FEA packages integrate directly with CAD packages to make the transition seamless. Once the geometry is built, a mesh is created to discretize the structure into elements. Forces and constraints are applied, and the model can then be solved. From the solved model you can interrogate stresses and deflections in the structure.
ANSYS

Microsoft Excel

Excel is probably the most versatile software used not just by mechanical engineers, but by nearly every office worker. Excel is useful for quick calculations, for tabulating data, for laying out ideas, for drawing with shapes, for basic programming -- the possibilities are endless.
Microsoft Excel

Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)

Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is the programming language built into all of the Microsoft Office products. It is useful for automating Excel files, Access files, Word files, and any other files created using the MS Office suite. It can be a bit clunky and awkward to use compared to other more full-featured programming languages, but its direct integration into MS Office makes it an incredibly compelling option for implementing small scripts to perform basic automation tasks.
Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)

MATLAB

MATLAB is the programming language/environment of choice among mechanical engineers. MATLAB is essential for doing more complex numerical analysis where simple math doesn't cut it and a programming solution is required. MATLAB is especially well suited for calculations with matrices and vectors. It has an excellent plotting capability, so it is easy to run a simulation and then quickly display results. There are many additional libraries available for purchase for doing more complicated things such as optimization and control system design, among others.
Some examples of things you might do with MATLAB include:
●      Analyze heat transfer from a power bottle to the surrounding environment
●      Design a control system to land a rocket on a barge
●      Analyze the response characteristics of a spring-mass-damper with an externally applied force
MATLAB

Python

Python is a general-purpose programming language with a strong capability for scientific programming. Because of this, Python is an excellent alternative to MATLAB. Python is open-source, and many useful libraries are actively developed and maintained by the widespread Python community. Comparable functionality to MATLAB can be achieved by installing the NumPy, SciPy, and Matplotlib libraries. There are many other scientific libraries available such as Pandas that are worth looking into as well.
One major advantage of Python (besides the price of free) is that it is a general purpose programming language -- it is not specifically tailored to scientific programming, although it is excellent for that. This means that you can use it to do many other things besides numerical analysis, such as work with your file system, manage a database, or build a website.
Python

MechaniCalc

MechaniCalc is a suite of web-based calculators built to assist in the design and analysis tasks of a mechanical engineer. MechaniCalc includes calculators for many common analysis tasks, including bolted joint analysis, lug analysis, column buckling, and more. It has a database of material properties and cross section properties that can be used within the calculators. It allows you to save your work, and to print reports for easy documentation.
Lifting Lug / Padeye Geometry
Lifting Lug / Padeye Allowable Load Curve
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November 27, 2019
The primary difference between Petrol and Diesel engines is that the Petrol engine works on the Otto cycle whereas the Diesel engine works on the Diesel cycle. Other differences can be attributed to the structure, types, and uses of these engines. The main parameter they are classified on is the type of fuel they use. Generally, Engines run on the principle of heat transfer.

Petrol Engine

●      Petrol engines are internal combustion engines which have spark-ignition. They run on relatively volatile fuels such as petrol.
●      In these engines, air and fuel are generally mixed post-compression.
●      Petrol engines work on the Otto cycle, which consists of two isochoric processes and two isentropic processes.
●      In petrol engines, air and petrol are usually mixed in a carburettor before being introduced to the cylinder.
●      Once the air and petrol are compressed, the fuel is ignited via an electric spark.Difference Between Petrol and Diesel Engine

Diesel Engine

●      The Diesel engine is also an internal combustion engine which is also known as the compression-ignition engine. It is named after Rudolf Diesel.
●      In these engines, the fuel is injected into a combustion chamber and is then ignited by the high temperature of the air in the chamber.
●      The high temperature of the air in the cylinder is due to the adiabatic compression. These engines only compress the air and not the fuel.
●      When injected into the combustion chamber, the Diesel fuel undergoes spontaneous ignition.
●      These engines work on the Diesel cycle, which consists of a constant pressure process, a constant volume process, and two isentropic processes. Difference Between Petrol and Diesel Engine Diagram

Difference between Petrol and Diesel Engine

Apart from the type of fuel used, the engines are also divided on the basis of a lot of things, such as the presence of a spark plug in Petrol engines and a fuel injector in Diesel engines. We also know that lighter vehicles such as motorcycles, scooters, and cars typically use petrol in their engines whereas Diesel is used in much heavier machinery such as tractors, trucks, and buses. Thus, the types of fuel used also plays a major role in defining the major difference between Petrol and Diesel engines. More differences between these types of engines are listed in the tabular column below.


S.no
Petrol Engines
Diesel Engines
1
A petrol engine draws a mixture of petrol and air during the suction stroke.
A diesel engine draws only air during the suction stroke.
2
The carburetor is installed in petrol engines to mix air and petrol in the required proportion and to supply it to the engine during the suction stroke.
The injector or atomizer is installed in diesel engines to inject the fuel at the end of the compression stroke.
3
The pressure at the end of the compression is about 10 bar.
The pressure at the end of the compression is about 35 bar.
4
The charge (i.e. petrol and air mixture) is ignited with the help of spark plug.
The fuel is injected in the form of a fine spray. The temperature of the compressed air is about 600° C at a pressure of about 35 bars.
5
A petrol engine has compression ratio approximately from 6 to 10.
A diesel engine has compression ratio approximately from 15 to 25.
6
The combustion of fuel takes place approximately at constant volume. In other words, it works on Otto cycle.
The combustion of fuel takes place approximately at constant pressure. in other words, it works on Diesel cycle.
7
The thermal efficiency is up to about 26%.
The thermal efficiency is up to about 40%.
8
Overheating trouble is more in petrol engine due to low thermal efficiency.
Overheating trouble is less in diesel engine due to high thermal efficiency.
9
The starting of petrol engine is easy due to low compression ratio.
The starting of the diesel engine is slightly difficult due to higher compression ratio compared to a petrol engine.
10
As the compression ratio is low, the petrol engines are cheaper and lighter in weight.
As the compression ratio is high, the diesel engines are costlier and heavier in weight.
11
The running cost of petrol engine is high because of the higher cost of petrol fuel.
The running cost of the diesel engine is low because of the lower cost of diesel fuel.
12
The maintenance cost is less.
The maintenance cost is more.
13
Petrol engines are high-speed engines.
Diesel engines are relatively low-speed engines.
14
The petrol engines are are installed in light duty vehicles such as scooters, motorcycles, cars. These are also used in airplanes.
The diesel engines are are installed in heavy-duty vehicles such as buses, trucks, tractors, earth moving machines, etc.



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