Recent Patents on Mechanical Engineering - Volume 2, Issue 1, 2009

Axial fans often show adverse flow conditions at the fan hub and at the tip of the blades. In the present paper, a modification of conventional axial fan blades with experimental investigation is presented. Patented hollow blades were manufactured from the hub to the trailing edge at the tip of the blades. They enable the formation of self-induced internal flow through internal passages. The internal flow enters the internal radial Read More

Fixtures are used to locate, hold and support workpieces in manufacturing operations such as machining, inspection, and assembly. Designing and fabricating fixtures can take up to 10-20% of the total cost of a manufacturing system. Fixture planning is a complex activity restricted by the extreme diversity of workpiece, product batch size, product geometry, part accessibility, and working force. Computer-Aided Fixture Pla Read More

Fluid dispensing is a process to deliver fluid materials in a controlled manner. This method has been widely used in various processes/applications such as electronics assembly and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) packaging. With an increasing demanding for smaller size and higher density of components on boards, numerous efforts have been made in industry to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of the dispensi Read More

The need for improved lifetime of air-breathing proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells for portable applications necessitates that the failure mechanisms be clearly understood and life prediction models be developed, so that new designs can be introduced to improve long-term performance. A three-dimensional, multi-phase, non-isothermal computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of an ambient air-breathing Read More

This work concentrates on the first order Sugeno model of the power spectral density (PSD) of a multi degree of freedom system. Two models are introduced, single and multi degree of freedom system. In both models, the relationship between the input-output power spectral densities is modeled using first order Sugeno model. Minimum error model with fewer numbers of rules for the power spectral density for each mo Read More

Standard Test Methods (e.g. ASTM, DIN) for materials characterization in general, and for fatigue in particular, do not contemplate specimens with complex geometries, as well as the combination of axial and in-plane bending loads in their methodologies. The present study refers to some patents and the new configuration or configurations of specimens (non-standardized by the “status quo” of test methods) and a device Read More

The focus of this paper is to survey recent patents related to mechanical tolerances. First, a general overview of tolerances is provided, followed by issues related to research in mechanical tolerances. Various research aspects of mechanical tolerances that are introduced are tolerance specification, analysis, allocation, synthesis, transfer and evaluation. Patents related to mechanical tolerances, issued since the beginnin Read More

Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) is a non-conventional manufacturing process based on removing material from a part by electrical discharges between the tool called tool electrode and the part being machined in the dielectric fluid called workpiece. Recently, numerous developments in EDM have focused on the production of very high accuracy of workpiece. The problematic areas in EDM are in the area of handling, elec Read More

A coupled hydro-thermal model is developed to study the phase-change process within partially saturated porous media. During the heating process (up to 1100°C), the increase of temperature in the medium is characterized by a plateau at a boiling point (around 100°C) revealing the energy absorption due to phase-change (liquid-vapor). In order to analyze this phenomenon, a modeling was performed on relatively lig Read More

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