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Success
Failures
The engineering products are all around the world today. They are very
high-tech, and engineers are designing new products day by day. However, where
is the beginning of the engineering design? Needless to say, it started from the
simple and small. In this section, we changed our viewpoint, and collected the
unlikely engineering design. Engineers have been creating success stories over failure. Here we introduce the early days engineering design products briefly, which are eventually related to or based on today's engineering design products, as examples of 20th century's success and failure miscellaneous engineering design. For further information and study, you can refer to those linked web sites or read Henry Petroski’s, Invention by Design, Harvard University Press, 1996.
The paper clips are so simple structure and seem to be insignificant for engineering design. But since Gem paper clip, it has been changing and dominating the market. The improvement on it explains the insight of the nature of engineering design. It works with springiness. It can spread apart to hold the papers, and spring back when it is released. We can use it as many times as we want unless we clip the papers until the paper clip is not able to spring back. It caused the iron fatigue. Statics is the important part of the paper clips. It is simple, however, it is a great engineering design.
From the pencil, we can study that engineers analyze and judge how things
function to improve them. We know that a pencil point will break if we press too
hard on it, but we do not know how hard it is. We know that there is the certain
point for best writing with best comfortable grip. From breaking the pencil
point, we learn how much we should press, and where we should hold. And also we
know that the pencil point is difficult to break if we use a blunter point and
hold the pencil more vertically. These observations tells us implicitly that it
is applied for larger engineering structures as well as systems [1].
Some
say its therapeutic, some use it to exercise, while some just like playing with
it and it all owed to the engineer at General Electric’s New Haven laboratory,
James Wright. Seeking to develop synthetic rubber silly putty was instead
created. With the aide of an advertising agent and a toy shop owner, silly putty
became the must have toy in the early 1950’s. Its ingredients by percentage
weight are: 65%
- Dimethyl Siloxane, hydroxy-terminated polymers with boric acid Introduced
to the market around Easter, silly putty became a popular item worldwide within
months. Lasting over 50 years the product is still popular today. Its
simplicity, user-friendly nature and satisfaction to all customers made it a
success past and present. Today the company is worth millions and continues to
improve the product. For instance as glow in the dark technique was invented,
silly putty quickly adapted it to its product and marketed it and needless to
say it too was a hit [2].
The missile system used in Desert Shield had a software error that hurt the system after 8 hours of continuous use. The mistake was corrected, but not until after a Scud missile had eluded the patriot missals and killed US Marines. Hartford
Civic Center Roof Collapse USS
Thresher Submarine Sinking
In engineering laboratory, we can see the aluminum cans on the desk or the shelf. Their size is really fit for human hands to hold it. The cans have ease of opening, pouring, and drinking. While they are a great convenience, they are also a great waste of raw materials and energy. Engineers have to think of this trauma economically and environmentally [3].
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