Many of these products really seem to be designed so they will fail. And then you won't be able to get some part because they design was changed. They see it as a way to generate sales!
I have a couple of small machine tools at home and ther have been a number of time where I have made some simple part because the manufactirers part is either unavailable or way too expensive. If I can make it in 15 minutes why does it have to cost half te cost of the whole machine new? But then, most folks haven't the basic skills to open something up and repair it. Perhaps that is what we ought to be teaching in school nowadays. Then we might get better engineers and factory workers making better products.
Sorry to rip on the engineers, but they are involved in many of these "Made by Monkeys" complaints. How many of the engineers would be lost if handed a mechanics toolbox or a set of micrometers?
Ken, I have a similar mower (the auto trans version) and the same mulching cover, which we use. I will have to check (I'm not home now), but I have not noticed any rusting or other problem. If I do, I will comment later.
Have you noticed rusting in the hole through whcih the clip goes? This would be another area of contact?
A new battery design, which replaces lithium with abundant and low-cost elemental sulfur, is still in its nascent stages but shows real promise for giving batteries more energy potential.
PTC will offer a virtual desktop environment for its Creo product design applications, potentially freeing engineers to run them from remote desktops on a variety of operating systems and mobile devices.
The push to achieving more intelligent, integrated manufacturing is putting a strong focus on networking and connectivity as key enabling technologies.
Now that solar and wind harvesting technologies are a thriving market, researchers are seeking other environmentally related energy sources for which they can create harvesting devices.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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