Mechanical Engineering (Review)

Introduction
Mechanical Engineers are continuously having to keep up with improvements and changes in modern machinery. 10,000 years ago mechanical engineers were only just starting to understand how machines could be used to complete jobs more efficiently. Thousands of years ago people were learning how leverage can help lift heavy objects or how an incline plane can help a person move an object up to great heights; now a days the studying and technology that a mechanical engineer has goes way beyond these simple machines and I am going to talk about some of the modern technology used today.  

The New Technology
One of the more recent technological improvements in the mechanical engineering field is the use of three dimensional scanners and imputing that data into a computer aided design system. This system is more commonly known as a CAD program. Though CAD programs have been around for a few years, only now are they being used for three dimensional scans. In the past CAD programs have been limited to two dimensions are in the past few years have reached into the third dimension. These programs have helped build buildings, design cars, test certain equipment and have been able to give stress estimates on parts input into the program. This has been a very valuable tool for designing modern machines but what about older systems? Can this CAD program be used to help maximize efficiency in older systems? The answer is yes with new 3-D scanning systems.

Problems With Current System
The current system used for designing machines or building is drawing them out on paper; this has many problems associated with it. The first problem is the lack of the three dimensional view. People see the world in all three dimensions and when designing a product or a building (such as a power plant) it is nice to get a rough idea of what the end result of the project is going to look like. With the current system of drawing in two dimensions forces the drawer to make a minimum of two drawings so the correct information can be attained. Though this is easy to make a second image it is time consuming and creates more chances for errors. This system of designing works and will be needed even with new technology but the addition of the third dimension will reduce the number or errors when the building or product is in the design stage.

The New Scanners
New three dimensional scanners have finally met the standards that industries need. Many builds and machines are extremely complex and hard to visualize without having a picture or a part in your hand. In my experience with three dimensional scanners probes are brought in and placed at several locations. At this point they send and receive signals from the room and are able to create an image of the room the probes are located in. With the most recent update in technology this system is able to give dimensions to items in the room allowing two dimensional to be created and the part to be analyzed more critically. This is most valuable to older buildings that are going under renovations. This technology allows mechanical engineers to come in and make a computer copy of their surrounds and apply their changes to the structure/machine and see if everything is going to work as planned or if there needs to be changes to the design changes. This new technology will drive down cost, mistakes made in the work place cut down on time need for a project. I believe this is an extremely valuable asset to the modern mechanical engineer.