Archives: Blog

Planetary gear systems can be intimidating to understand. There are so many types of motions and reductions possible that it can be overwhelming. The motion of planetary gear systems is expressed...

Unlike the Lego gears and shafts shown below most motors have perfectly round shafts. This makes attaching gears, pulleys and sprockets difficult. The main methods of attaching gears to...

Never guess again what hose size to use! Automatically the proper hose size for any application. Simply input a few measurable variables and click Calculate. This calculator adjusts for oil type...

Even though my engineering career is far from over, I wanted to look back and reflect. I realized that midway through my career is probably the right point to do this because if I wait too long, I'm...

Steel design seems to be moving in the direction of self-fixturing where the weldment or assembly components will align with each other. When a tab or slot is added to a part, the stress flow is...

Connecting multiple valves together is always a challenge. You want to have individual valve functionality, but not loose sight of the overall system characteristics. Open center or through...

Beam tables give information on and assume that the deflection calculation is based on a constant cross section.  So, what do we do if our beam has a cross section that changes over the length...

Two stage pumps, often called log splitter pumps, are a great way to get better performance without increasing horsepower. A two-stage hydraulic pump is two gear pumps that combine flow...

Reading a hydraulic schematic for the first time is a daunting and confusing thing.  There are so many symbols to identify and lines to keep track of.  I hope to impart to you a systematic...

This article is going to be a bit more technical than the previous article about fasteners, “The Magic of Fasteners.”  I’m going to try to keep it as simple as I can, but this topic is so...

No roller coaster is complete without a POV video. The Black Widow is no exception. https://youtu.be/o0k4BMdUSUI

So not everything always goes to plan. This video is evidence of that. https://youtu.be/u3LM6VMBBRk

I sat down with Spencer Krause of SKA Solutions to discuss the world of engineering. One of the topics was about failure and how it is a good thing. Human nature and our society want us to avoid...

We've finally got our Linear Synchronous Motor working with 2 phases on our test bench. It has been a long time coming! Now that it is working, we need to answer the question, should we continue? All...

Math….you either love it or you don't. Well I do, so I'm not ashamed to share it with the world. But videos like this make me nervous. There is some fuzzy math in here that I'm not necessarily...

As we continue our journey to design a Linear Synchronous Motors, we realize that a lot of current is needed for this to function. Controlling the electromagnets with a sine wave AND using digital...