Designing Design Engineers

Designing (passionately) Design Engineers
Prof. Alexander H. Slocum

MacVicar Faculty Teaching Fellow
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 3-445
Cambridge, MA 02139
617.253.0012
Precision Engineering Research Group, MIT
617-258-6427 (fax) slocum@mit.edu

http://pergatory.mit.edu
10/2/2002
Working with Industry to Create Precision Machines
Moore Tool PAMT for Defense Logistics Agency

Moore Tool 5-axis Contour Mill
Moore Nanotech 150 Aspheric Grinder
Weldon 1632 Gold Cylindrical Grinder
CoorsTek all-ceramic grinder
NCMS Cluster Spindle
OMAX JetMachining Centers
Elk Rapids 5 axis cutter grinder
NCMS HydroBushing and HydroSpindle
Anorad/Dover MiniMill
Teradyne K-Dock System, Manipulator & Apollo Sorter
10/2/2002
Getting Engineers to THINK!
"Personal self-satisfaction is the death of the scientist. Collective selfsatisfaction is the the death of research. It is restlessness, anxiety,
dissatisfaction, agony of the mind that nourish science" Jacques-Lucien Monod
To help generate and create ideas, thought processes can be used as catalysts
Systematic Variation
Consider all possibilities
Persistent Questioning
Continually ask Who?, What?, Why?, Where, How?
Reversal: Forward Steps
Start with an idea, and vary it in as many ways as possible to create different
ideas, until each gets to the end goal
Also called the method of divergent thought
Reversal: Backwards Steps
Start with the end goal and work backwards along as many paths as possible
till you get to the beginning
Natures Way
How would nature solve the problem?
Exact Constraints
What are the minimum requirements
10/2/2002
Thinking: Reversal
Being able to rapidly switch between thought modes is an invaluable skill

Example: Given length equalities indicated by the colored pointy end cylinders, prove that the
yellow cylinder is the perpendicular bisector of the purple and red cylinders?
Never be afraid to add your own sketching to a problem that is given you
The thin red and blue lines and vertex labels were added!
If you do not rapidly see how to move forward, try going backwards!
As given:
After user inflicted

clarifying features:
D
F
B
C
10/2/2002
How Does Good Design Happen?
Good design has mechanical, electrical, and software components

Being able to determine how a design will work before it is built is the premise of modern
industry
Deterministic design is the key:
62.5 grams of prevention is worth a kilogram of cure!

Good mechanics, makes it easier on the mechanics!
Random Results are the Result of Random Procedures
Geoffe Portes
10/2/2002
How Does Good Design Happen?
Good design is based on philosophy, experience, and analysis

Philosophy is how we create our brains bio neural nets to give deep insight into problems
It is the hardest thing to teach and learn, and contributes to the idea that design is a black
art
Experience depends on learning how things have been done (e.g., take-apart & how things
work) and doing it, again and again and again
Human learning begins with touching
Analysis is taught widely, and established web-based teaching methods exist
Students need philosophy and experience to help them learn how to use analysis and what
level of analysis is appropriate
10/2/2002
FUNdaMENTAL Principles
of Mechanical Design
Imagine the feeling you get when you engage in an activity in which you RULE!
When you MASTER the FUNdaMENTALs of design, you get the same feeling, continuously!
Robot World will help students master the FUNdaMENTALs!
Philosophy, theory, practice!
AND the issues in cost/performance tradeoffs
How fundamentals can be used to identify disruptive technologies
Patterns
Occams Razor: KISS & MISS
Saint-Venants Principle
Golden Rectangle
Abbes Principle
Maxwells Reciprocity
Self-Principles
Stability
Superposition
Parallel Axis Theorem
Accuracy, Repeatability, Resolution

Sensitive Directions
Reference Features
Structural Loop
Free Body Diagram
Centers of Action
Exact Constraint Design
Elastic Averaging
Dimensional Analysis
Leading and Bleeding edges
10/2/2002
Patterns: StrategiesConceptsModulesComponents
Deterministic Design leaves

LOTS of room for the wild
free creative spirit, and LOTS
of room for experimentation
and play
Deterministic Design is a
catalyst to funnel creativity
into a successful design
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
4
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
6
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3
1 2
1 2
2
1 2 3
1
It is OK to iterate
A goal is to never have to

backtrack
A good engineer,
however, knows when
its time to let go
10/2/2002
Occams Razor: KISS & MISS
William of Occam (or Ockham) (1284-1347) was an English philosopher and

theologian
Ockham stressed the Aristotelian principle that entities must not be multiplied beyond what
is necessary
Ockham wrote fervently against the papacy in a series of treatises on papal power and
civil sovereignty. The medieval rule of parsimony, or principle of economy, frequently
used by Ockham came to be known as Ockham's razor. The rule, which said that
plurality should not be assumed without necessity (or, in modern English, keep it simple,
stupid), was used to eliminate many pseudo-explanatory entities
(http://wotug.ukc.ac.uk/parallel/www/occam/occam-bio.html)
A problem should be stated in its basic and simplest terms

The simplest theory that fits the facts of a problem is the one that should be selected
Limit Analysis is an invaluable way to identify and check simplicity
Use fundamental principles as catalysts to help you

Keep It Super Simple
Make It Super Simple
Because Silicon is cheaper than cast iron(Don Blomquist)
10/2/2002
Saint-Venant did extensive research in the theory of elasticity, and many times he
relied on the assumption that local effects of loading do not affect global strains
e.g., bending strains at the root of a cantilever are not influenced by the local
deformations of a point load applied to the end of a cantilever
The engineering application of his general observations are profound for the
development of conceptual ideas and initial layouts of designs:
Wheel
To NOT be affected by local deformations of a force, be several characteristic
Shaft
dimensions away
On the city bus, how many seats away from the smelly old drunk do you
Sliding
want to be?
bearing in
structure
To have control of an object, apply constraints over several characteristic
!!Non Optimal!!
dimensions
Wheel
Shaft
These are just initial layout guidelines, and designs must be optimized
using closed-form or finite element analysis
Sliding
bearing in
structure
!!Optimal!!
Barr de Saint-Venant
1797-1886
10
10/2/2002
The Golden Rectangle

The proportions of the Golden Rectangle are a natural starting point for preliminary sizing of
structures and elements
Example: Bearings:
The greater the ratio of the longitudinal to latitudinal (length to width) spacing:
The smoother the motion will be and the less the chance of walking (yaw error)
First try to design the system so the ratio of the longitudinal to latitudinal spacing of bearing
elements is about 2:1
For the space conscious, the bearing elements can lie on the perimeter of a golden rectangle
(ratio about 1.618:1)
The minimum length to width ratio is 1:1 to minimize yaw error
90.0
80.0
70.0
60.0
1.618:1
1:1
50.0
40.0
30.0
20.0
10.0
width/height
0.2
0.6
1.4
1.8
2.2
2.6
3.4
3.8
4.
2
11
4.6
0.0
5
Golden Rectangle: A rectangle where when a square is cut from the rectangle, the remaining rectangle
has the same proportions as the original rectangle
Watch Donald in Mathmagic Land!
roll angle (deg)
10/2/2002
Abbes Principle
In the late 1800s, Dr. Ernst Abbe (1840-1905) and Dr. Carl Zeiss (1816-1888)
worked together to create one of the worlds foremost precision optics
companies: Carl Zeiss, GmbH (http://www.zeiss.com/us/about/history.shtml)
The Abbe Principle (Abbe errors) resulted from observations about
measurement errors in the manufacture of microscopes:
If errors in parallax are to be avoided, the measuring system must be placed
coaxially with the axis along which the displacement is to be measured on the
workpiece
Strictly speaking, the term Abbe error only applies to measurement errors
When an angular error is amplified by a distance, to create an error in a

machines position, for example, the strict definition of the error is a sine or
cosine error
L(1-cos()) L2 /2
Lsin()
From www.zeiss.com
L
12
10/2/2002
Abbes Principle: Locating Components
Geometric: Angular errors are amplified by the distance from the source
Measure near the source, and move the bearings and actuator near the work!
Thermal: Temperatures are harder to measure further from the source

Measure near the source!
Thinking of Abbe errors, and the system FRs is a powerful catalyst to help
develop DPs, where location of motion axes is depicted schematically
Example: Stick figures with arrows indicating motions are a powerful simple
means of depicting strategy or concepts
13
10/2/2002
Abbes Principle: Cascading Errors
A small angular deflection in one part of a machine quickly grows as

subsequent layers of machine are stacked upon it
A component that tips on top of a component that tips
If you give a mouse a cookie..
Error budgeting keeps tracks of errors in cascaded components

Designs must consider not only linear deflections, but angular deflections and their
resulting sine errors
Tool
R
Error
Work
Motion of a column
as it moves and
deflects the axis upon
which it rides
14
10/2/2002
Maxwells Reciprocity
Maxwells theory of Reciprocity

Let A and B be any two points of an elastic system. Let the displacement of B in
any direction U due to a force P acting in any direction V at A be u; and the
displacement of A in the direction V due to a force Q acting in the direction U at B
be v. Then Pv = Qu (from Roark and Young Formulas for Stress and Strain)
The principle of reciprocity can be extended in philosophical terms to have a

profound effect on measurement and development of concepts
Reversal
Critical Thinking
James Clerk Maxwell 1831-1879
15
10/2/2002
Reciprocity: Reversal
A method that is used to take out repeatable measuring instrument errors from
the measurement
See ANSI standards for axis of rotation, straightness and machine tool metrology
for excellent tutorials on applying reciprocity to measurement!
One of the principal methods by which advances in accuracy of mechanical

components have been continually made
There are many application variations for measurement and manufacturing
Two bearings rails ground side-by-side can be installed end-to-end
A carriage whose bearings are spaced one rail segment apart will not pitch or roll
CMM
repeatability
Z probe before reversal (x) = CMM (x) - part (x)

Z probe after reversal (x) = CMM (x) + part (x)
part(x) =
Part before reversal
-Z probe before reversal (x) + Z probe after reversal (x)

2
CMM (x)
Part after reversal
part (x) before reversal
after reversal
16
10/2/2002
Kinematic Couplings for Precision Fixturing
James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) likes three grooves

Symmetry good for manufacture, dynamic stability
Easy to obtain very high load capacity
William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) (1824 - 1907) likes ball-groovetetrahedron

More intuitive, and more easily applied to non-planar designs
Planar
17
Vertical
10/2/2002
Canoe Ball
error [ m ]
Canoe-Ball Kinematic Element

for high Load Capacity and Repeatability
Modular
microscope
for Univ. of
Illinois
0.10
0.00
Coupling
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
-0.10
Repeatability
Measurements
Measurement
system
error [ m ]
-0.20
0.10
0.00
0
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
-0.10
18
10/2/2002
Kinematic Couplings:
Three-Groove Design Guidelines
Keep Hertz contact pressure below 75% of tensile yield
Material fails in shear below the surface

Contact area center should ideally not be closer than one diameter from edge
Materials must be non-galling and non-fretting
Preload to keep coupling from tipping
Split Groove coupling spreads one of the grooves to give appearance of a 4 point
mount, and thus provide somewhat greater unpreloaded tipping resistance
Align grooves with coupling triangle angle bisectors

Ball 1
Coupling centroid
Coupling triangle
Angle bisector
between sides
23 and 31
Ball 2
Ball 3
Plane containing the

contact force vectors
19
10/2/2002
Kinematic Couplings: Load Capacity of Contacts
25 mm diameter stainless steel half-sphere on 25 mm diameter cylinders
25 mm diameter stainless steel half-sphere in a Vee
Fmax = 1106 N
Vertical deflection = 11 m
Contact ellipse major diameter = 2.695 mm , minor diameter = 0.603 mm
Heinrich Hertz
1857-1894
250 mm diameter stainless steel half-sphere in a Vee
Fmax = 229 N
Vertical deflection = 4.7 m
25 mm contact diameter x 125 mm radius crowned cone in a Vee
Fmax = 111 N
Vertical deflection = 3.2 m
Fmax = 16160 N
Vertical deflection = 47 m
Above based on maximum contact pressure of 1.3 GPa, and E=193 GPa
20
10/2/2002
Quasi-Kinematic Couplings for Ford Engine Assembly

Prof. Marty Culpeppers Ph.D. thesis
QKC Attributes and Characteristics:
Partial surfaces of Revolution ->
Short Line Contact
Weakly Over-constrained
Sub-micron Repeatability
Sealing Contact
High Stiffness without dowel pins
Very low cost
Spherical
Protrusion
initial
=0
final
PROCESS:
Groove Seat Mating force/displacement applied
Side Reliefs
21
Ball & groove comply

Brinell out surface finish
Elastic recovery restores gap
10/2/2002
JL Cap Probe
CL
Engine Assembly Performance

Axial
1 st Block Fixture
CMM Head
Sensitive
Bedplate Fixture
Bedplate
JR Cap Probe
Axial Cap Probe
2nd Block Fixture
QKC Error in Axial Direction
QKC Error in Sensitive Direction

2.0
1.5
JR
1.0
a, microns
c, microns
2.0
1.5
JL
0.5
0.0
-0.5 0
-1.0
-1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
-0.5 0
-1.0
-1.5
-2.0
-2.0
Trial #
Trial #
(Range/2) = 1.35 m
(Range/2)|AVG = 0.65 m
Max x Dislacement
22
10/2/2002
9
MAGNABOTS: Hosptial Automation?!

Ceiling based trackless system: Zero footprint, high degree of
flexibility in motion
Ceiling of thin metal sheets: Can be bent into any shape; easily
expandable and scalable
Graduate Students: Shorya Awtar and John Hart
23
10/2/2002
MAGNABOTS: Development Phase I

Proof-of-concept Demonstration at CIMIT, Oct 1701:
Steel ceiling installed in CIMIT

Simulation Center Operating Room:
Overhead horizontal sections for traversing across
the OR
Vertical wall-side section for payload docking
Open-loop radio-controlled vehicles:

Three vehicles: simple pendulum and trianglependulum designs
Detachable payload carriers
Two magnetic driving wheels
Passive delrin wheels for guidance along vertical
wall section
24
10/2/2002
Linear Motor Magnet Preloaded Bearings

FRDPARRC Sheet Topic: Precision Low Cost Linear Motion Stage
Functional Requirement (Event) Preload air bearings for minimal cost
Design Parameter (description of idea) Preload air bearings using magnetic attractive force of motor, so air bearings need only ride on two
surfaces instead of having to wrap around a beam; thus many precision tolerances to establish bearing gap can be eliminated
Sketch:
Carriage
Magnet track
Motor core
Assume we want even preload pressure per pad

Motor preload angle
26.57
Motor attraction force, Fm
4000
Motor width (mm), L
130
Motor thickness
47
Space for motor thickness
65
Supply pressure, Ps (Pa, atm)
600000
bearing efficiency, m
0.35
preload proportion of total load capacity, f
0.5
vertical/horizontal load capacity, vh
2
X direction pads' total area (mm^2), Ax
21994
Y direction pads total area, (mm^2) Ay
43989
Bearing rail
Air bearing pad

Analysis (physics in words) The magnet attraction force is 5x greater than the motor force, so it can be positioned at an angle such that even
preload is applied to all the bearings. As long as the magnet attraction net vertical and horizontal force are proportional to the bearing areas
and is applied through the effective centers of the bearings, they will be evenly loaded without any applied moments.
1.5
raw accuracy:2.44
raw repeat:0.5
F
F
= F magnets sin
F
F
V
H
A
A
= tan
pitch error [arc sec] at 10 mm/s
Analysis
= F magnets cos
0.5
= arctan AV
AH
References: Vee & Flat bearings used on many common machine tools where gravity provides preload. NEAT uses two magnet tracks, one
horizontal and one vertical, to provide horizontal and vertical preload force. Patent search revealed no other relevant art.
H
-0.5
-1
-1.5
50
100
150
200
position [mm]
250
300
Risks: The magnet pitch may cause the carriage to pitch as the motors iron core windings pass over the magnets
Countermeasures: Add steel out of phase with motor core position, or if the error is repeatable, map it and compensate for it in other axes
25
10/2/2002
Linear Motor Magnet Preloaded Bearings
Primary research challenges

Carriage pitch caused by magnets is acceptable for modest precision or wafer
transport systems
Two-axis proof-of-concept grinding machine designed and built (in 2 months) at
Overbeck Machine Tool Corp.
1.5
Top Blocks Top Plate
raw accuracy:2.44
raw repeat:0.5
Top Jack Screws

pitch error [arc sec] at 10 mm/s
0.5
-0.5
-1
-1.5
0
Side L Blocks
Replicating Fixturing
50
100
150
200
position [mm]
250
300
Side Jack Screws

Removal Fixturing
26
10/2/2002
Low-Cost Actuator/Bearing Structures
Can preload of a nut on a screw be done in three-dimensions instead of just

one
Can threaded-rods, the cheapest machine elements, can be made a precision
bearing and actuator?
1-14 Greased Threaded Rods
Adjustable Preload Nuts

Additional Flexures
27
10/2/2002
Low-Cost Actuator/Bearing Structures
Preliminary tests were very encouraging!

Full Scale Error Budget
FR (Full Scale)
Accuracy
Repeatability
Prototype Error Budget
Prototype Results
.02
.006
.010
.007
.02
.010
.004
.001
.02
.009
.019
.0012
.02
.014
.021
.00065
Flexures
28
Preload
Fixed Brass 10/2/2002

Nut
Next: Personal Fabricators
How can we create low cost precision technologies to bring manufacturing to

under-developed regions
Rolled threaded rod with preloaded nuts.
Bits to atoms on a large scale..?
29
10/2/2002
MEMS: Wafer Alignment
Alexis Webers SM thesis was to see how repeatable are legos (several microns) and can we
learn from them and other work on kinematic couplings to create a new means to precisely
stack up wafers:
4-inch double-sided polished (100) wafers were used and the convex features and
cantilever flexures are fabricated through a backside KOH etch.
The individual flexures are released through a front-side DRIE.
The concave features are bulk micro-machined through a KOH etch. 3 m feature size
reference alignment marks were patterned initially using a custom mask.
Chrome masks made from emulsion transparencies were used to create the alignment
features.
Testing of the passive alignment features was done on an Electronic Vision Group TBM8
wafer alignment inspection system, and wafer-to-wafer alignment on the order of 1 micron
was achieved, and repeatability was in the submicron range
This alignment technique is not (YET!) compatible with anodic bonding due to the rough
surface finish left by the KOH etch. It can however be used for eutectic bonding, among
other bonding methods.
30
10/2/2002
MEMS
Flexures have been used for centuries as a means to create extremely high
accuracy small range of motion instrument stages
Prof. Sridhar Kota at UMI has an entire laboratory devoted to the design of
compliant mechanisms
From staples to windshield washer blades to sophisticated MEMs devices
He has created field-search algorithms to find optimum flexural linkage
designs to meet user defined FRs constraints
http://www.engin.umich.edu/labs/csdl/index.htm
Much of the work in MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) is based on the
use of tiny silicon flexures
31
10/2/2002
MEMS: Relays
Jin Qius Ph.D. thesis has led to a bistable double-beam flexure

It is bistable without any initial preload
In trying to help us make it better, Prof. Michael Brenner (formally of MIT)

developed an entirely new way of looking at optimization problems
When design engineers and applied mathematicians get together to play, its a
productive day!
32
10/2/2002
Force Displacement Curve For The Switch
Force Ratio is 2:1.

33
10/2/2002
Better Force Ratio
The Optimization: Changing Beam Shape Improves Performance
34
10/2/2002
Optimized Switch
Force Ratio is 1:1 !

35
10/2/2002
Nanogate
The Nanogate is a device that precisely meters the flow of tiny amounts of fluid.
The Nanogate can be fabricated on a macro-, meso- or micro- (MEMs) scale.
Precise control of the flow restriction is accomplished by deflecting a highly polished

cantilevered plate.
The opening is adjustable on a sub-nanometer scale, limited by the roughness of the polished
plates.
This research grew out of understanding of flow metering garnered from years of hydrostatic
bearing research
This research was funded by an NSF award, number 9900792, and James White is a
recipient of a a Hertz Fellowship
Possible fuel injector

application?
36
10/2/2002
Nanogate Operation
100
620
640
641
667
The outer diameter of

the gate plate 620 is
forced down
The annular thin wall
structure 630 acts like a
torsion spring pivot
The gate plate surface
641 lifts up creating a
gap 777
Fluid can then flow from
source 670a to sink 670b
665
650
682b
681b
667
601a
668
668
630
622
601b
682a
670b
670a
777
100
620
640
641
650
681a
665
682b
681b
667
601a
668
630
601b
622
682d
682e
682a
670a
670b
681a
682c
Fig. 7
37
10/2/2002
Molecular Sensing and Filtration Using the Nanogate

The Nanogate is micro-mechanical
device that can accurately and
repeatably control a nanometer sized
gap. Precise control of the gate
opening is accomplished by deflecting
a cantilevered plate that is anchored
by an annular torsion spring. The
opening is adjustable on a subnanometer scale using a piezoelectric
actuator. The ability to control flow
channels at nanometer length scales
may enable sensing and filtration of
large molecules such as proteins and
DNA.
Figure 2: Schematic of the Nanogate Instrumentation

38
Graduate students James White and

Hong Ma are building instrumentation
around the Nanogate to precisely
measure the gate opening and to
image the flow of molecules in these
constrained conditions. The actuation
is achieved by a Nu Focus Picomotor
actuator while the displacement
sensing will be implemented using a
Zygo single point optical probe
interferometer.
10/2/2002
Nanogate Molecular Sieve?
Proteins
Flowrate of large molecules is nonlinearly dependent on the gap size,

and modulation frequency, for very small gaps
How does the mobility of a protein depend on the size and surface
properties of the channel?
Can proteins be mechanically filtered based on size? What dynamic

effects would play a role?
Can adsorption be controlled?
Can we accomplish small gap chromatography?
39
10/2/2002
AFM and the Nanogate
0.5-dimensional probe
Interact with a few molecules at a
time
Low throughput
Elastic forces ~ molecular
attraction
Molecules are constrained in a 2.5dimensional space.

Interact with many molecules
Higher throughput
Elastic forces >> molecular
attraction
40
10/2/2002
Nanogate Instrumentation
Planned fluid connections

Instrument schematic
First version - Super Invar flexure,
piezoelectric motor, Michaelson
interferometer for displacement
measurement.
41
10/2/2002
Results: 2nm Resolution!

Displacement due to 2 steps
105
displacement (nm)
100
95
raw data
Averaged
90
85
80
0
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.1
0.12
time (s)
42
10/2/2002
Results: Opening and Closing the Gate

Mechanical Characteristics
140
Displacement (nm)
120
100
80
Going up (gate
closing)
60
Going Down
(Gate Opening)
40
20
0
0
10
15
20
25
30
Picomotor Steps
Conclusion: Very good relative repeatability

43
10/2/2002
Conclusions
The fundamental principles of design can be applied at all scales

Deterministic design is most important!
What we do on a large scale, often provides insight on the small scale

There is no shortage of engineering challenges at ALL scales
44
10/2/2002

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Designing (passionately) Design Engineers

Prof. Alexander H. Slocum

Precision Engineering Research Group, MIT

617-258-6427 (fax) slocum@mit.edu

Working with Industry to Create Precision Machines

Moore Tool PAMT for Defense Logistics Agency

Precision Engineering Research Group, MIT

Getting Engineers to THINK!

Precision Engineering Research Group, MIT

Being able to rapidly switch between thought modes is an invaluable skill

After user inflicted

Precision Engineering Research Group, MIT

How Does Good Design Happen?

Good design has mechanical, electrical, and software components

62.5 grams of prevention is worth a kilogram of cure!

Precision Engineering Research Group, MIT

How Does Good Design Happen?

Good design is based on philosophy, experience, and analysis

Precision Engineering Research Group, MIT

Precision Engineering Research Group, MIT

Accuracy, Repeatability, Resolution

Deterministic Design leaves

A goal is to never have to

Precision Engineering Research Group, MIT

Occams Razor: KISS & MISS

William of Occam (or Ockham) (1284-1347) was an English philosopher and

A problem should be stated in its basic and simplest terms

Use fundamental principles as catalysts to help you

Precision Engineering Research Group, MIT

The Golden Rectangle

Precision Engineering Research Group, MIT

roll angle (deg)

When an angular error is amplified by a distance, to create an error in a

Abbes Principle: Locating Components

Thermal: Temperatures are harder to measure further from the source

Precision Engineering Research Group, MIT

Abbes Principle: Cascading Errors

A small angular deflection in one part of a machine quickly grows as

Error budgeting keeps tracks of errors in cascaded components

Precision Engineering Research Group, MIT

Maxwells theory of Reciprocity

The principle of reciprocity can be extended in philosophical terms to have a

James Clerk Maxwell 1831-1879

Precision Engineering Research Group, MIT

One of the principal methods by which advances in accuracy of mechanical

Z probe before reversal (x) = CMM (x) - part (x)

-Z probe before reversal (x) + Z probe after reversal (x)

Part after reversal

Precision Engineering Research Group, MIT

part (x) before reversal

Kinematic Couplings for Precision Fixturing

James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) likes three grooves

William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) (1824 - 1907) likes ball-groovetetrahedron

Precision Engineering Research Group, MIT

Canoe-Ball Kinematic Element

Precision Engineering Research Group, MIT

Keep Hertz contact pressure below 75% of tensile yield

Material fails in shear below the surface

Align grooves with coupling triangle angle bisectors

Plane containing the

Precision Engineering Research Group, MIT

Kinematic Couplings: Load Capacity of Contacts

25 mm diameter stainless steel half-sphere on 25 mm diameter cylinders