Mechanical Engineer's Wishlist 1

[Remydon]

So I'm in an interesting situation. My project has an excess of funds, and my program manager has asked me to put together a wish list of equipment for the mechanical engineering team to purchase before the FY is out.

Problem is, we're fairly well equipped as it is. The type of work we do is quick design, modification, and prototyping projects to get stuff out to our guys in the field quickly. We manufacture most of our own stuff in house in low quantities. Here is what we currently have in addition to a well stocked standard toolbox:

CNC Mill and Lathe
Eden 500 3D Printer
Benchtop Mill / Drill
HALT/HASS Chamber
Bandsaw, Grinding wheel
Mobile A-fram crane
ANSYS Mechanical with CFD
Solidworks Premium
MathCAD, MATLAB, Labview
IR Camera

I'm thinking about picking up a FARO arm for QA and reverse engineering, and maybe some more instrumentation for field testing.

So, given what we have, what kind of cool / useful stuff would you guys put on your wishlist?

Thanks!

 

[GregLocock]

A complete selection of force measuring gear, from handheld spring balances to load cells. The most fundamental question when designing one offs is how much load it needs to take, quite often.

The trouble with a Faro arm is that it takes a fair while, and continual practice, to come up with even half reasonable accuracy, at least on cars. Across a car I'd be pleased to get +/- 1mm repeatability from a Faro. That's good enough for practical purposes, but it isn't exactly the impression you get from their comics.



Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[EngineerErrant]

Seconding some sort of 3D printer/benchtop laser cutter. The best toys are the ones you can use to make other toys.

"Engineers like to solve problems. If there are no problems handily available, they will create their own problems." -Scott Adams

 

[hendersdc]

A benchtop materials testing machince like an Instron or equivalent would be very usefull. Also a fastener library and dril library. I second the CMM.

Doug

 

[1gibson]

PMI gun?

 

[jerry1423]

an EDM

 

[zeusfaber]

Second the PMI gun. I find myself wanting one perhaps twice every three years - but then I want it right now..

A.

 

[Cockroach]

I'd be asking for a week paid vacation to Hawaii, maybe a Ferrari as the offical company vehicle, sponsorship for inner city kids hockey club would be very cool, something more inventive than what I seen on everyone's list.

Regards,
Cockroach

 

[racookpe1978]

Power supplies for the above!

More accurately, a UPS-battery backup power supply (supplies!) for the tools, AND for the office PC/copier/fax/telephones/thermostat equipment.

We had a power surge at the house when the new" green eco-monitoring power meter lost connection to the incoming main leads. The short blew every electronic item in the house: clocks, TV, playstation, digital coffee maker, microwave, AC controller, digital (zone) heater controller, refrigerator, VCR, and every surge protector.

The PC's and scanner/copier - which were on their UPS's and so isolated - came through just fine.

 

[SomptingGuy]

A machine that goes "Ping".

- Steve

 

[hendersdc]

A shrubbery!

 

[pierdesign]

I used to have a small machine shop to complement our R&D group. Here's a list of accessories that we used or bought over the years.

The 40k rpm high speed mill spindle option was an exotic, extra $ purchase that actually got used fairly often. Also we bought a 4th axis for the mill and a manual rotary indexing fixture, the latter used more often. I came to love the set of insert cutters I bought for the CNC mill.

We were always borrowing the QC departments' measuring tools:
digital height gauge, oversize digital caliper, multi-size digital micrometers, ceramic gauge block set (very useful), shadow graph profilometer (probably too big for your benchtop limit), large granite table, angle plates.

Occasionally we needed to buy in exotic raw materials, strangely they always had long lead times: PEEK rod, tefzel, ceramics, titanium, etc.

The ultrasonic bath cleaner was used daily.