Mechanical EngineeringIntroduction to Mechanical Engineering Mechanical engineering is the branch of engineering that deals with machines and the production of power. It is particularly concerned with forces and motion.History of Mechanical EngineeringThe invention of the steam engine in the latter part of the 18th century, providing a key source of power for the Industrial Revolution, gave an enormous impetus to the development of machinery of all types. As a result a new major classification of engineering, separate from civil engineering and dealing with tools and machines, developed, receiving formal recognition in 1847 in the founding of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in Birmingham, England.Mechanical engineering has evolved from the practice by the mechanic of an art based largely on trial and error to the application by the professional engineer of the scientific method in research, design, and production.The demand for increased efficiency, in the widest sense, is continually raising the quality of work expected from a mechanical engineer and requiring of him a higher degree of education and training. Not only must machines run more economically but capital Costs also must be minimized.Fields of Mechanical EngineeringDevelopment of machines for the production of goods the high material standard of living in the developed countries owes much to the machinery made possible by mechanical engineering. The mechanical engineer continually invents machines to produce goods and develops machine tools of increasing accuracy and complexity to build the machines.The principal lines of development of machinery have been an increase in the speed of operation to obtain high rates of production, improvement in accuracy to obtain quality and economy in the product, and minimization of operating costs. These three requirements have led to the evolution of complex control systems.The most successful production machinery is that in which the mechanical design of the machine is closely integrated with the control system, whether the latter is mechanical or electrical in nature. A modern transfer line (conveyor) for the manufacture of automobile engines is a good example of the mechanization of a complex series of manufacturing processes. Developments are in hand to automate production machinery further, using computers to store and process the vast amount of data required for manufacturing a variety of components with a small number of versatile machine tools. One aim is a completely automated machine shop for batch production, operating on a three shift basis but attended by a staff for only one shift per day.Development of machines for the production of power Production machinery presuppose an ample supply of power. The steam engine provided the first practical means of generating power from heat to augment the old sources of power from muscle, wind, and water One of the first challenges to the new profession of mechanical engineering was to increase thermal efficiencies and power; this was done principally by the development of the steam turbine and associated large steam boilers. The 20th century has witnessed a continued rapid growth in the power output of turbines for driving electric generators, together with a steady increase in thermal efficiency and reduction in capital cost per kilowatt of large power stations. Finally, mechanical engineers acquired the resource of nuclear energy, whose application has demanded an exceptional standard of reliability and safety involving the solution of entirely new problems- The control systems of large power plank and complete nuclear power stations have become highly sophisticated networks of electronic, fluidic. Electric, hydraulic, and mechanical components, ail of these involving me province of the mechanical engineer.The mechanical engineer is also responsible for the much smaller internal combustion engines, both reciprocating (gasoline and diesel) and rotary (gas-turbine and Wankel) engines, with their widespread transport applications- In the transportation field generally, in air and space as well as on land and sea. the mechanical engineer has created the equipment and the power plant, collaborating increasingly with the electrical engineer, especially in the development of suitable control systems.Development of military weapons The skills applied to war by the mechanical engineer are similar to those required in civilian applications, though the purpose is to enhance destructive power rather than to raise creative efficiency. The demands of war have channeled huge resources into technical fields, however, and led to developments that have profound benefits in peace. Jet aircraft and nuclear reactors are notable examples.Biaengineering Bioengineering is a relatively new and distinct field of mechanical engineering that includes the provision of machines to replace or augment the functions of the human body and of equi