How to Meet Quality Standards during production of Ball Bearing

A ball bearing is a rotating element which is made up of a combination of balls, bearing races and all created with materials that reduces friction while supporting radial and axial loads. These ball bearings play an important role in machines. A ball bearing consists of four main parts the outer race, the inner race, the rolling balls and the separator. There is a stringent need to maintain the quality standards of the materials used and assembled for these bearings because of the usage in sensitive areas.

Testing them is important and required, if the ball bearings are going to be used in the equipment used in space, medical equipment, or other areas where the precision of these elements ensures accurate working of the equipment.

"Annular Bearings Engineers Committee" (ABEC) has come out with various classes that ensure the quality standards of the various bearing's parts that are created for the specific machines. The quality of ball bearing are tested by verifying for their Tolerance, Torque, Stiffness, Accuracy and Lubrication. These are calculated and tested to exact minute precision units. This makes the ball bearing more predictable and more cost effective.

Table of Contents

1. Tolerence

2. Torque

3. Stiffness

4. Accuracy

5. Lubrication

Tolerance: Ball bearing has to adhere to ABEC tolerance requirement. When the size and form of the ball bearings are calibrated and meets specified standard code or class, then it meets the required quality standard specifications.

Torque: The bearing torque can be calculated and can be tested with Torque quality testing devices. When there is requirement for a very precise equipment then elements performance should be high and maintenance should be low or minimal. Manufacturers have to make sure that the bearings are created with high performance and low maintenance goals in their mind.

Stiffness: While manufacturing the ball bearing, it is important that the stiffness of the components are maintained. It is essential to test for the stiffness of the bearing over prolonged rough usage under various weather conditions. The testing of bearing under various condition such as heat, cold, or fluctuating temperature provides the needed data to make it function across various weather conditions by taking the rectification steps during manufacturing process.

Accuracy: ABEC places a high importance on the ball bearings to be as accurate as possible in their size, dimension and weight. Given that, all bearings which are often made with stainless steel or other alloys do not necessarily be accurate. In order to get the precise count, the parts of the bearings are put through a lot of strict manufacturing process before it is declared ready. It cannot be stressed enough why these parts should be accurate to minute millimeters. Since highest sensitivity of the elements are expected in certain industries where it is used.

Lubrication: Some ball bearings comes with lubrication. In such case, the manufacturers should take great care that no contaminant gets into the lubricated parts of the ball bearing. If the ball bearing gathers dust, then it may not function properly. So it is important to test them in dust-free environment.

The FE Exam Review Course brushes up on relevant topics listed by NCEES for their FE Exam and through this exam NCEES can assess the knowledge of the Student related to the quality control and quality assurance of production.

Bollards - A Civil Engineering Traffic Control Device that is Indispensable for Traffic Management and Safety

Table of Contents

1. Bollards Types and their Applications

2. Benefits of Bollards

Bollards Types and their Applications

There are different types of structures in Civil Engineering that serve different purposes. A Bollard is one such structure. A Bollard is a vertical structure that comes in different sizes, shapes, and colors. Historically, Bollards were used in harbours to tie the ships and boats when they land. Nowadays, bollards find a wide range of usages. Bollards are made up of timber, steel, concrete, and PVC . 

There are different types of Bollards. They are:

• Fixed 
• Retractable 
• Robotic 
• Protective 
• Illuminated 
• Bell
• Timed 
• Artistic 

(i) Fixed Bollards: Bollards are widely used to deflect and divert traffic. There may be places near an office where you want only a pedestrian to walk. You may not want vehicles to interrupt the easy and safe movement of pedestrians. In such situations, short vertical bollards can be arranged in a certain design or sequence that prevent the movement of vehicles. Pedestrians will be easily able to walk around these areas protected by bollards. Fixed Bollards are found at The United States Courthouse at Foley Square. 

(ii) Retractable Bollards: Some bollards that are placed on roads are retractable. They are present when there is no vehicle and pedestrians can walk around it. But when a truck has to pass through the road, these bollards can be brought down and merge with the ground. This movement makes the road normal and vehicles can travel smoothly. Retractable Bollards are found at the City Hall, Manhattan. 

(iii) Robotic Bollards: Robotic Bollards are special type of bollards that have motorized wheel. This type of bollard is in the ideation and prototype stage with University of Nebraska, Lincoln. These bollards are designed to be moved from a waiting position away from the road to various points on the road using a laptop and satellite tracking systems. These robotic bollards will be very useful as they prevent men from manually working in hazardous areas. An approaching vehicle will capture an image of the road using a camera and send it to a workers laptop. The workers will then use the software in the laptop to arrange the bollards in sequence. This deployment of robotic bollards will save the life of many workers as well as travellers/passengers. 

(iv) Protective Bollards: Bollards are also used for public safety during construction. Bollards are placed around heavy machinery in construction project sites. This is to prevent any damage to assets when any random vehicle happens to move haphazardly. The bollard will act as a protective cover and stops the vehicle from hitting the assets. Downtown Brooklyn Courthouse is surrounded by protective bollards. 

(v) Illuminated Bollards: There are bollards that can be illuminated. These illuminated bollards can serve as street signs or used for lighting in streets. Illuminated bollards are found in Bexley, United Kingdom. 

(vi) Bell Bollards: Bell Bollards are short bell-shaped bollards. The curves of the bell are used by car drivers to pass over when they make a U-turn or roll around. Bell Bollards are found in Geelong, Australia. 

(vii) Timed Bollards: Some bollards come with timers. These bollards will allow access only during certain times of the day. But if there is an emergency, this timing facility can be overridden. Timed Bollards are used at entrance to Columbia University Campus. 

(viii) Artistic Bollards: Some bollards have exquisite artwork on them and serve as tourist attractions also. Artistic Bollards shaped like a mushroom are found in Antwerp, Belgium. 

Benefits of Bollards: Bollards can save lives, reduce traffic congestion, and prevent accidents and injuries. Bollards can create better public spaces and reduce illegal parking spaces. Bollards can create Liveable Streets with separate and safe spaces for children and senior citizens to walk around. Calming the roads is achieved using Bollards. Traffic Management and Public Safety is possible through Bollards. You can create separate lanes for buses, bikes, and for landscaping by using bollards.

Bollard is an important topic that is covered under PE Civil Engineering course.

Free Basic Math Training for Engineering Students Taking their PE Exam

An engineer has to take the Principles and Practice of Engineering exam to get a PE (Professional Engineer) license. We are a leader in conducting comprehensive review courses in order to help engineers prepare for and pass the PE Exam.

For an engineer taking the School of PE prep course, we offer various course features and benefits. One important benefit is the Free Basic Math Lecture Video. The National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) is the authority for developing the syllabus for the PE Exam and also conducting the PE Exam. NCEES recommends knowledge in areas of math that cover trigonometry, algebra, numerical analysis, differential equations, linear algebra, statistics, probability, and advanced calculus. Our free basic math video covers all the basic math subjects that are recommended by the NCEES.

The free math lecture video is about two-hours long. It helps engineers refresh their knowledge of the most common basic math concepts needed to pass the exam. The math video is free for students who enroll in any of our PE discipline review courses such as PE Civil, PE Electrical, PE Environmental, PE Mechanical, and PE Chemical.

This self-study video will help you prepare yourself for your PE Exam. The other class sessions will focus on topics that are more relevant to the particular PE Exam that you are preparing for.

You may access this free math video from your student login page. You gain access to the math video at least 10 days before the start of the course. There is no special software needed to view this video. Just a basic internet connection is sufficient.

School of PE provides free tools and valuable resources; because we want our students to perform very well and surpass the results of the national average.

Your Success is Our Success!

Safe Work Environment Follows OSHA Regulations to a Tee

Every worker has the basic right to a safe work environment. OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) guidelines help in assuring that safety. OSHA is formed and maintained by the United States Department of Labor. OSHA not only lays down the regulations, but also trains and assists the companies in ensuring safety.

Say, a civil engineer is building a factory. He or she has to ensure that the building parameters comply with the OSHA guidelines. The civil engineer must also be aware of the safety precautions to be taken while constructing buildings. For example, the civil engineer must be aware of how to safely use cranes during construction. The engineers can speak at the Construction Institute (CI) and American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) meetings about the OSHA regulations and other safety measures.

An OSHA report [BLS preliminary 2013 workplace fatality data] states that 4,405 workers died while they were working. To prevent such scenarios, OSHA has granted workers a lot of rights. If a worker feels that their organization is not following OSHA guidelines, they can ask OSHA to come and inspect their work surroundings. OSHA ensures that even though the worker raises a flag, he or she is not discriminated at the workplace. Employers will be checking a facility to see if it conforms to safety norms as per OSHA guidelines. Employees have a right to view such safety reports to know if their workplace surroundings is safe.

OSHA acts as a protection for several types of employees. The employees covered under the act are from both government and private sector.

On the other hand, employers should provide real protection to their employees based on the guidelines. Just giving protective equipment such as gloves, caps, and masks is not sufficient. The employees must be trained about the safety precautions. Other aids such as alarms and labels must also be present to help employees. If there is a death in the workplace, the employer has to inform OSHA about that, within eight hours. Employers have to inform OSHA, if three or more employees have been sent to a hospital. Posters of OSHA guidelines must be posted in visible areas of the workplace.

The OSHA regulations have provided guidelines for the below factors:

• Work surfaces such as stairs and ladders
• Fire exits and other egress
• Hazardous materials
• Telecommunications
• Power generation
• Handling Grains
• Different types of diving
• Toxic materials Equipment for personal protection
• Sanitation
• Medical facilities and first aid
• Protection against fire
• Storage of materials
• Guarding machines
• Welding, cutting, and brazing

In spite of the various regulations, some employees are not covered under the OSHA guidelines. For example, self-employed workers, domestic workers, farmers whose family members will be less than ten, flight crews, and mine workers are not covered under the OSHA guidelines.

There have been incidents of retail employees dying in a stampede during attractive sales offers. There have been deaths due to falls, asphyxiation, and fire accidents. Both employers and employees must take a pledge to ensure and work only in a safe and healthy working environment.

The NCEES syllabus for Civil PE Exam covers OSHA regulations under the Health and Safety chapter.

Ergonomics - A Way to Improved Productivity and Safety

Ergonomics is the study of how working environments affect people at work. Ergonomics is aimed at providing and improving employee health and productivity. Safe furniture, easy interface to machines, and good body posture are simple tasks that ensure suitable ergonomics.

When structuring ergonomic activites, a senior engineer taking care of the working environment and productivity must know the following about people:

• People can apply only a limited amount of physical force
• People make mistakes when they perform simple and repetitive tasks quickly
• People need time to perform complex calculations
• People find it difficult to perform two or more tasks at the same time
• People cannot respond rapidly to control signals that change frequently
• People cannot remember and recall large amounts of unrelated data

A senior engineer must also know the limitations of a machine:

• Machines cannot respond to predetermined stimuli beyond a certain limit
• Machines cannot respond to unpredictable events
• Machines cannot think inductively or act with flexibility
• Machines cannot produce beyond what they are designed to produce

When asking a manufacturer to design equipment, the engineer must be able to answer the following ergonomics-oriented questions:

• Is the design for a man or woman?
• Will the operator sit or stand?
• What controls are needed?
• What physical work will the operator do?
• Will he need mechanical assistance?
• What will be the ambient conditions?
• What will be the mechanical requirements?
• How should we promote worker participation with the design?

A senior engineer must consider temperature and humidity, noise, illumination, color and vibration before agreeing on a workplace design. As an engineering manager, you must be aware of how to allocate tasks during the design process. Give workers a variety of tasks to accomplish ergonomic comfort of the finished product. Knowing the various components of ergonomics, helps any professional engineer clearing PE Exam to maintain workplace comfort, productivity and safety.

What is so special about SQUID (Superconducting Quantum Interference Device)?

SQUID was an accidental discovery in the Ford Motor Company’s research lab in Dearborn, Michigan. Five Researchers John Lambe, James Zimmerman, Arnold Silver, Robert Jaklevic, and James Mercereau made this vital discovery in superconductivity. They found, when cooling the SQUID a few degrees above absolute zero, it can detect a magnetic field that is less than 5 quintillionths of a tesla.

Superconductivity research was performed for gaining knowledge rather than for Ford’s commercial requirements. In 1963, the group discovered the Josephson Effect in a sample of super-cooled phosphorous-doped silicon. There are two main types of SQUIDS – Direct Current (DC) and Radio Frequency (RF).

SQUID is otherwise known as Superconducting Interferometers and they come in all sizes and shapes. With the growing technological advancement, these devices have considerably shrunk in size. Now there are nano squids which are compact unlike the earlier version which stretched across many kilometers. Nano Squid are a type of SQUID made out of carbon nanotubes which is just one nanometer in diameter. This SQUID is powerful enough to detect magnetic changes even in a molecule.

Interferometers or SQUIDS work by splitting a wave into two components and sending them along different paths. These waves are recombined to find out if any of the waves has encountered any strange obstruction or interference. The phase of the two waves are checked. If both of them have travelled the same distance then the phase remains the same for both the waves. But if one of the waves encountered an obstruction then the phase changes. The details about the obstruction can be found out by measuring the phase difference between the two waves.

Applications of SQUID:

Since the SQUID is able to detect such small levels of magnetic field it is used in a variety of ways such as:

• Making analog-to-digital convertors
• Traditional and quantum computing
• Detection of the cosmic microwave background
• Geophysical and archaeological surveys
• Imaging the brain, heart, and other body parts
• Non-destructive testing of materials and devices

These devices are effective in places where machinery cannot be taken apart to find out its wear and tear. In such instances, these SQUID devices help to detect the depreciation value of the working equipment. Moreover, the information gathered from these devices helps service engineers to take the corrective steps for ensuring the machines working condition, within the safety rules.

In the medical field, these devices have proven to be helpful in an exemplary way for the physicians. The usage of SQUID in Magneto Encephalography field is a good example of that. An array of squids are used to study neural activity inside the brain. Likewise, Magnetogastrography measures functions of the stomach. Drugs maybe orally applied and the instrument will trace the path of the drug to find out the function of the stomach. In such scenarios the Magnetic Marker Monitoring method is used.

SQUIDS are very commonly used in Magnetic Property Measuring Systems. The magnetic property of any material can be measured when the temperature range of 300 K - 400 K is maintained for these operations.

SQUID has innumerable uses and recent innovative research has proven these priceless devices to be a powerful help in various fields. SQUID falls under the electromagnetic interference topic which is a deeper look at the Electromagnetics section on the Electrical FE Exam.

Global Warming Challenges that Every Engineer Must be Aware of

"Climate change is…a gross injustice-poor people in developing countries bear over 90% of the burden—through death, disease, destitution and financial loss-yet are least responsible for creating the problem."  - Barbara Stocking, CEO of Oxfam GB

The earth is constantly exposed to radiations from the sun and other planetary objects. Some of the sun radiations are reflected by the surface of the earth. The remaining radiation is absorbed by certain gases in the earth’s surface. These gases trap the heat of the radiations. Due to the trapping of this heat the earth warms up. This is known as Green House Effect.

The gases which trap the heat are known as greenhouse gases. A few examples of greenhouse gases are ozone, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, and water vapour. The term greenhouse effect comes from the concept of a garden inside a glass room. The glass absorbs all the heat. The glass does not allow heat to escape from the garden and eventually heats up the garden. So, the term greenhouse effect became applicable not only to gardens but also to the earth.. A similar example is how heat enters a car through the glass windows. If the car windows are closed the heat cannot escape and the car warms up.

The greenhouse effect is essential to maintain adequate warmth of the globe as well. If the greenhouse gases volume increases too much then it leads to an increase in global warming. There are lot of human activities that generate gases that trap sunlight. Some common activities are:

• Cutting trees and burning them
• Burning of oil, coal, and natural gas – fossil fuels
• Burning of solid waste
• Decomposition of organic waste
• Industrial output and agricultural processes

Of all the most common gases, carbon-dioxide, due to its large quantities, causes most of global warming. If human beings control the activities that lead to greenhouse gas generation, then global warming will also be controlled. While preparing for the Professional Engineer Exam, the engineer will be able to understand global warming challenges.

Consequences of Global Warming

Impact on Weather: Some regions of the earth will become warmer, while other regions become colder. The weather changes will have an impact on the types of crops that can be grown in certain regions. Animals, plants, and human beings will be affected by these significant weather changes.

Impact on Sea Level: As ice melts due to global warming, the sea level also increases. This increase in sea level by 20-40 cm will lead to floods that can destroy livelihood and farmlands.

Impact on Farming: Every crop needs a optimal temperature to provide a good yield. But due to global warming the temperature fluctuates and so crops will not have the desired temperature and yield less. Less crop yield may lead to hunger in certain parts of the globe.