Session Description:
This tutorial provides a fast-paced hands-on introduction to rapid precision machine design based on FUNdaMENTAL principles including theory and best practices. Topics include: initial error allocation to enable rapid design, principles of accuracy, repeatability and resolution, bearings, structures, and actuators. Kinematic and elastic averaging-based designs and the implications for bearing life and dynamic performance are stressed with F=kx and w= sqrt(k/m) as recurring themes throughout the design of a machine. Examples will be presented to show how FUNdaMENTAL principles are critically important for an engineer to understand in order to be able to most effectively use modern design tools such as solid modeling and finite element analysis in the design of precision machines. As the tutorial is given on-line, the hands-on aspect of the tutorial will be done via live demos.
Alexander Slocum is the Walter M. May and A. Hazel May Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, a MacVicar Faculty Teaching Fellow, a Fellow of the ASME, and a member of the NAE. He has 150+ patents and has helped develop 12 products that have received R&D 100 awards for “one of the one hundred best new technical products of the year”. He has helped start several successful companies and has a passion for working with industry to solve real problems and identify fundamental research topics.
Alex was the Massachusetts Professor of the Year in 2000 andis the recipient of the Society of Manufacturing Engineer’sFrederick W. Taylor Research Medal, and the ASME Leonardo daVinci, Machine Design, and Thar Energy Awards. His current interests focus on the development of precision machines from medical devices and instrumentsto energy harvesting and storage machines. He served on the DoE Science Team working on the Gulf Oil Spill and served in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President as the Assistant Director for Advanced Manufacturing. Since high school days, Alex has had a passion for furniture making and carpentry. Alex also loves sports from SCUBA to snowboarding to marathons and iron-distance triathlons.