Mechanical Engineering Magazine

In this publication, we cover the main types of retaining rings and constant section (snap) rings so that you’re more informed to find the best possible ring for your application. There are a variety of ring options because we know your application requirements are unique. Assembly type, assembly size, thrust capacity, installation and removal methods, cost, and environmental factors all play a role in determining which ring type will be selected.

Job-seeking mechanical engineers are likely to encounter artificial intelligence (AI) along the way. But how exactly is AI being used in the hiring process? The most common uses are at the front end of the process, according to Erik Brynjolfsson, Stanford University professor, senior fellow at Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, and co-founder of Workhelix. However, AI is also being used throughout the hiring funnel.

Engineering ingenuity played a big part during the American Revolution. In honor of the U.S.’s 250th, test your knowledge about such solutions with this ASME quiz. In honor of the United States’s 250th birthday, see what you know about some of the clever engineering that helped win a revolution. American colonists had a staggering disadvatage after declaring independence in 1776. They were facing the era’s greatest military power with no formal navy of its own.

In this sponsored case study, Zhongli implemented KUKA welding robots and software to automate welding and material handling processes for complex automotive component assemblies. Zhongli moved production of automotive chassis components to Shelby Township, Michigan. Image: Zhongli Manufacturing Cell for Automotive Control Arms Zhongli needed to automate their MIG welding and material handling system to produce an automobile control arm.

In 1991 the Incline Railway became an ASME National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark. Thirty-five years later, the funicular is 130 years old and still carrying riders up Lookout Mountain. Known as “America’s Most Amazing Mile,” the Incline Railway has carried passengers up historic Lookout Mountain for 130 years. The railway, one of the longest and steepest funiculars in North America, began operating on Nov. 16, 1895, climbing to an elevation of 1,450 feet above Chattanooga, Tenn.

Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a set of headphones that uses AI to automatically decipher whom the user is talking to and helps them hear the conversation better. Noise-canceling headphones are great but they’re a binary all-or-nothing option. The hard of hearing don’t need to eliminate all noise, instead they simply want to focus on the sound or conversation of their choice. Individuals with hearing loss don’t have much use for basic noise-canceling devices.

Long before ChatGPT entered the group chat, earlier bots were already trying to sound human. Test your knowledge of the programs and tech breakthroughs that got us here. Can you remember a time when chatbots hadn’t yet made it into daily life? Before they were summarizing meetings, writing emails, and haunting every search result, AI tools were much simpler programs trying to pull off one very difficult trick: making a computer sound like it understood you.

It turns out that guesswork by individuals and scientists in the past decades has grossly underestimated the amount of gas produced in a day by “human Creatures.” That’s the conclusion reached by researchers at the University of Maryland (UM) after their initial study into the frequency of our gas passing.

“What in general has been inspiring us for the last decade is that at the nanoscale, things are very different, especially for metals,” said Julia R. Greer, the Ruben F. and Donna Mettler Professor of Materials Science, Mechanics, and Medical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech). This work was recently published in Nature Communications.

Titanium implants have long been favored in reconstructive and orthopedic surgery, but their very high strength can become a liability. Because titanium alloys are significantly stiffer than human bone, they tend to absorb most of the mechanical load from everyday actions like walking, chewing, or speaking. The resulting imbalance in load redistribution can lead to a phenomenon known as stress shielding, in which the surrounding bone weakens and gradually deteriorates.