Famous Manufacturing Engineers

Manufacturing engineering is that engineering function charged with the

responsibility of interpreting product design in terms of manufacturing requirements

and process capability. Specifically: the manufacturing engineer may:

Determine how the product is to be made in terms of specific manufacturing

processes.
Design work holding and work transporting tooling or containers.
Select the tools (including the tool materials) that will machine or form the

work materials.
Select, design, and specify devices and instruments which inspect that which

has been manufactured to determine its quality.

Design and evaluate the performance of the manufacturing system.
Perform all these functions (and many more) related to the actual making of

the product as the most reasonable cost per unit without sacrifice of the

functional requirements or the users service life.

Theres no great glory in being a great manufacturing engineer (MfE). If you

want to be a manufacturing engineer, you had better be ready to got your hands dirty.

Of course, there are exceptions. There have been some very famous

manufacturing engineers.

For example:

John Wilkinson of Bersham England built a boring mill in 1775 to bore the

cast iron cylinders for James Watts steam engine. How good was this

machine?
Eli Whitney was said to have invented the cotton gin, a machine to separate

seeds from cotton. His machine was patented but was so simple, anyone could

make one. He was credited with interchangeability but we know Thomas

Jefferson observed interchangeability in France in 1785 and probably the

French gunsmith LeBlanc is the real inventor here. Jefferson tried to bring the

idea to America and Whitney certainly did. He took 10 muskets to congress,

 disassembled them, and scattered the pieces. Interchangeable parts permitted

them to be reassembled. He was given a contract for 2000 guns to be made in

2 years. But what is the rest of his story?

Joe Brown started a business in Rhode Island in 1833 making lathes and

small tools as well as timepieces (watchmaker). Lucian Sharp joined the

company in 1848 and developed a pocket sheet metal gage in 1877 a 1-inch

micrometer and in 1862 the universal milling machine.

Sam Colt at age 16 he sailed to Calcutta on the Brig Curve. He whittled a

wood model of a revolver on this voyage. He saved his money and had

models of a gun built in Hartford by Anson Chase for which he got a patent.

He set up a factory I New Jersey but he could not sell his guns to the army

too complicated. He sold to the Texas Rangers and the Florida Frontiers

men but he had to close the plant. In 1846 the Mexican war broke out.

General Zachary Taylor and Captain Sam Walters wanted to buy guns. Colt

had none but accepted orders for 1000 guns and constructed a model (Walker

Colt) and arranged to have them made at Whitneys (now 40 years old) plant

in Whitneyville. Here he learned about mass production methods. In 1848 he

rented a plant in Hartford and the Colt legend spread. In 1853 he had built one

of the worlds largest arms plant in Connecticut which had 1400 machine

tools. Colt helped start the careers of

o E K Root mechanic and superintendent paying him a salary of

$25,000 in the 1800s. Abolished hand work jigs and fixtures.

o Francis Pratt and Amos Whitney famous machine tool builders.
o William Gleason gear manufacturer
o E.P. Bullard invented the Mult-An-Matic Multiple spindle machine

which cut the time to make a flywheel from 18 minutes to slightly

over 1 minute. Sold this to Ford.

o Christopher Sponer
o E.J. Kingsbury invented a drilling machine to drill holes through toy

wheel hubs that had a spring loaded cam which enables the head to

sense the condition of the casting and modify feed rate automatically.
 Now here are some more names from the past of famous and no so

famous manufacturing, mechanical, and industrial engineers. Relate them to the

development of manufacturing processes or manufacturing system designs.

Eli Whitney
Henry Ford
Charles Sorenson
Sam Colt
John Parsons
Eiji Toyoda
Elisha Root
John Hall
Thomas Blanchard
Fred Taylor
Talichi Ohno
Ambrose Swasey

Separation of Mixed Materials

Because of the amount of handling that occurs during material production,

within warehouses, and during manufacturing operations, along with the handling of

loading, unloading, and shipping, material mix-ups and mixed materials are not an

uncommon occurrence. Mixed materials also occur when industrial scrap is collected

or when discarded products are used as raw materials though recycling. Assume that

you have equipment to perform each of the tests described in this chapter (as well as

access to the full spectrum of household and department store items and even a small
machine shop). For each of the following material combinations, determine a

procedure that would permit separation of the mixed materials. Use standard

data- source references to help identify distinguishable properties.

1. Steel and aluminum cans that have been submitted for recycling.
2. Stainless steel sheets of Type 430 ferritic stainless and Type 316 austenitic

stainless.
3. 6061-T6 aluminum and AZ91 magnesium that have become mixed in a

batch of machine shop crap.

4. Transparent bottles of polyethylene and polypropylene (both

thermoplastic polymers) that have been collected for recycling.

5. Hot- rolled bars of AISI 1008 and 1040 steel.
6. Hot- rolled bars of AISI 1040 (plain- carbon) steel and 4140 steel (a

molybdenum- containing alloy)

A Carpenters Claw Hammer

Carpenter claw hammers are actually a rather sophisticated metallurgical

product, since the loadings differ for the various locations. The claw sees static

bending, while the eye sustains impacts, and the striking face sees impact with

potentially hard surfaces.

The following information was obtained from the American National

Standards Institute (ANSI) Standard B173.1, American National Standard Safety

Requirements for Nail Hammers. This is a voluntary specification (recommendation

only) developed as a guide to aid the manufacturer, the consumer, and the general

public.
 As one might expect, the optimum properties and microstructures vary with

location. While hammer handles have been made from a variety of materials,

including heat- treated tubular 4140 steel, our problem will focus on the head.

According to the ANSI specification:

Hammerheads shall be forged in one piece from special quality hot

rolled carbon steel bars. While the specification allows for steels ranging

from 1045 to 1088, two major manufacturers of high- quality tools have used

1078 steel as their material of choice, so we will go with their selection.

The hammer striking face shall be hardened and tempered to a

Rockwell hardness of not less than C 40 or more than C 60, and the steel

directly behind the striking face shall be a toughened supporting core

gradually decreasing in hardness.

Hammer claws shall be hardened to a Rockwell hardness of not less

than C 40 or more than C 55 for a minimum length of - inch from the tip

end; the remaining length to the base of the V-slot shall be of the same

through hardness, or shall contain a toughened core gradually decreasing in

hardness to the core center.

While there is no specification for the eye region, many manufacturers prefer

for this area to have the greatest toughness (i.e., even softer still as low as Rc25!).

In essence, we are looking at a single piece of heat- treated steel that

preferably exhibits different properties at a different location. For example, one top-

quality hammer has a striking face of Rc55 to 58, coupled with a claw of Rc46 to 48.

Another top- quality hammer has a striking face hardness of Rc550 to 58, claw tip

hardness of Rc47 to 55, and a hardness in the crotch of the V of Rc44 to 52. The rim

of the striking face is softened to a lower hardness (Rc41 to 48) to prevent chipping

a characteristic feature of this particular manufacturer.

 Fixing our material as the above- used 1078 hot- rolled steel bar, and

using forging as our shaping process:

1. What problems might be expected if the material on the striking face

were too hard? too soft? Consider each with respect to possible liability.
2. Describe some heat- treatment processes or sequences that could be used

to produce a quality product like those described above.

3. Discuss the methods of heating, cooling or quenching, target

temperatures, and so on that you are proposing to accomplish this task.

4. Finally, how might you duplicate the rim softening being achieved by the

cited manufacturer?
5. Inexpensive hammers frequently use a single material and single heat

treatment, rendering the properties similar for all locations. What are the

major compromises? If these hammers were to be used by a professional

carpenter, how might they be deficient?