Machine element
Basically an element of a machine that fulfills just one singular well defined function.
Like e.g. a bearing, a gear, a spring, a flywheel, and such.
See Wikipedias definition (extrnal links section) for a thorough treatment and commonly agreed on interpretation.
The discussion here is just a short coverage in the context of this wiki.
Contents
[hide]Limits to delineation
The distinctions upwards to bigger assemblies and downwards to smaller ones may not always be clear and definite but is rather context dependent.
E.g. in a gear bearing the whole thing can be considered a machine element but
just as well each gear inside can be considered a machine element too (especially if the bearing can be disassembled).
Mechanical electrical analogies
For some machine elements there is a more or less direct analogy to electrical components.
- spring - capacitor
- flywheel - inductor
- "friction" element (dissipative snapback) - resistor
- unidirectional clutches - diodes
- controllable clutches - transistors
- gear-trains - transformers (quite some difference here)
Related
- List of machine elements, Suitable mechanisms
- Terminology for parts
- Component (gem-gum factory)
- Mechanical electrical analogies
External links
- Wikipedia Machine element
