Mechanical Engineering

Scientists and engineers have successfully tested a high-powered laser weapon mounted on a British Army combat vehicle.

According to the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and the Ministry of Defence (MOD), this trial marks the first instance of such a weapon being fired from a UK land vehicle.

Crosspost from the "Energy" Community. Seemed too good not to put here.

Is there any mechanical engineers? What you would wish to know when you were starting learning? What skills and topics you consider the most useful in mechanical engineering?

What is the fastest way to learn mechanical engineering in the nowadays when 3d printers are avaliable to be able to design and make custom clocks, engines, generators?

Just build a replacement nuclear power plant and reuse the water. Right?

I can't stand the SpaceMouse Pro. They ruined it! Why would they swap the nice tactile buttons for stupid gummy membrane buttons? And why coat the whole thing in nasty soft touch coating that is going to turn to goo? We peaked with the previous generation of space balls.

Since I've been working from home though, it has gotten quite annoying to unplug my SpaceExplorer and take it back and forth to the office. It would be so nice to have one of those fancy new wireless ones. But that's not happening, since they ruined it.

So, I added USB-C to mine, instead. Now, I'll just have a cable at the office, and a cable at home and just take the unit itself back and forth. I can even leave a USB-C to USB-C cord in my case, in case I need to use it with my laptop away from my docks! If anyone is interested, I can share the STL for the little breakout board mounting piece I made.

A University of Virginia professor believes he has discovered how to create a freeze-ray device, inspired by the Batman villain, Mr. Freeze. Rather than being a weapon, this device is intended to cool down electronics within spacecraft and high-altitude jets.

A tiny, hard-working bacterium -- which weighs one-trillionth of a gram -- may soon have a large influence on processing rare earth elements in an eco-friendly way.

"Traditional thermochemical methods for separating lanthanides are environmentally horrible," said Buz Barstow, assistant professor of biological and environmental engineering at Cornell, the corresponding author. "It's difficult to refine these elements. That's why we send rare earth elements offshore -- generally to China -- to process them."

I’ve always wondered this and found this video to give a great explanation

I’ve found them to be a bit confusing at first so sharing this

Just short animated 3D models, no commentary. I love designing mechanisms

Not sure how useful it is yet, but it sounds like with some AI and proper cameras you could use it to completely repair certain components. Theres something similar to this using electrochemical plating to repair microfractures throughout a component - only downside is that it takes like weeks to do it properly (I'll see if I can dig up the paper later)

Looking for some ideas for friends and coworkers. If anyone can think of anything cool, I'd love to see it.

The proposed fuel is not SAF, it's a combination of magnesium and hydrogen mixed with hydrocarbon fuel. It's estimated to give 8% more range over other existing aviation fuels.

Engineering memes was a favorite on a similar site that I used to use, wondering if this community would want some too