Mechanisms in Modern Engineering Design

One of the problems facing the modern theory of mechanisms is the study and systematization of the huge inheritance accumulated in mechanical engineering practice and consisting of numerous mechanisms applied in various machines, instruments and devices.

An analysis of this data and its classification into the various kinds of mechanisms have shown that their systematization should be broken down into two stages. The first is the compilation of collections of mechanisms employed in all branches of the engineering industries. The next stage consists of collections compiled for different branches, such as mechanisms for precision instruments, mechanisms of machine tools, mechanisms of aircraft engines.

The need of such systematically compiled data is evidently very great because information on the various kinds of mechanisms that have been devised is scattered, for the most part, among diverse reference sources: textbooks, monographs, journals, patent applications, etc. This data is difficult to use because some of the editions may be more or less unique, and because the data does not, as a rule, contain the necessary descriptions, classification and system that would enable a mechanism to be quickly selected for some definite purpose specified by a designer.