332 



National Resources Planning Board 



bronze, monel, stainless, etc.," for various types of oil 

 filters, with "the selection of suitable materials, both 

 ferrous and nonferrous," for railway signal systems by 

 one firm and for piston rings another, with "the investi- 

 gation of new materials for cylinders of internal-com- 

 bustion engines," with "trying different materials, 

 mainly for bearing qualities" for surveying instruments, 

 with "the study of construction materials for oil refiner- 

 ies," with "a general study of pitting and galling of gear 

 teeth," with "the rubbing qualities of various materials 

 for labyrinth seals" in steam turbines, with "the flexi- 

 bility and strength of control bellows," with "obtaining 

 contact material which will stand up better under 

 the make and break of current in voltage-control 

 devices on automobile generators," with "better life of 

 refractories" in cement kilns, with "the application and 

 use of precious metals as linings for certain types of 

 reaction vessel," and with "the development of suitable 

 muds for oil-well drilling." 



Instances of this sort could be multiplied almost 

 indefinitely; indeed every factory has its raw-material 

 problems and sooner or later brings a process of organ- 

 ized fact finding to bear on them. In activities of this 

 sort, mechanical engineers are making one of their 

 major contributions to industrial research. 



Study of Manufacturing Equipment and Processes 



From organized fact finding about materials to be 

 used in manufacture, it is but a step to a similar study 

 of the processes and machines used in the fabricating 

 process. This constitutes perhaps the major field in 

 industrial research today. It is a field in which me- 

 chanical engineers are likely to play a large part in every 

 industry and a predominating part in many industries. 

 It is the field in which mechanical engineers are making 

 what is probably their greatest contribution to indus- 

 trial research. 



A classical example of industrial research of this type 

 of the very highest quality and with the most far-reach- 

 ing consequences is Frederick Winslow Taylor's work 

 on the art of cutting metals and the closely related 

 development and introduction of high-speed cutting 

 tools by Taylor and White. The current phase of the 

 long stream of research activity started by these 

 pioneers is represented on the one hand by the Metals 

 Cutting Handbook published by a research committee 

 of The American Society of Mechanical Engineers in the 

 fall of 1939 and on the other by a number of recent 

 developments in hard-cemented-cai-bide cutting tools. 



Many correspondents emphasize this function of the 

 mechanical engineer in industrial research. One rub- 

 ber manufacturer writes, "The mechanical engineer's 

 function is to handle the physical design of the product 

 and the manufacturing problems pertaining to it"; 

 another in the same field assigns to mechanical engi- 



neers "the development of machines for new products 

 and new ways of obtaining certain results"; a third 

 writes, "Special machines for manufacture of product 

 are designed and built to improve quality or reduce cost. 

 Many of these are unique and hitherto unknown"; and 

 a fourth is investigating "ventilation and air-condition- 

 ing problems," and the development of "apparatus to 

 maintain uniformity of materials in process." 



Two makers ofpower-plant equipment mention "the 

 development of new fabricating methods, equipment, 

 or procedure" and "investigations to determine labor- 

 saving devices and reductions in manufacturing costs; 

 also to solve difficulties in manufacturing and produc- 

 tion." 



One oil refinery writes: "Our mechanical engineers 

 are concerned with evaluating the factors involved in 

 heat transfer, temperature control, and agitation during 

 processing as they affect the quality and nature of our 

 products." Another writes, "While our research activ- 

 ities require chemical engineers to a greater degree 

 than mechanical engineers, the latter are of consider- 

 able importance to us generally and indispensable in 

 many cases. For example, in our processing we are 

 continually improving both apparatus and process, 

 and while we can purchase various units to be assem- 

 bled, the coordination, the combinations, and partic- 

 ularly the instrumentation require systematic re- 

 search." A tliird mentions a mechanical engineer who 

 "is an expert on distUlation. He carries out experi- 

 mental work on distillation columns to determine the 

 best type of packings, contact media, and mechanical 

 design." And an oU-producLng company mentions 

 "investigations of control equipment for high-pressure 

 wells." 



An ordnance maker writes, "Our mechanical-engi- 

 neering research program covers improvements to 

 product and improvements to process" and continues, 

 "Research work to improve processing includes the 

 development of special machinery to reduce labor, 

 increase output, and improve quality; also to consoli- 

 date two or more machine operations, to adapt new fabri- 

 cating techniques to existing components and to rede- 

 sign product where possible to take advantage of stand- 

 ardization of components, etc." 



In a glass factory "an important part of the work of 

 our mechanical engineers, independently and in collab- 

 oration with our other technical people, is connected 

 with research in the improvement of glass making, 

 especially with regard to new and improved mechanical 

 equipment in the manufacture of glass." 



From various manufacturers of optical goods came 

 the following: "Considerable time is spent on processing 

 as connected with design, mainly for the improvement 

 of the product, but also for reduction of cost of manu- 

 facture"; "another function, which is probably the 



