Main

Mechanical Archives

September 30, 2007

Diabolical Designs: Retractable Luggage Handles

Sierra.JPG
Click on the image to see detailed view of the failed zinc casting.


Rolling luggage has to be one of the greatest engineering innovations of all time, so it's a real pity that their telescoping handles are so frequently a dismal failure. On a recent trip (to India, natch) the cheaply-cast zinc parts in the handle assembly on my husband's High Sierra brand bag (above) decided to give up the ghost. First he had difficulty getting the handle to extend, which seemed like the worst luck in the world-- until he couldn't get the handle to retract again.

You try checking a 22-inch bag with an 18-inch handle sticking out of it. Talk about needing a chill pill!

Continue reading "Diabolical Designs: Retractable Luggage Handles" »

July 1, 2008

Close escape from exploding wind turbine



In the UK, objections to wind farms are often made on the grounds of "aestheticism", the twisting blades spoiling otherwise perfect countryside views. Hmmm. IMHO this is just NIMBY-ism in another guise...

However, wind turbines can be far from perfect, as this video darkly and dramatically demonstrates.

Thanks to the website GroovyGreen.com for this one: Exploding Wind Turbine Is Worthy Of Slow Motion Replay

The website writes:

"We're thinking that wind turbine manufacturers are less than thrilled with the above video circulating online. Apparently, this all went down in Denmark when a safety breaking system failed in strong winds. Reports say that two engineers were working on top of the turbine to repair the breaking system, but managed to get down before all hell broke loose. A 19 meter piece of the blade was thrown 20 metres away. Smaller pieces were sent more than 500 meters away."

Continue reading "Close escape from exploding wind turbine" »

About Mechanical

This page contains an archive of all entries posted to Made By Monkeys in the Mechanical category. They are listed from oldest to newest.

Materials/Materials Processing is the previous category.

Motors and drives is the next category.

Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.

RSS Subscribe to this blog's feed
[What is this?]

Sign up for the fortnightly Made By Monkeys eNewsletter. Get the blog highlights straight to your email inbox, no fuss. Just tick the option for Made By Monkeys.

Tag cloud

Archives

Go back to ElectronicsWeekly.com