Enzo Fanali's workshop

Enzo Fanali's workshop smells of cutting oil and coffee: the moka pot is on, the bench grinder is throwing sparks and the pegboard has a place for every tool. The Mechanical department's calculators are on the bench, the wall and the floor. Click one to open it.

Mechanical design is mostly about what parts do to each other. A motor turns a shaft, the shaft twists, gears trade speed for torque, bearings carry the load, and a part that is loaded and unloaded often enough can crack by fatigue long before it would fail in a single pull. The calculators here check torsion, fatigue, bearing stress, gear ratios and motor sizing, along with pipe flow and the cooling load of a room.

The sign over the bench sums up the department: sharp corners concentrate stress, and a generous radius is often the cheapest fix on the drawing.

“Make a shaft twice the diameter and it becomes sixteen times stiffer in twist.” — Enzo Fanali

In this office

• Pipe Flow: Calculate pipe flow parameters
• HVAC Cooling: Calculate HVAC cooling load
• Bearing Stress: Contact (bearing) stress from a load and the area it presses on, compared with a reference strength for steel, concrete or wood
• Gear Ratio: Calculate gear ratios and speeds
• Motor Sizing: Choose a standard motor rating for a mechanical load, allowing for a service factor and drive losses
• Fatigue Analysis: Goodman fatigue safety factor for a fluctuating stress, with a simplified endurance limit of half the ultimate strength
• Torsion: Calculate torsional stresses

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