I am finding that continuous education and pursuit of new technologies is a critical path that engineers must follow as their careers progress. My focus was on mechanical systems in schools. In college we only took a few electrical engineering classes and labs. In large companies there are electrical and mechanical engineering departments, each had their own continuing education agenda. In my company I am the head of both electrical and mechanical departments. As a chief engineer and company owner I have to know advanced programming languages for controllers and many technical electrical concepts and procedures to design my own automation. Currently I am working on test and assembly equipment. Brushing up on PLC will take too much of my time. I have found an amazing piece of equipment called the Arduino. It is a microcontroller that can be programmed very easily to control motors, sensors, switches etc. It is a Mechanical Engineers dream because you can literally be up and running in minutes. It is open source software and hardware! http://www.arduino.cc
I purchased the controller for $17.00 the sofware is free.
Once you see it run 1 program you your mind will be racing. I couldn’t stop thinking of all the possibilities. Visit us at www.mmtech.us to see what friction hinge and rotary viscous damper we can design for you.