Ergonomic Aspects of Product Design: 2nd Updated and Expanded Edition

The textbook is dealing with product ergonomics both from the point of view of the development engineer, who of course has to ensure the functionality of the product, and from the point of view of the designer, who should ensure that the product is also aesthetically perfect. The purpose of the textbook is not to provide empirical data, but to introduce basic concepts and present mutual relationships and recommendations that can help engineers and designers to develop products with a focus on ergonomic and aesthetic value. In the second edition, a completely new chapter is added, which deals with inclusive design and its most important aspects. In most cases, these are in line with the ergonomic aspects of product development, with one important difference. Instead of adapting the product to limited target population of users, the goal of inclusive design are products suitable for the widest possible population.

The politics of new urban professions: the case of urban development engineers

This chapter provides evidence of a new urban profession of development engineers within public bureaucracies whose position is increasingly detached from the sphere of public policy in which they operate. It reveals that the rise of the professional category of development engineer has led to the institutionalisation of a narrowly conceived and short-termist economic optimisation rationality. This rationality, which is institutionally solidified in legally binding agreements between the city and property developers, comes to set a very rigid frame for any additional considerations regarding, for example, social justice or balanced urban development. To a large extent, this rationality has come to steer urban development considerations in the city of Stockholm. The chapter concludes that while it might be expected that public land ownership would allow public authorities to promote a more ‘progressive’ and mindful urban development, the development engineers who are presently in the proverbial driving seat of the management of public land do not see the pursuit of such goals to be part of their professional responsibility.

LIVING NATURE AS A SOURCE OF IDEAS FOR NEW PRODUCT SOLUTIONS

The future of enterprises depends among other things also on its rate of innovation. Particularly for the development of product ideas the innovation potential of living nature is used hardly or insufficiently during the construction process. Development teams orient themselves still too little at the evolution regularities and structure principles of biological systems. Orienting at the regularities of the evolution of biological systems as well as at the efficient principles of operation, structure and organization of living nature could supply various suggestions for new product ideas. For this reason the author of this contribution conceived a construction bionics, which helps the development engineer to use living nature systematically and purposefully as source of inspiration.

Location-Based Services

There are several unsolved problems in LBS, in management and low surfaces. Most of them are in quick progress, but some need new developments. The product managers have to take responsibility for the software and hardware research and development part of the LBS product. This is a very important part of the design process, because if the development engineer leaves the product useful out of consideration, the whole project could possibly be led astray. Another import question is that of LBS-related international and national laws, which could throw an obstacle into LBS’s spread. These obstacles will need to be solved before LBS global introduction.The article presents this emerging new area and the many possible management solutions that have not been completely utilized.

Measurement of Transmission Error Using Rotational Laser Vibrometers

Transmission error is the quantity that best correlates with gear noise. Using gear inspection data, one can estimate transmission error, however actually measuring it is a substantial task. For the most part, there are two groups of people who measure transmission error: those doing gear inspection and researchers. While it could prove useful in gearbox development, it is rarely done in this context because the equipment required to make transmission error measurements doesn’t package well, is expensive, can be difficult to use and is generally not very flexible. Transmission error is usually measured on test stands built particularly for that reason. An alternative method for transmission error measurement is now available to the development engineer who desires to make this measurement on his gearbox (such as for transmission noise development). This technique makes use of two rotational laser vibrometers and a synchronous time averaging algorithm. The laser approach is particularly appealing because it requires very little modification to the gearbox. Furthermore, it allows one to access gears within the gearbox which do not extend through the gearbox walls. The laser approach, however, has some of its own special challenges, but when those are adequately addressed, one has the capability to measure transmission error between nearly any two gears in a gearbox.