Machinery's Handbook, 31st Edition
PREFACE In continuous publication since 1914, Machinery’s Handbook has served as the principal reference work in metalworking, engineering, design, and manufacturing facilities, and in technical schools, colleges, and universities throughout the world for more than a century. Throughout this period, the Handbook editors have strived to create a comprehensive and practical resource, combining the most basic and crucial aspects of sophisticated manufac- turing practice. The Handbook is an invaluable tool, to be used in much the same way as other tools, to design, make, repair, and maintain products of highest quality, at the lowest cost, and in the shortest time possible. The essential basics, material of proven and everlasting worth, always must be included, if the Handbook is to continue to serve the needs of the manufacturing and mechanical engineering community. Yet it is difficult to select suitable material from the vast supply of data related to these traditional yet rapidly evolving fields. An ongoing challenge is to provide valuable information for design and production departments in manufacturing plants and workshops of all sizes, as well as for product and system designers, job shops, hobbyists, and instructors and students in general, trade, technical, and engineering schools. The editorial team relies on conversations and written communications with users of the Handbook and experts in techni- cal fields for guidance on topics to be introduced, revised, lengthened, shortened, or omitted. The original Handbook was designed to fit inside a standard toolbox. At the request of users, in 1997, the large print or “desktop” edition of the Handbook was introduced. The large print edition is identical to the traditional toolbox edition, only its size is increased by 140 percent, making it an easier-to-read reference. (Note that the type is standard reference size, not a larger font designed for visually impaired readers.) Other than size, there is no difference between the toolbox and large print editions. In 1998, Christopher McCauley developed and launched the first Machinery’s Hand- book CD- ROM, containing the complete content of the printed book, with added indexes and hundreds of pages of archival material restored from earlier editions. Continued as the Machinery’s Handbook 31st Digital Edition , this versatile format offers rapid searching and navigation aids in the form of clickable links and cross references that take you quickly to pages referenced. The growing family of Machinery’s Handbook products also includes the Guide, Pocket Companion , and attractive combination packages. Longtime users of the Handbook will note many changes in recent editions, but an endur- ing goal of the editors is to make this encyclopedic reference easier to use. The Handbook continues to incorporate time- saving thumb tabs, much requested by users. In addition to the front table of contents, sectional contents beginning each major section, introduced in the 25th edition, also have proven useful to readers. In the 31st edition, these sectional contents have been expanded to provide even more detailed navigation aids. Overall, this edition has been edited, updated, and reset. Incorporating thousands of indi vidual changes and more than 250 new and revised tables and figures, it has expanded by nearly 100 pages, to 2,992 pages. Among major revisions of existing content and new mate- rial are the following: First and foremost, hundreds of specific references and pieces of key information based on the most current ANSI, ASME, and ASTM standards have been updated throughout the Handbook. Of all the reasons to purchase the 31st edition , these timely updates make this a must- have resource. To examine other improvements starting at page 1, while the core concepts of MATH- EMATICS remain unchanged, this baseline material has benefited from reorganization, expansion, and elucidation by subject experts and educators to reflect current terminology and teaching. Among other formula additions in the Handbook, new calculations for Toler- ance Analysis and Assignment can be found on page 684. Also see MEASURING UNITS , on page 2827, for added information on International System of Units (SI), related, base, and derived units, names, and prefixes. Expert revisions have been made throughout MECHANICS AND STRENGTH OF MATE- RIALS, beginning on page 156, regarding forces, strength, testing, and related analysis. The subsection PROPERTIES OF BODIES is now more specifically defined as RIGID BODY PARAMETERS. vii
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