Introduction
A mechanic system is a set of rigid bodies, in which the position (motion) of each element is defined by the position (motion) of the others.
The variety of mechanical systems forms the infinite number of constructions, machines, mechanisms and different auxiliaries.
The mechanic system of geometrically invariant elements is called aconstruction. Displacement of certain construction points is possible only as a result of system deformation.
A machine is a device converting motion, energy, materials and information. Depending on their functions, machines can be energetic, , technological, information and special.
A part of machine, which converts motion of one or several bodies into the required motion of , is called mechanism. A rigid body, which is a part of a mechanism, is called a link of mechanism. A mechanism consists of the following parts: an input link, to which a motion converted by mechanism in future is communicated, an intermediate link and an output link, which performs the required motion.
Links can be fixed (which do not move during work of a mechanism) and movable (). A movable joint of links is called a pair. Links of a pair enable relative motion, which can be characterized by a number of degrees of freedom, which equals to the number of possible independent moves of this mechanic system.
A chain is the system if links, which form pairs. s are divided into flat and dimensional. In a flat chain all links move in parallel with the same fixed plane.
An element of a mechanic system made of the same brand material without any assembly operations is called a detail. A detail is a general notion, which could be specified in each case.
A unit(assembly unit) is a set of details, which are assembled by means of assembly operations separately from the other components and jointly perform specific functions. A set of elementary units forms a more complex mechanical device such as a complex unit, mechanism, machine, etc.
As a rule, a machine consists of hundreds, thousands and even millions of separate details and breaking of even one of them may cause stoppage of the whole machine. This condition demands deep knowledge and practice experience of an engineer when taking engineering solutions. Besides that, today it is impossible to make a reliable competitive construction of a machine without using computer analysis techniques, which determine its main geometrical dimensions and select materials.