ABSTRACT
Overview One important aspect of the early stages of the mechanical design of any new machine is to gather together and study the designs of machines that have already been built to solve a problem similar to the one at hand. No company would proceed with a new product, say a can opener, without buying, using, evaluating, and then disassembling every can opener they could find on the market. The information obtained from this exercise would provide an invaluable snapshot of the state of the art of can opening, and this, in conjunction with patent searches and a review of all published literature, would create the base upon which an informed design effort could begin.
