Moving parts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Moving parts are the components of a device that undergo continuous or frequent motion, most commonly rotation. "Parts" only include the mechanical components which does not include fuel, or any other gas or liquid. The moving parts of a machine are by far the most common cause of failures because they receive the most wear and tear.[citation needed] Because of this most designers attempt to reduce the number of moving parts.
Devices with no moving parts produce less noise, less vibration and are more reliable, when compared with mechanical counterparts. For example, the computer industry replaced relay-based circuits with vacuum tubes. Early television devices which used mechanical scanning disks were also replaced with electronic rasterizers solutions.
Other examples include:
- Solid-state drives used in computers are more reliable than mechanical ones and produce no noise.
- Thermoelectric cooling devices based on the Peltier effect produce less noise and are more powerful[citation needed] than other solutions.
- Thermogenerators in power plants instead of electromechanical ones.
- Ultrasonic cleaning can be less noisy and more reliable than conventional washing machine technology.
- in keyboard technology, capacitive-touch keys have fewer moving parts than dome-switch keys, which in turn have fewer moving parts than buckling spring keys.
- a pencil has fewer moving parts than a leadholder, which in turn has fewer moving parts than a mechanical pencil.
- a jet engine has fewer moving parts than a radial engine.
