SUMMARY
Designers of mechatronics products must create highly complex mecha- tronics systems that successfully integrate electrical, mechanical, and information-processing components. SolidWorks® Premium, integrated with our partners’ products, can help you meet the unique challenges of mechatronics design, enabling you to use digital modeling to reduce physical prototypes, improve product quality, and streamline your entire development process.
Introduction
The days when mechanical systems and products were strictly mechanical are rapidly coming to a close as products continue to become more capable and more complex. To some degree, these increasingly sophisticated products are virtually guaranteed to employ “mechatronics.” Depending on the product indus- try, mechatronics can be defned in several different ways. Generally, mecha- tronics is the integration of electrical and electronic components into mechani- cal enclosures and/or mechanical subassemblies.
Some examples of this defnition include multifunction printer/scanner/fax machines, digital music players, GPS devices, laptop and desktop computers, digital cameras, cell phones, home appliances, and industrial machines. All these products include electronic systems that are a synergistic integration and packaging of electrical and mechanical subsystems. Although mechatronics is typically represented in the consumer electronics industry, it also is employed across a broader cross-section of industries, including industrial machinery
A second way of viewing mechatronics is as a subset of the electronics indus- try, where mechatronics systems are composed of a systematic integration of mechanical, electrical, electronics, and embedded software components. When all these various components are combined, the result is an electromechani- cal system. Within this context, mechatronics is characterized by software and electronics that control electromechanical systems. This defnition is best exemplifed by modern automotive engines and other automotive systems, aerospace equipment, and complex production machinery
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