Mechanical efficiency measures the effectiveness of a machine in transforming the energy and power that is input to the device into an output force and movement. Efficiency is measured as a ratio of the measured performance to the performance of an ideal machine:
Because the power transmission system or mechanism does not generate power, its ideal performance occurs when the output power equals the input power, that is when there are no losses. Real devices dissipate power through friction, part deformation and wear.
The ideal transmission or mechanism has an efficiency of 100%, because there is no power loss. Real devices will have efficiencies less than 100% because rigid and frictionless systems do not exist. The power losses in a transmission or mechanism are eventually dissipated as heat.
Famous quotes containing the words mechanical and/or efficiency:
“There is only one evil, to deny life
As Rome denied Etruria
And mechanical America Montezuma still.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
““Never hug and kiss your children! Mother love may make your children’s infancy unhappy and prevent them from pursuing a career or getting married!” That’s total hogwash, of course. But it shows on extreme example of what state-of-the-art “scientific” parenting was supposed to be in early twentieth-century America. After all, that was the heyday of efficiency experts, time-and-motion studies, and the like.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)