Engineer General Machinery study guide
Engineer General Machinery · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Engineer (General Machinery) credential is a professional engineering examination for practitioners who design, specify, install, and maintain mechanical equipment across plant and industrial settings. It suits design engineers working with shafts, gears, bearings, and pressure-containing components; plant and maintenance engineers responsible for pumps, compressors, fans, and prime movers; and manufacturing or fabrication engineers who must connect drawings to weld procedures, tolerances, and inspection. The Engineer General Machinery study guide has 8 sections and about 2,234 words.
01Engineering Fundamentals and Applied Mechanics
Engineering Fundamentals and Applied Mechanics tests static equilibrium, free-body diagrams, friction, centroids and second moments, kinematics, work-energy, and impulse-momentum. Machine-framed questions usually reduce to a beam, bracket, or inclined plane once the supports are replaced correctly.
275 words, about 1 min02Mechanical Design of Machine Elements
Mechanical Design of Machine Elements covers shafts, gears, bearings, fasteners, keys, springs, belts, and fits. The exam tests whether you can select a component size from static or fatigue strength, apply standards, and recognize combined loading.
288 words, about 1 min03Materials, Strength of Materials, and Failure Analysis
This domain tests stress-strain behavior, elastic constants, yield and ultimate strength, ductility, hardness, fatigue, creep, fracture, corrosion, and heat treatment. Questions often ask you to predict failure mode or calculate deformation.
265 words, about 1 min04Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics, and Heat Transfer
This domain covers the first and second laws, ideal-gas relations, entropy, Bernoulli and continuity, Reynolds number, conduction, convection, radiation, and heat-exchanger basics. Expect unit-heavy numerical questions.
276 words, about 1 min05Prime Movers, Pumps, Compressors, and Fluid Machinery
This domain tests pump and compressor performance, head, power, efficiency, affinity laws, NPSH and cavitation, specific speed, fans, turbines, and prime-mover matching. Questions often combine a performance curve with a system curve.
274 words, about 1 min06Manufacturing Processes, Fabrication, and Welding
This domain tests casting, forming, machining, joining, welding processes, weld defects, heat-affected zones, and fabrication tolerances. The exam favors process selection and calculation of cutting parameters.
298 words, about 1 min07Machine Safety, Codes and Standards, and Inspection
This domain tests risk assessment, guarding, interlocks, emergency stops, lockout/tagout, functional safety, standards adoption, and inspection methods. The exam expects you to distinguish legal requirements from voluntary standards and to select appropriate inspection techniques.
282 words, about 1 min08Engineering Economy, Project Management, and Professional Ethics
This domain tests time value of money, present worth, annual worth, rate of return, payback, depreciation, CPM/PERT scheduling, and professional ethics. Numerical questions often ask whether a project is acceptable at a stated minimum attractive rate of return.
276 words, about 1 min