PE Mechanical Machine Design study guide
PE Mechanical Machine Design · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
PE Mechanical: Machine Design and Materials is one of the three NCEES PE Mechanical examinations, and it is the one aimed at engineers whose work centers on mechanical components, assemblies, and the materials they are made from. Like every PE exam, it tests for a minimum level of competency in the discipline and is designed for engineers with at least four years of post-college work experience. The PE Mechanical Machine Design study guide has 3 sections and about 915 words.
01Basic Engineering Practice: Units, Tolerances, and Engineering Judgment
Basic Engineering Practice is the judgment domain: units, statistics, economics, tolerances, standards, and ethics. Questions rarely demand deep theory; they test whether you convert units correctly, apply the right design factor, and avoid rounding errors.
284 words, about 1 min02Machine Design and Analysis: Stress, Fatigue, and Components
Machine Design and Analysis rewards a disciplined path: determine loads, compute nominal stresses, apply stress concentration only where appropriate, combine into principal or von Mises stresses, then compare with the correct allowable. Principal stresses and Mohr's circle; von Mises versus Tresca for ductile static failure; maximum normal stress for brittle materials; K t (geometric) versus K f (fatigue notch factor, often K f = 1 + q(K t - 1)); S-N curves and endurance limit with Marin factors; mean-stress diagrams (Goodman, Gerber, ASME elliptic); Miner's cumulative damage; shaft design under combined bending and torsion; bearing L10 life; AGMA gear bending and contact stress; bolt preload and joint separation; spring Wahl factor; weld throat area; critical speed and buckling.
324 words, about 2 min03Materials and Materials Processing: Properties, Heat Treatment, and Joining
Materials questions test whether you can connect a service requirement to a property, a process, and a code allowable. Know the property definitions before the alloy names.
307 words, about 2 min