Its kinda ironic how badly Engineers are looked upon by some, then how deeply they are relied upon by those same people in everyday life.
Especialy if you consider that the new craze that everyone has to have, Autotune/M Tronic, was certainly not wanted, initiated or designed by those great fellows working in the environement of the equipment needed! And that's just talking saws, if we think of the medical field(as recently posted here eye damage, absolutly unthinkable to repair without modern surgical instruments, or in the operational field you are absolutly dependent on quick reliable ways to stop bleeding in laparoskopic operations!), cars(ABS, airbag, air condition, etc), homes(insulation materials, etc.), electronics(computers, wlan, iphone, etc.), guns(modern plastics f.e.Glock revolutionized the gun market!), airplanes(all designed by these great consumers who really know what is needed when they fly to Florida in the winter!!!) etc. Wonder why no one in full production is using the saws of yesteryear since they just keep on running and running and running and are so easy to service, of course without AV, without fuel economy, without weight reduction, etc.
Yeah those things were all initiated, designed and developed by the consumers. Welcome to the real world!
It sure is a sad thing to see the self centred view of some fellows here, who obviously live by the motto "my life is miserable and know who's to blame"!
I believe the original question was at least partially answered by mopar3 on the second page but was drowned out in all the usual suspects bullpoo..
Molding the two parts together creates a laminate/composite that adds strength and rigidity, less material is needed=less cost and lighter too.
For the non technical types, think plywood.
Glue two sheets of paper together only on the corners, then glue two together over their entire surface and see which one is stiffer.
I have to admit that I don't know the answer. Which one is stiffer? I always thought that plywood was glued over the whole area so I presume that that will be the correct answer. The problem I have in this question is is that the engine is screwed into the bottom at all four corners so is that an iminent "weakening" of the system?
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