Building with a ruler and a compass when designing a machine to make arches with glued laminated timber

Abstract

Building with a ruler and a compass includes graphic procedures without measurements or scales with graduated instruments; it only merits a compass for curved lines and a simple ruler for straight lines. One of its applications is to solve intuitive geometry problems representing points, lines, angles, circles, and ovals. This graphic technique has historically served to configure some innovative machine tools. Therefore, it is helpful to conceive a machine for pressing and gluing small solid and rectilinear wood sheets, generating curved structural elements. This demands a technological mastery of industrial processes under comparative parameters of contradictions between complexity and simplicity. In this research, the conceptual design of a machine for pressing and shaping carpal arches was studied, as building components, with glued laminated wood. The methodology allowed the author to analyze graphic arrangements to obtain common points of tangency between two, three, and four circles. With the tracing of semi ovals, it generated portions of curves with different lengths and curvatures. The results achieved propose the geometric conception of a simple, manual machine to manufacture three-center basket handle arches with curved segments that facilitate component manufacturing tasks. In conclusion: the geometric design of a basic industrial machine to manufacture carpal arches constitutes a disruptive proposal based on premises determined by the needs of an emerging technological change. The article is part of the research line: Technological Innovation as a Process; subline: Assimilation and Technological Domain, Postgraduate in Research and Development Management, Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences, Central University of Venezuela.  Keywords: Basket-handle arch; complexity; building with a ruler and compass; glued laminated timber; simplicity