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Engineering - Design

Reference

Dictionaries, Directories, Handbooks, Encyclopedias, etc. - Reference works are useful when you need to obtain quick facts, define the terms and scope of your search, or get a broad overview of a topic. Best Bets! are marked with aBest Bet!.
Products available to registered McMaster Students/Staff/Faculty Only are marked with a McMaster Use Only.

Standards

Standards are produced by societies, trade groups, or individual companies.  For more information, see Find Standards.

  • AASHTO Standard Specifications for Transportation Materials and Methods of Sampling and Testing Thode Reference    TE 200 .A6
    AASHTO Provisional Standards
    Thode Reference    TE 200 .A27
  • ACI Manual of Concrete Practice Thode Reference    TA 682 .A5 2006
  • CGSB These are currently contained in binders and filed between the call number “S” and “T” in the Reference section in the binders in Thode.
  • IEEE These standards (from 1948) are available full-text online through IEEE Xplore.
     
  • IHS Store Vendor website where you can search for technical standards from over 400 standards societies.
  • SAE Handbook Thode Reference   TL 151 .S62 2005

Handbooks and Encyclopedias

Handbooks and encyclopedias are good for data and information in techniques (e.g. electrical or mechanical properties).

Handbooks

  • ASM Handbooks THODE Reference TA 459 .A51M
     
  • eFunda stands for engineering Fundamentals. Its mission is to help working professionals quickly find concise and reliable information to meet the majority of their daily reference needs. 
     
  • Engineering Handbook 2nd ed.  THODE Reference TA 151 .E424 2005
     
  • Standard Handbook of Engineering Calculations 4th ed.  Also available in print: THODE Reference TA 332 .S73 2005

Encyclopedias

  • Dekker Encyclopedia of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology THODE Reference QC 176.8 .N35D43 2004
  • Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Technology THODE Reference TP 1110 .E53 2003
  • Machinery’s Handbook 27th Edition THODE Reference TJ 151 .M3
  • Mark’s Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers THODE Reference TJ 151 .S7
  • Mechanical Engineers’ Handbook THODE Reference TJ 151 .M395 2006

Books

Use McMaster's Library Catalogue to find books on your topic. Click the Help link for searching tips & strategies.
Table of Contents 
  1. Textbooks
  2. Ergonomics

Textbooks

Textbooks are good for basic information on engineering design.

Engineering Design  Thode Bookstacks TA 174 .E32 2005

Engineering Design:  A Systematic Approach

Engineering Design Process 2nd ed.  Thode Bookstacks TA 174 .E78 1996

Invention by Design: How Engineers Get From Thought to Thing
Thode Bookstacks      TA 174 .P4735 1996

Ergonomics

Information such as properties of the human body are important for product design.

Bodyspace: Anthropometry, Ergonomics, and the Design of Work
Thode Bookstacks       TA 166 .P49 1996

Engineering Physiology: Bases of Human Factors/Ergonomics.
Thode Bookstacks       TA 166 K76 1990

Human Factors Design Handbook: Information and Guidelines for the Design of Systems, Facilities, Equipment, and Products for Human Use.
Thode Reference         TA 166 W57 1992

Handbook of Ergonomic and Human Factors Tables.
Thode Bookstacks      TA 166 W45 1993

Articles/Databases

Use article databases to find out which journals, magazines, and newspapers have published articles on your topic. Most useful when recent information is required, or when the topic is too specific to be covered in a book. Best Bets! are marked with aBest Bet!.
Products available to registered McMaster Students/Staff/Faculty Only are marked with a McMaster Use Only.

Use the following article databases to find trade and scholarly journal articles.  Note:  trade journals, often published by a trade association, are devoted to disseminating news and information of interest to a specific category of business or industry.  

 

Websites

The Internet is home to useful web sites on many subjects. Unlike the resources on other tabs, the following resources are selected from the free web. Remember to critically evaluate web resources, since web site content is usually unmonitored and unregulated.

Use Google to Find Company Web Pages

Product Catalogues

  • Canadian Company Capabilities from Industry Canada A searchable database of of 60,000 Canadian businesses containing comprehensive information on contacts, products, services, trade experience, and technology
     
  • EngNet EngNet is a Directory/Search Engine/Buyers Guide Service aimed specifically at the Engineering Industry to enable Engineers, Technicians, Tradesmen, etc. to find information and communicate effectively with suppliers in the Engineering Industry
  • Frasers Canadian Trade Directory A comprehensive directory and search tool, providing information on Canadian industrial wholesalers, manufacturers, distributors and their products and services
    Also available in print, call number HF3223 .F84 in Mills library
  • Global Spec A search engine and information resource for the engineering, industrial and technical communities updated daily, free registration required and you can create a profile with personalized settings
     
  • Google Product Search  Presents photographs of products and links to the stores that sell them online. Options to narrow search by price range, and view results as a grid
  • Grainger Catalog Includes 78,000 MRO supplies, including tools, lighting, electrical supplies, distribution and control products, motors, sanitary supplies and equipment, maintenance and safety supplies, and HVAC, storage and material handling equipment
  • McMaster-Carr Well known supplier of over 340,000 items that stock everything from aluminum ingots to pipe wrenches
  • Sigma-Aldrich Catalog Searchable product catalog from a major research chemical supplier that can be searched by catalog number, name, formula, CAS registry number
  • TechExpo Contains directories, phone books, and product catalogs of a number of high tech companies
  • ThomasNet (Thomas Register) Electronic version of a well-known index to manufacturers, producers, and sellers of industrial goods and services

Design Case Studies

An engineering design case study is a description of an actual situation experienced by an engineer with real data to demonstrate the relevance of a course concept.

 Websites for Inspiration

 

 

Associations & Organizations

Professional, academic, advocacy and other types of associations and organizations involved in your subject area.

Contact a technical expert.

  • Speak to experts at McMaster University listed on the Experts Guide .
  • Community of Science includes 500,000 profiles of researchers and their research activities from 1,600 institutions throughout the world. Discover who's doing what -- current research activity, funding received, publications, patents, new positions and more.

Patents

Table of Contents 
  1. Patents
  2. Patent Tutorials

Patents

A patent is a legal agreement between a government and an inventor which gives the inventor the right to stop others from making, using or selling that invention.  For more information see Find Patents. 

  • Canadian Patents Database This database contains patent documents from 1869 to the present. This database is updated regularly with newly granted patents and applications opened to public inspection. The electronically available patent information consists of patent document images and bibliographic and text data.
     
  • DEPATISnet contains patents from the German patent information system.
  • European Patent Office Database (esp@cenet) esp@cenet is the freely available database to patent information. European patents are searchable in the esp@cenet database. The full text images of the documents in esp@cenet are available as PDF files.
  • FreePatentsOnline.com FreePatentsOnline.com provides fast, easy-to-use and free access to millions of patents and patent applications from the United States, Europe, Japan, and WIPO.
     
  • FreshPatents Provides access to the latest U.S. patent applications each week BEFORE the USPTO decision to grant/deny.
  • Google Patents Searchable full text/full page images of U.S. patents from USPTO. It is an alternative interface to searching USPTO. It is google, so it is easy to search.
     
  • Japan Patent Office  The Japan Patent Office (JPO) is responsible for the protection of the rights for patents for inventions, utility models for devices, industrial designs, and trademarks in Japan.
     
  • LexisNexis provides access to over 5,000 sources including patents covering a wide range of subject areas.
     
  • pat2pdf.org  Free patent search tool that when given a patent number, will return an image of the patent as a single PDF file. (Note: the USPTO website requires downloading a browser plug-in in order to view images.  This website makes it easier to view images). 
     
  • PatentLens A worldwide, open-access, free full-text patent informatics resource.  Includes patents from the U.S., Europe, Australia and WIPO and counterparts in several countries.
     
  • PatentScope (World Intellectual Property Organization) This facility allows you to search over 1.5 million international patent applications and to view the latest information and documents available to the International Bureau.
  • United States Patent and Trademark Office Searchable, full-text database from January 1, 1976 onward (full-page images since1790). To view and print patents in PDF for free, a viewer software needs to be installed.

Patent Tutorials

MIT Video Tutorials:

How to Conduct a Preliminary U.S. Patent Search: A step by step strategy - USPTO (36 minutes)

International Intellectual Property Searching - McKinney Engineering Library

Patent Research Tutorial - University of Central Florida

Schreyer Business Library's Patent Search Tutorial - Penn State University

Conducting a Patent Search: The 7-Step Strategy - USPTO