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In real life all things are seldom equal. In many cases less moving parts is more reliable. Thats if the parts we're there to give you more features. But someti

by vlehto 11y ago

In real life all things are seldom equal. In many cases less moving parts is more reliable. Thats if the parts we're there to give you more features. But sometimes they are there to give you more reliability. My favorite counter example is car timing belt. Replace it with chain and you add about 200 moving parts, while increasing reliability and maintainability. Now add roller sleeves around the pins of the chain, you doubled the amount of moving parts and again increased the reliability and reduced friction. The thing with chains is that they typically start to make noise long before failure, saving you from complete engine overhaul. Belt might just snap. (Though for noncritical applications opposite is true. Belt drive requires no lubrication and they are silent and light weight. Id love to replace messy bike chains with belt drive.)

chongli 11y ago
In real life all things are seldom equal. In many cases less moving parts is more reliable. Thats if the parts we're there to give you more features. But sometimes they are there to give you more reliability. You state this as if it were a dichotomy: that parts only provide features or reliability. That's not true. In many cases, parts exist only because they are essential to a particular design. A fundamentally different design may have fewer parts, better features, and better reliability all at once.