Adapting Ideas into Products

• There are many recent examples of innovative engineering designs such as floating railway tracks, suspended wind farms, and solar balloons.
• It is critical to identifying, specify and understand user's requirements when coming up with a solution

Adapting an Idea into an Actual Product

• Check out the competition by researching similar products
• Market research should be done to test the demand
• Consider entry-level surveys to get consumer feedback
• Design should be prepared, and dimensions should be known
• Seek out a design house if needed
• Be aware of legal requirements dealing with IP standards and national and international requirements when filing for a product patent
• Preparation with an idea about the type of material can speed up the design-to-product process

Budgeting

• Know how much you're willing to spend in developing the product
• Keep in mind the assembly costs and the price for individual components
• Consider scaling up your product

Research

• Research to determine the type of manufacturer
• Request a tour of their facilities

Technical Drawing Basics

• A technical drawing is a detailed, precise diagram informing about an object's functions or construction
• Five branches of technical drawings exist: mechanical, civil engineering, electrical engineering, manufacturing assembly, and architecture

Technical Drawing Components

• Common components include coordinates, a title block, orthographic views, sectional views, detailed views, and notes to the manufacturer.
• Break lines indicate a long object or feature too large to show
• Centerlines indicate the center of a cylindrical or symmetrical object
• Construction lines are used as guides while a drawing is created
• Curved lines represent circular features
• Cutting plane lines indicate sectional views
• Dashed lines, dimension lines, extension lines, hidden lines, isometric lines, and leader lines are also used

CAD & BIM

• The system of making a drawing on a piece of paper has been replaced by 2D technical drawings, made in CAD (Computer-Aided Design)
• CAD is used by architects, engineers, city planners, graphic and interior designers, drafters, product and industrial designers, and even game designers
• Building Information Modelling (BIM) is steadily replacing CAD in the construction industry for building design and collaboration
• A cloud system allows all designs, including CAD models, to be in a single database for team access and quick alterations

Engineering Design Process

• A design is a concept/proposal for an object, process, or system
• Interrelated elements form the visual image, including space, line, balance, color, and shape
• Lines can be vertical, horizontal, zigzag, diagonal, or curved
• Shapes can be geometric or organic
• First, a problem must be formulated and identified with main goals and success measurements defined
• Assess constraints like time, money, and materials
• In-depth research and brainstorming and conceptualizing possible solutions follows
• Evaluate and select a solution before creating a prototype
• Using troubleshooting and feedback techniques is next, leading to improvements through iteration and customized solutions

Commenting on Designs

• When commenting, be clear, concise, constructive, and not critical to improve the design
• Questions and visual aids (annotations, arrows) are helpful
• Use standardized language, avoiding jargon and acronyms
• Comments should be on the design, not the designer

Amending Engineering Designs

• Amending designs involves changes to quality/quantity of a design or document
• Define the context, compare solutions, apply design principles, test and evaluate, document the modification
• Share the design with reviewers, collect feedback, discuss improvements, share the next version, and repeat until approved
• Due dates are important for on-time approvals

Simulation & Experimentation

• Simulation is experimentation with a model
• The model's behavior mimics a system being studied so models can be used for function imitation in engineering systems and procedures
• Engineering simulations use mathematical and computer-aided models to improve existing processes
• Simulation can be used to test too expensive or too dangerous performances, durability and safety of things
• Examples include weather forecasting, flight simulators, crash car modeling, earth simulator, neural network, and Computation Engineering Models (CEMs)
• Solving discrete and continuous problems involves high-performance computing and parallel algorithms

Simulation Steps

• Define a problem and the steps needed to achieve the goal
• This is followed by project planning, defining the system and formulating a model
• Collect and analyze input data
• Translate the model into code or software and verify/validate with experimentation and analysis
• Simulation methods include; systems, dynamics, discrete event modeling, and agent-based modeling
• The method choice is based on the system being modeled and the modeler's background/available toolset
• Top simulation software providers are aPriori Technologies, Simcenter STAR-CCM+, Simulink, Ansys Discovery, Simcenter Femap, Ansys CFX, Ansys Fluent, SimScale, Anylogic and Ansys SCADE Suite

About ANSYS

• ANSYS Inc. is an American multi-national company that develops and markets engineering simulation software for product tests and operations
• ANSYS offers comprehensive software access to any field of engineering simulation (software tools, including fluid dynamics, structural mechanics and thermal analyses)
• It aids in analyzing and validating designs before prototyping to save time, energy, and resources
• It transforms design/production processes in the automotive, energy and healthcare industries

ANSYS Software

• ANSYS Mechanical is finite element analysis (FEA) software for structural analyses, learner dynamics, non-linearities, thermal analysis, and material composites
• Optimizes geometrical design, boundary conditions, and offers various structural analyses
• Integrates physics and analysis to evaluate product behavior with physical reality
• Upgrades its software by building on material capacity, simulation processes, data management optimisation, SPDM, and MBSE (Model-Based Systems Engineering) to improve engineering efficiency through intelligent workflow automation and collaboration
• Comparability issues and high processing requirements make it hard to run simulations on laptops
• Troubleshooting and the interface is challenging initially and selecting the wrong method leads to inaccurate results

Manufacturing Processes

• Manufacturing technologies add value to raw materials via conversion to useful products
• Each has environmental, dimensional accuracy, material properties, and mechanical component shape factors

Main Classes of Manufacturing Processes

• Casting pours liquid metal like grey iron, aluminium, or bronze into a mould, cools, and solidifies.
• Forming shapes raw material by stretching, bending, or compression, using large forces to deform it permanently.
• Machining cuts material with a sharp metal tool, using methods like drilling, sawing, milling, and turning.
• Joining assembles subcomponents into a final product by welding, soldering, riveting, bolting, or adhesive bonding.
• Finishing treats a component's surface to harden, improve appearance, or protect it via polishing, electroplating, anodizing, and painting.

Casting

• Liquid metal is poured into a mould, creating complex shapes without joining requirements
• Efficient for creating many copies, making cast components relatively inexpensive
• Defects can arise, creating a rough texture that needs machining
• Automotive engine blocks, cylinder heads, and brake rotors and drums are made this way
• Common types are sand casting, die casting and investment casting

Forming

• Rolling reduces flat sheet thickness by compressing it between rollers
• Sheet metal is used for aircraft wings, fuselages, beverage containers, and automobile body panels
• Forging is heating, impacting, and plastically deforming metal into a final shape
• Industrial-scale forging is the modern version of the blacksmith's art
• Components include crankshafts and connecting rods, creating strong and hard products that are used in hand tools

Extrusion

• Creates long straight metal parts with round, rectangular, L, T, or C-shaped cross sections
• A mechanical or hydraulic press forces heated metal through a die with a tapered hole matching the finished part's cross section
• The die shapes the raw material and must be harder than it

Machining

• Material is gradually removed from a workpiece as small chips
• Common methods are drilling, sawing, milling, and turning
• Capable of producing mechanical components with more precision than cast or forged parts
• Material waste from machining operations is normal
• Machining and casting/forging are combined when components need surface flattening, hole making, and threat cutting

Machining Tools

• Machining tools include drill presses, bandsaws, lathes, and milling machines

Drill Press

• Bores round holes into a workpiece
• A drill bit is held in the rotating chuck, lowered into the workpiece while lubricated to reduce friction+remove heat
• Vises and clamps are used for prevent shifting

Bandsaw

• Makes rough cuts through metal using continuous loop blade with sharp teeth
• Rides on drive and idler wheels
• Variable-speed motor adjusts blade speed based on the material
• The table can tilt

Milling Machine

• Machines rough surfaces flat and smooth while cutting slots, grooves, and holes to a workpiece slowly against a rotating cutting tool
• Held by a vise on an adjustable table with accurate three-directional movement
• Can use a bandsaw before forming surfaces smoothly

Lathe

• Rotates the workpiece about the centerline as the sharpened toll removes material
• Produces cylindrical shapes and symmetry around an axis
• Used for the production of shafts and the resurfacing of disk brake rotors

Computer-Aided Manufacturing

• Uses computers to control machine tools to cut, shape metals, and other material with remarkable precision for complex tasks
• Numerical control allows for a faster process that yields more precise results

Benefits of Computer-Aided Manufacturing

• Downloads instructions created by computer-aided engineering software
• The potential to produce digital product models seamlessly from a computer-generated drawing
• With the ability to quickly reprogram machine tools, even a small general-purpose shop can produce high-quality machined components
• The same technologies can be used for prototyping or custom production
• Rapid or direct digital manufacturing refers to additive fabrication techniques for custom or replacement parts

Manufacturing Lines

• Take advantage of mechanical automation to produce identical art
• Rapid manufacturing systems take precisely the opposite viewpoint
• Computer-aided design software can be used to make electronic representations for the creation of complex customized products at a reasonable cost

Patents

• They are agreements between an inventor and a national government
• An inventor is granted the legal right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling, or importing an invention
• The inventor agrees to disclose and explain the invention to the general public
• A patent is a monopoly on the new technology that expires after a certain number of years

Design Process

• Engineering design starts when a basic need (technical/human) is identified
• A design engineer comes up with a comprehensive set of system requirements, considering; functional performance, environmental impact, manufacturing limitations, economic issues, ergonomic concerns, global issues, life cycle issues, and social factors

Gathering Information

• Engineers research and gather background information and conduct surveys for related technologies
• Consult with suppliers and attend trade shows to present proposals and meet potential customers

Conceptual Design

• Engineers collaborate and generate creative solutions
• Divergent thinking generates diverse ideas
• Convergent thinking helps engineers to eliminate weaker ideas and converge on the best ones
• Requirements are used to ID concepts with the most potential to satisfy requirements, using lists of pros and cons and computer generated models for testing
• Changes should be made early, but as designs move forward they become more difficult to make
• This stage identifies the most promising design concept

Detailed Design

• The team defined, innovated, analyzed, and converged its way
• Design and manufacturing details must be resolved
• Issues that must be determined include; developing product layout and configuration, selecting materials for each component, addressing design-for-X issues (i.e., design for reliability, manufacturing, assembly, variation, costing, recycling), optimizing the final geometry, including appropriate tolerances, developing completed digital models of all components and assemblies, simulating the system using digital and mathematical models, prototyping and testing critical components and modules, and developing the production plans

Iteration

• Engineers need to be comfortable with making changes or modifications to improve and perfect the design
• Engineers must revisit requirements or the original concept if things are not working
• A revisit to design may occur with the production plan
• With each iteration, a design can perform better, more efficiently, and more elegantly

Other Considerations in Design

• Product appearance, ergonomics, and aesthetics as well as technical
• The usability of a product can be problematic as it becomes more sophisticated
• Engineers work with industrial designers and psychologists to improve products

Documentation

• Engineers are diligent in documenting the design process in engineering drawings, meeting minutes, and reports
• Documentation is useful for learning and capturing information using a design notebook

Industrial Revolution and Interchangeability

• Mass production has become common since the last industrial revolution
• Almost all manufacturing companies are able to interchange components and machinery in production
• This requires a measurement system that accurately identifies the features of components/products to achieve required standards

Metrology

• Metrology measures lengths, angles, and other quantities in linear and angular terms
• It ensures uniform measurements, developing/analyzing methods, establishing uncertainty, and investigating/eliminating errors

Measurement Terminology

• Accuracy measures how closely a dimension is to its true magnitude, often expressed as percentage
• Precision measures consistency of the measurement process done with same method under similar conditions
• Calibration finds the relationship between the values indicated by the instrument and the related values obtained by standards under specified conditions
• Repeatability is how well an instrument provides the same results when measuring the same quantity

Measurements In Production

• Instruments can measure steel rules to digital calipers and micrometers
• Depth and height gauges need a starting point to assure accuracy
• Datum plane, surface plate, and V-block provides the foundation for all dimensional measurements
• Steel rules are popular for their accuracy and durability
• Scales with a numerical display greatly increases measurement precision and accuracy to about a micron
• Calipers transfer measurements to a rule to ensure accurate separation of points
• The vernier measurement principle is the base for vernier calipers, height gauges, and micrometers
• Digital read-out instruments & dial calipers are replacing vernier instruments due to convenience

Types of Material

• The engineering materials needed to produce something is needed
• The raw materials used for the manufacturing of products, tools, machines and equipment are extracted from ores
• A molten metal is poured into a mould used for producing castings (called ingots) which are processed through rolling mills
• The usable products are changed into product shapes and sizes in manufacturing shops through primary shaping or metal forming processes, joining, or surface finishing

Manufacturing Plant Layout

• A layout should be arranged with buildings, workers, machines, and materials for processing

Objective Of Plant Layout

• Minimize material movement, facilitate smooth product flow, utilize the available area, and allow for future changes
• Guarantee there is adequate safety
• Minimize movements of workers and those in manufacturing, and waiting time of the semi-finished and finished products
• Accommodate changes in design or expansion, improve work methods, reduce production cycle times, and simplify plant maintenance

Elements of Working as an Engineer

• Engineers might start from a sketch and solve a a technical problem, developing and refine that is safe, cost effective and manufacturable
• Mechanical engineers apply knowledge of mathematics, science, materials, communication and business skills to develop new and better technologies
• Engineers take physical intuition, judgments, practical skills and previous expertise to implement the properties of forces, materials, forces, energy, fluids, and motion

Qualities of Engineers

• Mechanical engineers are designers, researchers, and technology managers for companies in size from start-ups to multinational corporations
• It is important to have solid problem-solving skills
• Skilled at communication and using digital tools in supporting engineering design processes

Mechanical Engineers Core Coursework

• Mechanical analysis and modeling
• Understanding forces, materials, power and energy on machines and structures
• Theory of thermal dynamics and fluidic system