Engineering Design: Process and Skills

Objectives

• Engineering design involves understanding the importance and challenges.
• There should be an introduction to the engineering design process

Outcomes

• It is important to understand the importance and challenges of design
• One should appreciate the difference between conventional and systematic design.
• The systematic design process is important to describe
• It is important to identify your customers

Designer Skills

• Necessary skills for a designer include sketching, CAD, and technical drawing
• Creativity, problem solving, and project management are crucial.
• Familiarity with material properties and manufacturing is needed.
• Applying science, like chemistry for corrosion protection, is essential.
• Knowledge of statics, dynamics, stress analysis, and mechanisms is required.
• Electrical and electronics knowledge is important.
• Fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, and heat transfer are key skills.
• Understanding fluid power, electrical phenomena, and industrial controls is important.
• Awareness and knowledge of environmental issues is needed.
• Expertise in oral communication, listening, writing, and teamwork is necessary.
• Awareness of feasibility, including cost considerations, is a factor.
• One must have knowledge around Safety, Ethical Issues and legislations.

Lecture Context

• Previously you covered essential skills like teamwork, research, report writing, and communication for design.
• Foundational stages for starting to design an engineering product include the tools and steps provided.
• Future classes will cover these steps in greater detail along with ethical considerations.

Importance of Design

• Without Design, there is no product!
• The end result will not be bought if there is bad design.
• Designs are chosen according to the quality and the design.
• Design is considered highly important in relation to the cost.
• Both functionality and product looks in tandem relies on design.
• End-users do not need to care or know about technical features.
• Investment in product design has the greatest return.

Difficulty of Design

• Designers should be able to predict the product's life.

Identifying Customers

• Everyone has different opinions about a product, and how it is designed.
• Customers aren't only end-users for a product.
• Customers of aircraft include those who manufacture, maintain, sell, and disassemble.
• Designers should identify and list as many customers as possible.
• Internet may be used to aid gathering customer information.

The Design Process

• Two schools of thought exists, Conventional and Systematic Design.

Conventional Design

• Design approach includes back of the envelope.
• An idea is developed, tested, and improved.
• First space shuttle succeeded using conventional design.
• Sometimes other, better ideas are missed with the inefficient nature of designing.

Systematic Design

• Definite starting and finishing points.
• Clear steps from the start to the completion of the project.
• More opportunities for weakness identification occurs.
• The design approach is rational, clear, and applies to different industries.
• Includes shorter training time and broader training and.

Engineering Design Process

• Stages include requirements
• Specfications are important
• Conceptual design is key
• Embodiment design is necessary
• Followed by detailed design