Engineering Design Process

An engineering design process is a process fused by engineers to help develop solution. It is a decision-mailing process (often iterative), in which the basic sciences, mathematics, and engineering sciences are applied to convert resources optimally to meet a stated objective. Among the fundamental elements of the design process are the establishment of objectives and criteria, synthesis, analysis, construction, testing, and evaluation.

This process can be divided up into a ten-step process, which includes identifying a need, defining the problem, conducting research, narrowing the research, analyzing set criteria, finding alternative solutions, analyzing possible solutions, making a decision, presenting the product, and communicating and selling the product. This process is not universal for all engineers or all processes. Individuals utilize their personal knowledge and experiences to follow the path to design success.

Contents :

1. Identifying a need
2. Defining the problem
3. Conducting research
4. Narrowing the research
5. Analyzing set criteria
6. Finding alternative solutions
7. Analyzing possible solutions
8. Making a decision
9. Presenting the product
10. Communicating and selling the product
    

Design Engineer

The design engineer is distinguished from the designer/drafter by virtue of the fact that a design engineer sets the direction of the design effort and does the most complex parts of design. The design engineer usually leads the project, designing the overall frameworks and the most far reaching parts, and directing the designers/drafters on sub-system design on the project's more routine parts as necessary. He/she may work with industrial designers and marketing to develop the product concept and specifications and directs the design effort from that point. Products are usually designed with input from a number of sources such as manufacturing, purchasing, tool making and packaging engineering.

In many engineering areas, a distinction is made between the design engineer and the planning engineer in design. Planning engineers are more concerned with designing on a more systems engineering level, and overlaps onto the operational side are often necessary. Design engineers, in contrast, are more concerned with designing a particular new product or system. Analysis is important for planning engineers, while synthesis is paramount for design engineers.

When the design involves public safety, the design engineer is usually required to be licensed, for example a Professional Engineer in the U.S. There is usually an 'industrial exemption' for design engineers working on project internal to companies.

Design Engineer : ijan08

Design Engineer Tasks

The design engineer may direct a team of designers to create the drawings necessary for prototyping and production, or in the case of buildings, for construction. However, with the advent of CAD and solid modeling software (SolidWorks, Solid Edge, Autodesk Inventor, Pro/ENGINEER, NX, CATIA, etc, for example) the design engineer may create the drawings him or herself.

The next responsibility of many design engineers is prototyping. A model of the product is created and reviewed. Prototypes are usually functional and non-functional. Functional prototypes are used for testing and the non-functional are used for form and fit checking. This stage is where design flaws are found and corrected, and tooling, manufacturing fixtures, and packaging are developed.

Once the prototype is finalized, after many iterations, the next step is preproduction. The design engineer, working with a manufacturing engineer and a quality engineer reviews an initial run of components and assemblies for design compliance. This is often determined through statistical process control. Variations in the product are correlated to aspects of the process and eliminated. The most common metric used is the process capability index Cpk. A Cpk of 1.0 is considered the baseline acceptance for full production go-ahead.

The design engineer may follow the product and make requested changes and corrections throughout the life of the product. This is referred to as "cradle to grave" engineering.

Design Engineer : ijan08

GD&T Datum

In GD&T, datum reference frames are typically 3D. Datum reference frames are used as part of the feature control frame to show where the measurement is taken from. A typical datum reference frame is made up of three planes. For example, the three planes could be one "face side" and two "datum edges". These three planes are marked A, B and C, where A is the face side, B is the first datum edge, and C is the second datum edge. In this case, the datum reference frame is A/B/C. A/B/C is shown at the end of feature control frame to show from where the measurement is taken. (See the ASME standard Y14.5M-1994 for more examples and material modifiers.)

The engineer selects A/B/C based on the dimensional function of the part. The datums should be functional per the ASME standard. Typically, a part is required to fit with other parts. So, the functional datums are chosen based on how the part attaches. Note: Typically, the functional datums are not used to manufacture the part. The manufacturing datums are typically different than the functional datums to save cost, improve process speed, and repeatability. A tolerance analysis may be needed in many cases to convert between the functional datums and the manufacturing datums. Computer software can be purchased for dimensional analysis. A trained engineer is required to run the software.

There are typically 6 degrees of freedom that need to be considered by the engineer before choosing which feature is A, B,or C. For this example, A is the primary datum, B is the secondary, and C is the tertiary datum. The primary datum controls the most degrees of freedom. The tertiary datum controls the least degrees of freedom. For this example, of a block of wood, Datum A controls 3 degrees of freedom, B controls 2 degrees of freedom, and C controls 1 degree of freedom. 3+2+1 = 6, all 6 degrees of freedom are considered.

The 6 degrees of freedom in this example are 3 translation and 3 rotation about the 3D coordinate system. Datum A controls 3, translastion along the Z axis, rotation about the x axis, and rotation about the y axis. Datum B controls 2, translation along the y axis and rotation about the z axis. Finally, Datum C controls 1 degree of freedom, namely the translation along the x axis.

Design Engineer : ijan08

2010 BMW-7_ActiveHybrid

Black M5

Babes with food...hehe

Efficient & Dynamic Concept

Ilustration Stage

Clay Modelling

Functionality Study

Aerodynamics Study

Completed Prototype