The Mechanical Design Process
Beginning with the simple potter’s wheel and evolving to complex consumer
products and transportation systems, humans have been designing mechanical
objects for nearly five thousand years. Each of these objects is the end result of a
long and often difficult design process. This book is about that process. Regardless
of whether we are designing gearboxes, heat exchangers, satellites, or doorknobs,
there are certain techniques that can be used during the design process to help
ensure successful results. Since this book is about the process of mechanical
design, it focuses not on the design of any one type of object but on techniques
that apply to the design of all types of mechanical objects.
If people have been designing for five thousand years and there are literally
millions of mechanical objects that work and work well, why study the design
process? The answer, simply put, is that there is a continuous need for new,
cost-effective, high-quality products. Today’s products have become so complex
that most require a team of people from diverse areas of expertise to develop
an idea into hardware. The more people involved in a project, the greater is the
need for assistance in communication and structure to ensure nothing important
is overlooked and customers will be satisfied. In addition, the global marketplace
has fostered the need to develop new products at a very rapid and accelerating
pace. To compete in this market, a company must be very efficient in the design
of its products. It is the process that will be studied here that determines the
efficiency of new product development. Finally, it has been estimated that 85%
of the problems with new products not working as they should, taking too long
to bring to market, or costing too much are the result of a poor design process.
The goal of this book is to give you the tools to develop an efficient design
process regardless of the product being developed. In this chapter the important
features of design problems and the processes for solving them will be introduced.
These features apply to any type of design problem, whether for mechanical, electrical, software, or construction projects. Subsequent chapters will focus more on
mechanical design, but even these can be applied to a broader range of problems.
Consider the important factors that determine the success or failure of a
product (Fig. 1.1). These factors are organized into three ovals representing those
factors important to product design, business, and production.
Product design factors focus on the product’s function, which is a description
of what the object does. The importance of function to the designer is a major
topic of this book. Related to the function are the product’s form, materials, and
manufacturing processes. Form includes the product’s architecture, its shape, its
color, its texture, and other factors relating to its structure. Of equal importance to
form are the materials and manufacturing processes used to produce the product.
These four variables—function, form, materials, and manufacturing processes
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