How to Become a Good Mechanical Design Engineer

Last Updated: August 28, 2019

Designing is a very skilled, creative and important function in any type of manufacturing/assembly industry.Without proper, accurate drawings no products can be manufactured or assembled. But these drawings are to be prepared carefully by draftsman/draftswomen and to be checked by a design engineer for the suitability in all respects. Therefore, it is very much essential for a design engineer to acquire the qualities,as indicated in the following steps.

Steps

1
Acquire thorough knowledge of engineering materials including their compositions,properties,limitations for their usage.Heat treatment of materials is also to be understood in depth.
2
Learn, how the engineering materials are tested for their properties.Design engineer should be able to guide in selecting the material for a specific use.This is possible by reading and understanding the subjects 'Applied Mechanics','Strength of Materials'.
3
Prepare a sketch of the mechanism/system which can satisfy customer's requirement. Fix the dimensions/specifications of elements tentatively.
4
Check again, whether your design is meeting all the requirements.
5
Analyse the mechanisms/systems. calculate the stresses inducing in the members. Check for the sustainability of the components.If, failing,modify the design. Over-design is acceptable than failure of the mechanism/system.
6
Master the manufacturing and assembly processes.Keep updating the latest technology in engineering practices.
7
Finalize your design using maximum standard parts available in the market.This will help you in controlling the cost of your product.
8
Get prepared the manufacturing drawings from draftsman giving all details of materials,hardness,machining symbols, tolerances,any other important notes.Drawings should be with zero defects.
9
Apply Value Engineering techniques after getting feedback from the customers.This will improve the usage and efficiency of the product as well as reduce the cost of the product.
10
Compare the cost of the other similar products available in the market.Try to reduce the cost using various cost reduction techniques like value engineering,standardization etc.

Community Q&A

Question

What is the average qualification needed for becoming a design engineer?

Community Answer

This really depends on what industry you're heading for. Some mechanical technologists are deemed as designers in some industries. But other than that, one would be looking for a Bachelors of Engineering and eventually a P.Eng.

Warnings

Don't sacrifice quality at any cost.

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Be practical in giving suggestions for modification.

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