Design and Fabrication 1202

Unit 1 - Introduction to Design

Topic 1-1: History of Design (1 hour)

Topic 1-2: The Design Process (4 hours)

Topic 1-3: Social/Environmental Considerations (2 hours)

Topic 1-4: Design in Fabrication (2 hours)

Topic 1-5: Careers in Design (1 hour)

This unit introduces students to the engineering design process and provides the basis for the
remaining units.

Students will review the history of the design process and examine how it has evolved. You will
also examine various fabrication techniques and discover how design and fabrication are
interrelated.

Topic 1 The History of Design

The history of engineering can be roughly divided into four overlapping phases, each marked by a
revolution:
1.
Pre-scientific revolution: The prehistory of modern engineering features ancient master builders
such as Leonardo da Vinci. These forerunners of engineers, practical artists and craftsmen, proceeded
mainly by trial and error.
2.
Industrial revolution: From the 18th through early 19th century, civil and mechanical engineers
changed from artists to scientific professionals. The first phase of modern engineering emerged in the
Scientific Revolution. Galileos Two New Sciences, which seeks systematic explanations and adopts a
scientific approach to practical problems, is a landmark regarded by many engineering historians as the
beginning of structural analysis, the mathematical representation and design of building structures. This
phase of engineering lasted through the First Industrial Revolution, when machines, increasingly
powered by steam engines, started to replace muscles in most production.
3.
Second industrial revolution: In the century before WW II, science-based engineering branches
developed electricity, telecommunications, cars, airplanes, and mass production. The second industrial
revolution, symbolized by the advent of electricity and mass production, was driven by many branches
of engineering.
4.

Information revolution: As engineering science matured after the war, microelectronics,

computers, and telecommunications jointly produced information technology.

Research and development boomed in all fields of science and technology after World War II, partly
because of the Cold War and the Sputnik effect. The explosion of engineering research, which used to
lag behind natural science, was especially impressive, as can be seen from the relative expansion of
graduate education.

Engineering was also stimulated by new technologies, notably aerospace, microelectronics, computers,
and novel means of telecommunications from the Internet to cell phones.
The Design Process
The Design Process has evolved from an informal approach to a formal approach to one with defined
steps and procedures.
Italian architect, Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446), is attributed with creating the first formal approach to
the Design Process!
Around the year 1400, he won a prestigious opportunity to design and build the dome of the "new"
cathedral for the city of Florence.
Brunelleschi was worried, however, that his contemporaries would try to steal his ideas, so to keep it
secret he did something new.
Brunelleschi kept a journal in which he sketched and described individual ideas. He distributed them to
the various manufacturers.
He then evaluated the concepts, blending some together and discarding others altogether. Finally he
completed the dome.
Brunelleschi had unwittingly invented a design process.
The design process has expanded into a multidiscipline approach that relies on people with varied
disciplines and backgrounds.
There are many historically noteworthy inventions and designs throughout history.

Topic 2 The Design Process

The Design Process, is a methodology that can facilitate technological problem-solving. It is an iterative
process that begins with an identified need or opportunity and progresses through a series of predefined steps to a final implemented solution.

The Steps
Before you begin
Opportunities (Need Identification)

Engineering design activity always occurs in response to a human need. Before you can develop
a problem definition statement for a design problem, you need to recognize the need for a new
product, system, or machine.

Step 1 - The Design Brief

A critical step in design is to define the problem by identifying the design objectives or goals. For each
objective, criteria that quantify or qualify the design objective must be assigned.

A Table may be used to for organization

Step 2 - Investigative Research

Before you can go further in the design process, you need to collect all the information available
that relates to the problem.

Consider the following:

Suitable materials for your project.

Safety factors related to your design problem.

Write letters to manufacturers / shops.

Research using the library, Internet / CD-ROMs/DVDs.

Carry out a survey /questionnaire and present the results as a pictogram/table of results.

Collect pictures of existing products - photographs/catalogue pictures.

Step 3 - Generate Options

The next step in the design process begins with creativity in generating new ideas that may solve
the problem. Start with existing solutions and then tear them apart-find out what's wrong with
those solutions and focus on how to improve their weaknesses.

Draw at least 3 different ideas, with notes.

Step 4 - Select Best Option

Once you've conceived alternative solutions to your design problem, you need to analyze those
solutions and then decide which solution is best suited for implementation.
Use a table, Decision Matrix, to indicate whether or not each of your alternative solutions meets the
solution objectives by writing (Y)es or (N)o in the space provided.
Step 5 Develop the Solution

The best solution option is developed in detail at this stage. This often involves various
engineering calculations and the development of detail and assembly drawings.

Following this, a physical or virtual prototype is usually produced and tested to ensure
functional compliance.

Step 6 - Evaluation Redesign

Evaluate your product. State the good and bad points. Does the solution answer the design
brief?

Prototype testing will often reveal the need for improvement in a number of areas. The need to
minimize weight and reduce production costs, for example, are sometimes identified at this
stage. The design process essentially repeats at this stage in an effort to optimize the design
hence, design becomes a cyclic process.

Topic 3 Social/Environmental Considerations

The production of common consumer products can have a considerable impact on society (health and
the environment). These impacts can begin from the moment the raw materials are harvested, then
processed into a finished product and to the point when the product is eventually disposed.
Some questions to consider:
Where do the materials to produce a common product such as a Tim Hortons coffee cup, used tire or
cell phone, come from?
What happens to the products after it is worn out?
How could an improved design reduce negative environmental impacts.
Example: Discarding a computer

The computer you're using to read this will one day be nothing more than a pile of garbage,
contaminated with heavy metals and toxic plastic. There's lead in the keyboard, toxic flame retardants
and antimony in the circuit boards, cadmium in the battery and the chips, all wrapped up in a casing of
plastic that will release more deadly substances furans and dioxins when it's burned.
Environment Canada estimates that computer waste in Canada totalling more than 67,000 tonnes in
2005 put 1.1 tonnes of mercury, 4.5 tonnes of cadmium and 3,012 tonnes of lead into landfills.
The Alternatives
An improved design could minimize the negative impacts:

The newer flat screen monitor designs, for example, consist of fewer smaller components.

Batteries can be redesigned to last longer.

Can you thing of some more options?

What else can be done to reduce waste?
APEGN
APEGN (Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Newfoundland) members work as
part of a team. An APEGN member should strive to influence the work in an environmentally
responsible direction.
Environmental degradation is recognized as a risk to public welfare. The long-term objectives are to
sustain the viability of our ecosystems, and to ensure that the well-being of future generations is not
compromised by our activities today.
To ensure this the association follows an Environmental Guideline when completing all projects.

Topic 4 Design for Fabrication

Design for Manufacturing and Assembly
Design impacts the manufacturing methods required and the associated differences in production cost.

It reduces part count thereby reducing cost. If a design is easier to produce and assemble, it can
be done in less time, so it is less expensive.

It increases reliability, because if the production process is simplified, then there is less
opportunity for errors.

**See LRS-U1-T4-1
Types of Drawings
1. WORKING DRAWING

A working drawing is the final constructed drawing, produced as part of the design process. It
usually consists of a front, side and top view of the solution. Dimensions are added so that any
person using the working drawing can manufacture the design. Usually there are at least six

dimensions but you can add as many as you feel are required in order for the manufacturer to
make your solution.

The working drawing should be precise and drawn to a scale. If the drawing is half the size of the
solution then the scale is 1:2. If the drawing is a 3rd the size of the solution then the scale is 1:3.

The PARTS LIST

A Parts List is a very important feature of the working drawing as all the parts are listed, with
measurements. The materials used are also mentioned as well as the finish applied to the individual
pieces.
2. Assembly drawings
An assembly drawing shows the various parts of a product drawn to show exactly how they fit together.
They are often used for products such as construction and model kits or flat-pack furniture, to show the
user how to assemble the parts.
They can be drawn in two ways.
A fitted assembly drawing shows the parts put together, and can be drawn in 2D or 3D.
An exploded drawing shows the parts separated, but in the correct relationship for fitting together.
Exploded views are usually drawn in 3D, as illustrated.

Exploded views are often a good way of showing detail. The picture below shows the pens
disassembled. It is important to recognize that all the parts are in line with each other, drawn
usually along a centre line which is drawn through the entire centre of the design.

Other Types of Drawings

Section drawings usually show a cutaway view of an object.
Detail drawings are enlarged views of portions of an object. They are used to show additional detail