How to Become a Good Mechanical Design Engineer

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.
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    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. 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. 3
    Prepare a sketch of the mechanism/system which can satisfy customer's requirement. Fix the dimensions/specifications of elements tentatively.
  4. 4
    Check again, whether your design is meeting all the requirements.
  5. 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.
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    6
    Master the manufacturing and assembly processes.Keep updating the latest technology in engineering practices.
  7. 7
    Finalize your design using maximum standard parts available in the market.This will help you in controlling the cost of your product.
  8. 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. 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.
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    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.