Materials and Process Selection for Engineering Design

Mahmoud M. Farag

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000326871
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Mechanical Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Introducing a new engineering product or changing an existing model involves developing designs, reaching economic decisions, selecting materials, choosing manufacturing processes, and assessing environmental impact. These activities are interdependent and should not be performed in isolation from each other. This is because the materials and processes used in making a product can have a major influence on its design, cost, and performance in service. This Fourth Edition of the best-selling Materials and Process Selection for Engineering Design takes all of this into account and has been comprehensively revised to reflect the many advances in the fields of materials and manufacturing, including:

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• Increasing use of additive manufacturing technology, especially in biomedical, aerospace and automotive applications

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• Emphasizing the environmental impact of engineering products, recycling, and increasing use of biodegradable polymers and composites

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• Analyzing further into weight reduction of products through design changes as well as material and process selection, especially in manufacturing products such as electric cars

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• Discussing new methods for solving multi-criteria decision-making problems, including multi-component material selection as well as concurrent and geometry-dependent selection of materials and joining technology

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• Increasing use of MATLAB by engineering students in solving problems

This textbook features the following pedagogical tools:

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• New and updated practical case studies from industry

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• A variety of suggested topics and background information for in-class group work

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• Ideas and background information for reflection papers so readers can think critically about the material they have read, give their interpretation of the issues under discussion and the lessons learned, and then propose a way forward

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• Open-book exercises and questions at the end of each chapter where readers are evaluated on how they use the material, rather than how well they recall it, in addition to the traditional review questions

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• Includes a solutions manual and PowerPoint lecture materials for adopting professors

Aimed at students in mechanical, manufacturing, and materials engineering, as well as professionals in these fields, this book provides the practical know-how in order to choose the right materials and processes for development of new or enhanced products.

1Product Design and Development in the Industrial Enterprise

1.1 Introduction

Product design and development involve interdisciplinary activities with contributions from different segments of an industrial enterprise including design, materials and manufacturing, finance, legal, sales, and marketing. This is because in addition to satisfying the technical requirements, a successful product should also be esthetically pleasing, safe to use, economically competitive, and compliant with legal and environmental constraints.

The total development effort depends on the complexity of the product, and project teams can consist of a few people working for a few days or weeks on a simple product like a hand tool to several hundred people working for several months or even years on a complex product like a motorcar or an airplane. The cost of development can range from a few hundred dollars for a simple product to millions of dollars for a complex product.

A product usually starts as a concept that, if feasible, develops into a design and then a finished product. While each engineering product has its own individual character and its own sequence of development events, the following seven phases can be identified in a variety of product design and development projects:

1. Identification of needs, feasibility study, and concept selection
2. System-level design, detail design, and selection of materials and processes
3. Testing and refinement
4. Manufacturing the product
5. Launching the product
6. Selling the product
7. Planning for its retirement

The overall goal of this chapter is to introduce the spectrum of activities that are normally involved in different product development phases. The main objectives are to:

1. Review the main activities of identification of needs, performing a feasibility study, and selecting an optimum concept.
2. Discuss the main stages of designing and manufacturing a product.
3. Discuss the main activities involved in testing and refining a new product and then launching and selling it.
4. Analyze the environmental issues that are involved in making a product and in retiring it.
5. Explain the concepts of life cycle costing and the product life cycle.

Several of these activities will be discussed in more detail later in this book.

1.2 Feasibility Study, Identification of Needs, and Concept Selection

A statement describing the function, main features, general shape, and essential features of the product is normally followed by a feasibility study that addresses market environment, customer views, technical specifications, economic analysis, as well as social, environmental, safety, and legal issues.

1.2.1 Market Research

Market research involves a survey to evaluate competing products and their main characteristics in addition to identifying the customer needs. Elements of the market research include the following:

1. The range of features and technical advantages and disadvantages of the existing products, the mechanism of their operation, and the materials and processes used in making them.
2. Past and anticipated market growth rate and expected market share by value and volume.
3. The number of companies entering and leaving the market over the past few years and reasons for those movements.
4. The reasons for any modifications that have been carried out recently and the effect of new technology on the product.
5. Patent or license coverage and what improvements can be introduced over the existing products.
6. Profile of prospective customers (income, age, sex, etc.) and their needs in the area covered by the product under consideration.
7. Ranking of customer needs in the order of their importance.
8. Product price that will secure the intended volume of sales.
9. How long will it take for the competition to produce a competitive product?
10. What is the optimum packaging, distribution, and marketing method?

The preceding information is essential for determining the rate of production, plant capacity, and financial and economic evaluation of the proposed product.

1.2.2 Customer Needs and Product Specifications

Identification of needs and customer views is an important first step in the development and design of a new product. The house of quality (HOQ) is a structured process for translating customer requirements and market research into quantifiable product characteristics and specifications to be met by the product design. As shown in Figure 1.1, a simplified HOQ is a diagram that consists of six sections resembling a house.

Figure 1.1Simplified house of quality.

The six sections of the simplified HOQ can be briefly described as follows:

1. Voice of the customer is a list of customer requirements from the product. These are usually gathered through conversations, opinion surveys, and market research. Examples of such requirements are shown in Table 1.1 for a cordless power drill for domestic use.
2. Prioritized customer requirements and the degree of customer satisfaction with various competing products relative to the different requirements are included in this section. This information is also based on opinion surveys and market research.
3. Voice of the company can be a list of the technical parameters, product characteristics, from the point of view of the manufacturer in terms of engineering specifications. These include measurable quantities such as weight, dimensions, level of noise, power consumption, and cost. For example, a specification of “the total weight of the product must be less than 5 kg” can be based on the customer need of a “lightweight product” and the observation that the lightest competing product is 5 kg. Similarly, a specification of “average time to unpack and assemble the product is less than 22 min” can be based on a customer need of “the product is easy to assemble” and the observation that the compe...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface to the Fourth Edition
• Preface to the Third Edition
• Preface to the Second Edition
• About the Author
• Chapter 1 Product Design and Development in the Industrial Enterprise
• PART I Performance of Components in Service
• PART II Relationships between Design, Materials, and Manufacturing Processes
• PART III Selection and Substitution of Materials and Processes in Industry
• PART IV Appendices
• Index