DISQUS

Rod_Uding · 8 months ago

This post should be on page one of every engineering departments handbook.

ckeen · 8 months ago

Design for Manufacturability is so important. This article is the story of my life. I cannot count how many times I have seen customer parts designed with no inside fillets or broken sheet metal parts made from extrudes. The biggest, most common offense is the lack of or incongruity of the SolidWorks model/drawing. Designers and engineers need to understand not only the manufacturing tooling required to produce the product, but the process of production. We use CAM software for both fabrication and machining. Having accurate and complete 3D CAD data is essential to reducing cost, reducing lead time, and avoiding quality issues. (Digital Manufacturing - http://manufacturing.kform.com/index.php/digita...)

I have probably written about DFM a dozen times. Great article Josh. :)

Chris Serran · 8 months ago

Awesome article. "Extrude. Print. Manufacture", great name for a DFM course too!

AP · 8 months ago

Where hands on experience fabricating parts benefits designers. I find it humorous when people go to school to become engineers or designers, yet barely touched a tool or stood behind a machine in their life.

CroAxis · 8 months ago

This posting can be an excellent resource for SolidWorks expert and newbies as well. In fact it might be a good base of knowledge for those who are not involved in the manufacturing at all yet they are keen to develop their lifelong career there but don't know where to start. Well done Josh!

Lars Christensen · 8 months ago

This is a great post, It is amazing how a little communication can make everyone's life
easier.
Josh, can it be purchased as a poster or cross stitching pattern?, I got a wall space available
in our engineering for these words of wisdom.

Josh M · 7 months ago

Ha, thanks Lars! a poster would be great... may have to fine tune a few. Hopefully it helps others make list of their own or ask more questions when interacting with manufacturing.

Anna Wood · 8 months ago

Great post Josh....

Most important point, if you can spend time in the shop.... Do It! Go with an open mind, willing to learn from the folks that manufacture parts for a living. They have much to teach you.

You will create an immense amount of good will with the shop personal if you listen and learn from them.

Cheers,

Anna

ckeen · 8 months ago

Experience in a manufacturing environment definitely makes designing items a little easier. I worked in a custom manufacturing environment for years before I learned SolidWorks.

I like reading all the manufacturing trade magazines and/or going to the conferences to keep apprised of technological developments in process, materials, and tooling.

jason raak · 8 months ago

great, great post josh! you never cease to amaze me with awesome content. keep up the great job and this post gave me an idea that i will contact you about directly.

thanks again man!

aWhatmough · 7 months ago

Josh,

Great post, it defiantly gives inspiration to continue to think longer and harder about how things are made.

You touched on getting out to the show floor.. This is SO SO important the staff on the floor can be your best friend if you show them respect for their background and knowledge or your worse enemy if you undermined their intelligence.

Keep up the great posts!!!

Cheers,

Al

Bruce Buck · 7 months ago

I think the fact that I majored in Manufacturing Engineering rather than mechanical has helped me tremendously in being able to have manufacturing in mind when designing. It familiarized me with a lot of different processes, and it also added the aspect of optimizing it for the particular process flow you might have, not just the actual process.

Definitely, though, the best thing is as everyone else mentioned: go out on the shop floor.

The only thing I would add is, don't be afraid to push manufacturing a little. I thought I remembered reading somewhere that people like Steve Jobs would drive tool makers and the like crazy with some of his design requirements; no draft faces and what not. Many times manufacturing will simply say "it can't be done", yet someone innovative and creative will figure out a way to do it. Dual-polymer injection molding, anyone? I'm sure for years designers were told, nope, can't do it. But somebody, somewhere, figured out a way.

I think the key is to have that open line of communication with manufacturing, rather than doing the over-the-wall approach.

Josh M · 7 months ago

So right Bruce. Getting to know the capabilities of not only the shop, but the people in the shop can make meeting those design requirements a lot easier.

I've been finding out lately that engineering and manufacturing tend to limit themselves in the scope of budget and time. It can add to the manufacturing challenge, but it also stops a lot of people from learning better ways to design and manufacturer products. Just needs to be looked at as a challenge to innovate.