Design Engineer-Careers in Mechanical Engineering

Hello friends

This is my second article of the series. I m writing this on the basis of my experience as Design Engineer for 18 months.

The profile of Design Engineer is of true mechanical engineer. I think, this is the profile which a prospective mechanical engineer has in his dreams, while joining mechanical engineering.

The role of the Design Engineer is to manage the R&D project from conceptualisation to implementation. And its really interesting, as it touches all the aspects of the Mechanical Engineering.

It starts with Conceptualisation of the idea. For example the company decides to make a new type of steering, which is of lesser cost and requires lesser effort in manuevering the automobile. Now the first phase will be, idea generation. And after lot of brainstorming along with the project team members Design Engineer freezes few conceptual designs.

Then next phase is modelling. Now the design engineer works more closely to the concept and gives it better shape like rough dimensions. And the concept is converted to a CAD model both in 3-D and 2-D. This requires a good amount of knowledge of CAD modelling.

Then next phase is simulation. Here all the static and dynamic forces are applied on the model and tested in various situations. Like in the case of engine, lot of CAE and CFD simulations will be involved. This requires decent amount of knowledge of CAE and CFD softwares like Star CD.

Now, when the concept has been verified and approved from simulation phase, the next phase comes deals with actual prototyping. The point is, till date the technology is not sophisticated enough that can be 100% relied on. So, all the products are prototyped and tested physically. So, the dealing comes now with making a prototype. And this prototype can be made in number of ways. For example if we want to make a prototype of cylinder block of engine, then it can be made of sand casting, machining, and rapid prototyping techniques. So, here lot of knowledge of products functionality and finally deliverables are required. Also, here when the prototype is made then its verified with actual 2-D drawing. Many a times, due to constraints one has to take lot of deviations in order to make prototype. Here, while checking the prototype the engineer has to deal with QA deptt for CMM readings and other parameters.

Then next phase comes of is physical testing of the prototype. Every product has its testing parameters as defined by companies like Toyota, Suzuki........... and regulatory bodies like BIS, JIS and then the international standards. So, here the engineer needs a sound knowledge of these standards and the methodologies to conduct the test. In the case of designing altogether a new product, one has to take help of national and international Test Laboratories in order to set up the aparatus for testing and simulating the conditions for the same.

Once, the results of the physical testing are approved, the next phase comes is implementation. In this phase, design engineer has to take buy in from Machines Department, Production Department and other related departments. And once the buy in has been taken, all the departments together comes out with a implementation plan, which is normally again lead by the Design Engineer.

So this is the brief about Design Engineer Profile. I hope you will find the article interesting and useful.