I am writing the second edition of a textbook on Mechanical Engineering Design (see my contributions).
With respect to classical textbooks such as Shigley, Juvinall, etc., which topics should be treated in greater depth, eliminated or added?
In my opinion, the new trend of mechanical engineering design in developing countries, refers to the conditions of employment needs, type of work, The goal is that students can graduate after applying to the type of work. the sequence of learning concepts: 1. Type of work; 2. engineering design (sketch); 3. Make image use software (auto Cad)
No creo que sea tan nueva la tendencia que voy a referir, aunque no sea muy atendida en el diseño. Determine los problemas profesionales principales y más generales, probablemente tiene que ver con el diseño, mantenimiento y explotación de maquinarias, desde ellas determine las principales formas o modos de actuación de un ingeniero mecánico para resolver los problemas detectados y estos le llevarán a determinar las competencias "genéricas" y más específicas que desde la fuente socioprofesional del curriculum guiarán la construcción del Plan de Estudio.
In the classical textbooks (Shigley, Juvinall, and also our first edition) many pages are devoted to traditional computing approaches, which can be done with paper and pencil.
It is instead well known that the designer works essentially in front of a PC screen making use of different design software.
The mathematics behind that design software is so complex that it is generally dealt with in depth in special advanced courses.
What is the minimum knowledge requirement to sit in front of that PC screen and correctly design a mechanical component?
In other words: what is the right compromise between the two approaches?
Preliminaries of every design on a particular subject should be considered from an elementary point of view
The chapters of Mechanics should be shorter. However, more detailed examples and more formulae ready for use in real applications should be included.
I suggest all the topics related to additive manufacturing, from ductile damage to FE modeling etc.
Franco
We are trying to do this in the 2nd edition of our textbook. Thanks to everybody for useful suggestions.
Maybe more attention on task definition. A mechanical designers is almost every time asked to apply his/her knowledge to design devices (or part of them), in multidisciplinary contexts, where a lot of conflicting requirements are often present (e.g. ahestetics appearance from industrial designers VS ease of maintenance from users VS manufacturing costs from manufacturers etc.).
This condition, if not correctly managed, can be quite frustrating for novice designers, because "very often", implies to repeat their work in a trial-and-error style.
Obviously, designing implies to iterate through different steps, but some tips could be useful for students in order to understand (or simply to remind) that before starting with "drafting and calculating", it is very important to correctly frame the design task.
I agree. In our book we have explicitly referred to this aspect. A good reference in this regard are the design guidelines (Richtilinien) of VDI
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