Version 1.0, August 31, 2001, Copyright, Hugh Jack 1993-2001

DI:2.1 BASIC PHILOSOPHY

 

· Philosophy is an important concept, because design is basically making inexact decisions, in an unpredictable environment.

 

· Some basic rules to follow are,

  1. - use standard materials, processes, components, fasteners etc. where possible
  2. - use looser tolerances where possible
  3. - minimize parts
  4. - only design what the specifications/function requires
  5. -

 

· Typical mechanical design problems can be classified as,

  1. - selection design - given certain criteria select a suitable component.
  2. - configuration design - how are given components arranged to satisfy given criteria.
  3. - parametric design - given a known relationship (equations, graphs, tables, etc.) and constrain (limits, objectives, etc) we can calculate an exact dimension (or other parameter values) for a design.
  4. - original design - new concepts must be generated.
  5. - redesign - a design must be changed conceptually to obtain better performance.