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Hello!
We are excited to have you on our career tour. I am Rho, your guide through this wonderful journey.

Mechanical engineering design involves design of new
mechanical products, assembly methods and processes, as well
as modification of existing ones to improve them or adapt them
for different requirements.

Engineers perform calculations, analysis and use software for
design activities.

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Let's start with the basics of designing in mechanical engineering

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peoples
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Welcome! This company makes robotic
grippers for the manufacturing industry. You
will be working on an assignment with their
engineering design team.

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Your team has to design a clamping robotic gripper to be used in a manufacturing facility. Gripper needs to be able to hold a small rigid cuboidal object as well as a cylindrical object.

* This example is on new product development

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Conceptual design

Step 1: Concept generation

  • Determining “how” product will perform desired functions
  • Different mechanisms and materials could be used to
    achieve same function

* Note: Conceptual design is done when developing a new
product or major redesign of existing one, and generally not for
minor product modifications

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We will now go through the design process step by step, first understanding the theory then implementing it on the requirement

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Concept Generation

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Concept 1: Two rigid fingers

2 lines of contact with cylindrical object

Each gripper finger can be made with
single part only

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Concept 2: Two flexible fingers

5 lines of contact with cylindrical object

Each gripper finger will need multiple parts
as shown to achieve enclosing motion around
cylindrical object

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Your team has come up with these two
concept designs to meet the requirement

* Concept designs can be made using existing
solutions or by developing new ones

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Conceptual design

Step 2: Concept evaluation

  • Determining criteria (like performance, cost of production)
    for comparing concept designs and their order of
    importance (like performance more important than cost)
  • Evaluating designs against the above criteria to select a
    design for further development
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Assignment

You have got some work to do! You need to determine how the two concept
designs compare in terms of performance and cost of production:

Criteria Two Rigid Fingers two-figure-icon Two Flexible Fingers two-figure-icon
Performance
(Consider grip stability based on lines of contact)



Cost of production
(Consider cost of designing and manufacturing)



*Please select an option for the "Performance" and "Cost of production" criteria in either of the concepts

*Please select an option for the "Performance" Criteria in either of the concepts

*Please select an option for the "Cost of production" criteria in either of the concepts

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Concept 1: Two rigid fingers

2 lines of contact with cylindrical object

Each gripper finger can be made with
single part only

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Concept 2: Two flexible fingers

5 lines of contact with cylindrical object

Each gripper finger will need multiple parts
as shown to achieve enclosing motion around
cylindrical object

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Performance:

More the number of lines of contact between gripper fingers and object, more stable will be the grip

Cost of production:

More the number of parts in a gripper finger, higher will be the cost of designing and manufacturing

Got it!

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Oops!

Criteria Two Rigid Fingers Two Flexible Fingers
Performance

(Consider grip stability based on lines of contact)

Cost of production

(Consider cost of designing and manufacturing)

Company has decided to give performance importance over cost of production so ‘Two
flexible fingers’ concept design has been selected for further development.

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Your evaluation of the two
concept designs is incorrect!

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Oops!

Criteria Two Rigid Fingers Two Flexible Fingers
Performance

(Consider grip stability based on lines of contact)

Cost of production

(Consider cost of designing and manufacturing)

Company has decided to give performance importance over cost of production so ‘Two
flexible fingers’ concept design has been selected for further development.

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Your evaluation of the two
concept designs is incorrect!

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Awesome!

Criteria Two Rigid Fingers Two Flexible Fingers
Performance

(Consider grip stability based on lines of contact)

Cost of production

(Consider cost of designing and manufacturing)


Company has decided to give performance importance over cost of production so 'Two
flexible fingers' concept design has been selected for further development.

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Well done! Your evaluation of the
two concept designs is correct!

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Oops!

Criteria Two Rigid Fingers Two Flexible Fingers
Performance

(Consider grip stability based on lines of contact)

Cost of production

(Consider cost of designing and manufacturing)

Company has decided to give performance importance over cost of production so ‘Two
flexible fingers’ concept design has been selected for further development.

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Your evaluation of the two
concept designs is incorrect!

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