Nashville, Tennessee
June 22, 2003
June 22, 2003
June 25, 2003
2153-5965
6
8.312.1 - 8.312.6
10.18260/1-2--11842
https://peer.asee.org/11842
522
Session 1463
Computer Aided Materials Selection for Design and Manufacturing
D. M. Pai, B. Kailasshankar, C. Adams and G. J. Filatovs Center for Advanced Materials and Smart Structures Department of Mechanical Engineering North Carolina A&T State University Greensboro, NC 27411
Abstract Machine design as taught in most machine design courses tends to focus mainly on considerations of geometry and stress analysis, with the selection of material and manufacturing processes and the specification of manufacturing tolerances becoming almost an afterthought. Although most engineering students are taught materials science as a fundamental science course, the curriculum downstream does not foster the incorporation of these principles into the systematic selection of the most appropriate material for a certain shape and function, or the criterion-based selection of the optimal manufacturing process. Tighter integration between the introductory materials courses and the downstream design and manufacturing courses is just part of the solution. With the advances in materials and manufacturing technology, a plethora of materials and processes has evolved. Undergraduate courses in design and manufacturing cannot provide detailed coverage of all materials and processes, and thus one has to harness the knowledge archiving and retrieval capabilities possible with today’s information technology. The authors describe their experiences with a popular materials and process selection program (Cambridge Engineering Selector) that has been deployed in a junior level manufacturing processes class as well as a senior/graduate level aluminum design class. Students experience different aspects of the software, with the usage of its vast capabilities getting more sophisticated as they progress along the curriculum.
Background The process of design necessitates a good understanding of the properties of materials as well as the manufacturing processes necessary to create a product out of these materials. Fundamentals of material behavior and of manufacturing processes are, in most engineering curricula, typically imparted in engineering science type courses early in the curriculum. The actual usage of this information in the design process is left to the capstone machine design projects and engineering design courses. There is a disconnect between the learning of the early years and the real-world product design work that follows. This is natural, because fundamental classes talk in generalities – materials, for example, are classified broadly as metals, ceramics, polymers and composites and their general structure, mechanical and physical properties are discussed. Likewise, manufacturing processes are broadly classified into forming, solidification, removal and joining. It is always somewhat of a shock for students to learn that the number of real-world materials available1 to them for engineering design range between 40,000 – 80,000 instead of the idealized four or five categories taught in class. Similarly, there are thousands of
Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2003, American Society for Engineering Education
Adams, K., & Filatovs, J., & Kailasshankar, B., & Pai, D. (2003, June), Computer Aided Materials Selection For Design And Manufacturing Paper presented at 2003 Annual Conference, Nashville, Tennessee. 10.18260/1-2--11842
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