TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

COMMERCIAL MANUFACTURING DECISIONS

A key part of your technical specification is to work out how each part will be manufactured. In your final design section the focus in on commercial manufacturing processes. How will this be manufactured in industry NOT in a workshop

You will need to provide detailed evidence that you have thought about the following:

List of the components stating materials and commercial manufacturing technique you would use to make it
Details of all bought-in components (standard components)

Commercial Manufacturing

You will need to carry out an analysis of how your product would be manufactured commercially. This would normally be done in a table, so that the information is clearly presented. The challenge of this task is not to think about how you would make it in the workshop but how it would be manufactured in factories.

Take this chair as an example:

You will have a good idea of how this may be made in the workshop, but the processes will differ significantly from those you would use to manufacture it commercially. Commercial processes are designed to ensure consistent quality, quality control, increased speed, lower costs, and to use less labour to ensure lower costs and fewer errors.

Workshop:

CAD or hand Drawings
Band saw
Disc sander
Screws / glue
Sanded
Painted / varnished

commercial:

CAD Drawings
CNC routed & drilled
Automated: Spray finish
AUTOMATED Assembly

You will need to think about EVERY PART of your design and how each part will be manufactured. Present the information in a table like this:

Materials

You should have already worked out what materials you are using to make your final idea through some research and hands on testing. A reminder that there is some useful information to help you with this on this page.

You need to ensure that you have justified why this material is being used. You do not need to repeat yourself if this has been completed in the development section so just reference the slide where the reader can find where you have done this research. If you have not done this you will need to include some justification for your choice and this will be a combination of: material properties, cost, the part design and how it could be manufactured (see below) and finally the environmental impact of using this material.

Commercial Manufacturing Processes

Now that you have all your parts and the materials you will be using you need to establish the appropriate commercial manufacturing process. Although you will be aware of some processes you will not be aware of all of your potential options and so we recommend the following.

Firstly, to watch this video, it is a very useful video that goes through a large variety of the most common industrial manufacturing processes and what materials you can use with them. Whilst watch you can note down the potential options for each of your parts to create a shortlist.

Secondly, and once you have a shortlist you can think about which is most appropriate to your product, considering the material you are using alongside the cost and the environmental impact of that choice.

We have also created a PDF chart below to help you with your decision-making process. You'll note that when you hover over the process they change colour, these are links to YouTube videos that will help you to understand the process in greater detail.

Another tool to help

3D Hubs is a useful way of finding out how a part might be manufactured commercially. You can input information in order to generate a 'quote' - this quote will include information that will help you to populate your table with detailed technical content, including costs of manufacturing certain quantities.

You will need the .stl files from your OnShape in order to do this (the same ones you used for making your renders).

Visit 3D Hubs website and generate an instant quote (don't worry, you are under no obligation to purchase anything).

Bought-in parts

You will also need to include details of bought-in parts - THIS INCLUDES THE MATERIALS YOU WOULD NEED. In order to do this you need to first understand what is available... this is the only way that you will be able to make informed choices.

Begin by studying the information in the textbook - for every in-depth chapter there is a section that talks about the standard components and commonly available forms that are relevant to that material (for electronic parts see Design Engineering). As you may be covering ANY material type in your NEA, any of these chapters may be relevant to you. There is a wealth of information contained in here that you will need to pull out.