Lectures 1-5 Flashcards
What is the Technology readiness level of a product
defines the maturity of the product
What does TRL stand for
technology readiness level
What is the form of a product
The shape of the product
What is the function of a product
The function of the product
What is ergonomics
The design for human use and interface
What is aethetics
Design for beautiful appeal
What is product design a combination of?
Engineering design and industrial design
What does industrial design include
Aesthetics, ergonomic, safety and reliability
How many technology readiness levels are there
9 with TRL0 being the idea and TRL9 being a commercially applicable product
What describes the different stages a product goes through from an idea to a product with a fully commercial application
Technology readiness levels
When a new product uses new technology, what TRLs should it go through
all of them
When a product uses existing technology, which TRLs should it go through
From TRL4 (small scale prototype)
Does a product have to sequentially go through the TRL levels
No, level 2 may start before level 1
What TRL levels do universities deal with
TRL 0-4
What TRL levels do industry tend to deal with
TRL 2-9
Why is it important for products to go through systematic methods and procedures?
So that decisions can be made efficiently and effectively
How many parts may a car contain
10,000 parts
Why is a product so complex
because a product has thousands of parts and each part involves a lot of precise design information. Also each part may also represent a complex technology itself
Give an example of a known unknown
true safety margins (some safety margins may be less than thought)
Give an example of an unknown unknown
load cases that cannot be predicted
Explain the complexity of organisations that may occur when producing a car
Designing a car involves multiple companies with diverse multi-disciplinary design teams consisting of thousands of people. A car may contain parts from 100s of different suppliers in a hierarchical structure
Why must each part have a paper trail
so that it can be shown where a part has come from and that the original supplier has quality control methods and has carried out necessary test verification. This is to help give proof if a company is prosecuted for false claims
Describe the complexity of documentation
The fact that commercial products need verification and documentation
What are the 8 major objectives of a car
Technical performance Cost Environment Ergonomics Aesthetics Reliability and Safety Manufacturing
What work is done and method used by mechanical engineers for Technical performance
Vibration analysis
Strength design
Through material selection
What work is done and method used by mechanical engineers for Cost
materials selection and life cycle costing through life cycle costing
What work is done and method used by mechanical engineers for Environment
life cycle analysis and material selection through life cycle analysis
What work is done and method used by mechanical engineers for Ergonomics
Ergonomic design and modelling. Beneficial to liaise with an industrial engineer
What work is done and method used by mechanical engineers for Aesthetics
industrial design through colour selection and following aesthetic guidelines. Beneficial to liaise with an industrial designer
What work is done and method used by mechanical engineers for Reliability and safety
reliability modelling. beneficial to liaise with a reliability engineer
What work is done and method used by mechanical engineers for Manufacturing
Complete manufacturing design with tolerance analysis. Beneficial to liaise with a manufacturing engineer
What objectives come under Technical performance for a car
- Drive: speed, acceleration, range, stability, turning circle
- Size: cabin space, number of seats, boot space
What objectives come under Cost for a car
- Purchase cost
- Maintenance (MOT, servicing)
- Running cost (Tax, insurance, fuel consumption)
- Depreciation (resale value)
What objectives come under ergonomics for a car
- Space
- Forces
- Comfort
- Man machine interface
What objectives come under safety for a car
- Crumple zones
- Warning lights
- Braking systems
- Driver’s view
- Fail safe (bolts facing up not down)
What objectives come under reliability for a car
- Redundancy (Manual and central locking, extra bolts on engine head)
- fail safe
What objectives come under luxury for a car
- Comfort extras (air con, seat adjustment and quality)
- Convenience
- entertainment
What objective come under Environment for a car
- Emissions
- Waste
- Full consumption
What objectives come under aesthetics
- External (character line, borders, curves)
- Internal (textures, colours, blending)
- General (biomimetics)
Give the case study of Toyota accelerator pedal problem and what it is an example of
- Illustrates how a company can experience problems due to unknown unknowns (a scenario they didnt know they didnt know about)
- Cars had to be recalled due to the accelerator pedal being able to get caught on the floor mats which could have been very dangerous
- cost of the recall was $2 billion
- They solved the problem by reducing the size of the pedal and introducing a new design of floor mat
- A brake override system was implemented that would cut of the engine if the break and accelerator are both detected as being pressed
- They made a million correct decisions throughout the design of the car, but a single incorrect decision can have massive implications
What are the 7 challenges of product design?
- Fast changing environmental conditions
- Conflicts between form and function
- retaining information
- High reliability
- Products have multiple objectives
- Products are complicated
- Many stages are required to develop products
What are the three main areas of complexity for products
- Complexity of the product
- Complexity of organisations
- Complexity of documentations
What does it mean to have a vast ‘design heritage’
When a product has gone through multiple life cycles and knowledge has been retained throughout the process
What is meant by a dominant design
Through adaptive design, a design is gradually modified and improved to become a design that is commonly seen among products within the same market as it has been recognised through the adaptive process as being the most successful design
Give an example of a car that has gone through many generations of design cycles
Honda accord
What is meant by the conflicts between form and function
When a particular form might effect the product in being able to complete its desired function.
Give an example of where there has been a conflict between form and function
The millennium bridge
What are the key changes around environmental conditions which may effect future products.
- Push to remove diesel cars and replace with electric (air quality, taxing etc)
- Publicity about amounts of plastic waste
What is the current challenge for the car industry due to fast changing environmental conditions
The EU has given a target for the amount of CO2 emissions, therefore the industry invested in diesel technology (as it is more efficient at using fuel compared to petrol) in order to meet these targets However the government have started taxing diesels and the media have been badly publicising them therefore sales of diesels have reduced making it highly unlikely for the industry to meet the targets
Give 4 examples of key area for future development in engineering and product design
- Electric cars
- Robotics
- Renewable energy
- Domestic products
What is the biggest industry in the UK
Automotive
Why is a design process needed
A design process is needed to systematically co-ordinate the efforts of large multi-disciplinary design teams
Give an example of a multi-objective design
Aircraft seat with • Technical requirements • ergonomic requirements • aesthetic requirements • Entertainment systems
According to Pahl and Beitz, what are the 3 modes of design
- Incremental design
- Adaptive design
- Original design
Explain incremental design, why and when it is used
Minor changes/improvements to an existing product
very common because it presents low-risk design. Common in industries with mature products such as high volume products (cars, domestic appliances)
Incremental design is enable by new elements of technology such as new materials and new manufacturing processes
It also occurs when a fault has been detected
Give an example of incremental design
Improve the windscreen material in a car
Explain Adaptive design
When significant changes/improvements are made to whole sub systems
It is common when significant new technologies come along such as airbags/crumple zones
Give an example of adaptive design
The implementation of airbags/crumple zones
Explain Original design
This is when major changes or improvement are made to whole sub systems.
The original design is not common because it is high risk. It tends to happen when there is an acute need as with pollution and energy concerns with motor cars
It is risky due to the need for the entire design to be error free. Changing all design details make it more likely for something to go wrong in comparison to incremental design
Give an example of original design
The change from IC engine to hybrid drive train in a car
What are the high level stages in a product life cycle
- Motivation
- Creation
- Operation
- Disposal
What are the low level stages of the product life cycle
- Trigger
- Product planning
- Feasibility study
- Design
- Development
- Production
- Distribution
- Operation
- Disposal
What are the 4 main design process models
- The Pahl and Beitz model
- The double diamond process model
- The V model
- The stage gate model
Describe the Pahl and Beitz model
The design process if broken doen into distinct stages.
The Pahl and Beitz model is one of the msot used. By having stages the process is more manageable.
The process is divided into 4 main phases: Task clarification, Conceptual design, embodiment design and detail design
It is a top down process starting with abstract ideas and finishing with complete details
Stages of design can sometimes be overlapped to reduce time (concurrent engineering). Concurrent design is more suitable and feasible for incremental design
What are the 4 main stages of the double diamond process model
- Discover
- Define
- Develop
- Deliver
Describe the double diamond design process and the 4 main stages within it
The double diamond process model encourages designer to see task clarification as a major task involving significant research
- Discover: a divergent stage in which users and markets are researched in order to understand the task.
- Define: a convergent stage in which market and user information is aligned with business objectives to define project goals
- Develop: a divergent stage in which a wide range of design solutions are developed and iterated
- Deliver: a convergent approach is used to complete the product definition
What are the benefits of the double diamond process model
1 Breaks the tasks into stages with outputs
2. it encourages the designers to clarify the specification
Describe the V-model of the design process
The V model shows that the product life cycle goes from top-down during the design phase to bottom up during the verification and delivery phase
What is the advantage of top-down design as presented by the V model design process
• You have to plan the system before you can decide on the details
(its best to start with the systems design before carrying out the detailed design of individual parts)
What is the advantage of the bottom up testing as presented by the V model design process
Helpful because these is no use testing the system if individual components are not right/do not work
What part of the design process if top down and what is bottom up in the V model
Project definition and design: top down
Project testing and integration: bottom up
Describe the stage gate model and which company uses it
Airbus uses this process and it splits the design process into 2 key phases: Definition phase and development phase, which are then followed by the production and in-service phases.
There are meeting points/design reviews between each phase so that it is checked by people high up. This ensures that teams are granted the go ahead and their design work has been checked through and authorised
What are the advantages of the stage gate model design process
- It emphasises that certain achievements are required before progress in the design process can be made
- Regular design reviews can be performed at set dates
- The performance of the design can be defined and recorded at set milestones
- Key senior managers can sign-off that they approve of the progress being made
What are prototypes and why are they important
Prototypes are a physical model/representation of a product that is produced before it is manufactured and is used to evaluate the design.
It is important because computer models always have some limitations. If a designer is unaware of weaknesses in a design, it is unlikely that it will be modelled by the software that is produced. (because they dont understand the unknown unknowns)
What are the series of prototype models that are designed and tested for a high cost system (such as a spacecraft)
- Breadboard model
- Engineering model
- Qualification model
- The delivered model
What is a breadboard model (prototype)
checking the broad feasibility of a technology such as hybrid cars
What is a engineering model (prototype)
Physically verifying the main performance aspects of a design solution
What is a qualification model (prototype)
Checking the entire performance of a product compared to requirements. Often loads will go beyond performance to demonstrate safety margins
What is the delivered model (prototype)
The model to check the actual product performance before delivery
Why are design reviews useful?
Because they mean that designers are forced to declare the design status at milestone points and senior managers are forced to confirm if they approve of progress or whether corrective action is required
What are the 4 different types of design review
- Preliminary
- Engineering
- Qualification
- Final
What does a preliminary design review involve
Review of concept design and bradboard model results
What does a engineering design review involve
Review of detailed design and engineering model results
What does a qualification design review involve
Review of qualification model performance
What does a final design review involve
Review of delivered model performance
Describe the case study of the hubble space telescope in terms of presenting the importance of test verification
The hubble space telescope had a problem due to wobble of the solar array caused by inadequate thermal blankets during orbital sunrise and sunset
The was not modelled because the designers did not know it was an issue
If they have had physically tested the system more thoroughly it may have been spotted
What is a constraint
An aspect that must be achieved. Such as safety performance or level of emissions
What is the difference between hard requirements and soft requirements
hard requirements: non negotiable
soft requirements: are desirable but not essential
Give examples of hard requirements for a car
- must meet safety standards
- must meet pollution standards
- must be a hybrid
Give examples of soft requirements for a car
- Should have a range greater than 500 miles
- should have a top-of-the-range music system
- should have the best gear shift performance
What is the man machine interface
It is the interface between a human operator and a machine. The man machine interface is a critical part of a system and must be designed with care
Why is a solution-neutral problem statement important
Because by stating a particular solution or implying a solution through the problem statement can course discouragement of innovative solutions
Which is better?
• Design a faster lift for this high-rise building.
• Modify the lift so that people feel satisfied with the speed of the lift.
• Modify the lift so that people feel satisfied with the speed of the lift.
Which is better?
• Design a chassis for this car.
• Design a structural platform for this car
Design a structural platform for this car
What does MHRA stand for and what are they?
Medicines and healthcare product regulatory agency - provide regulations for general medical devices and vitro diagnostic medical devices
What are the 3 key regulatory authorities for aircraft deign
FAA: the federal aviation administration (USA)
CAA: Civil aviation authority
ICAO: The international civil aviation organisation (UN specialised agency)
What is the Euro NCAP
The european car safety regulation authority
What are the regularity documents that are used for structural design
The eurocodes 1-9
What is the regulation document for electrical equipment
Must comply with the electrical equipment (safety) regualtions 1994
What is the regulation used for racing bicycles and what does it specify
Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI)
1, minimum mass
- diamond frame concept
- max section sizes
- pedal floor clearance
Describe a function mean tree and what its used for
Function mean trees help to convert abstract function (or objective) into specific sub-function and eventually into concrete features
They help to identify requirements and can be used for conceptual design
How should worst case loading be calculated
Using worse case possible rather than worst case normally expected
Describe the case study of the bristol rovers main stand to describe the importance of clarifying information
The customer stated that they wanted a covered stand with a function hall underneath.
The outcome was than 50% of spectators got wet because they were not protect from the rain due to the prevailing wind and the near touchline could not be seen
The designers were found guilt of incompetence and fined £1 million. The stand was modified to increase the terrace angle and extended the roof
Describe the case study of the Challenger disaster in 1986 in terms of the importance to clarify information
The Challenger disaster was caused by failure int eh joint between the two lower segments of the right solid rocket motor - due to failure (destruction) of the seals that are intended to prevent hot gases from leaking through the joint during the propellant burn of the rocket motor. A combustion gas leaked through and weakened the external tank initiating vehicle structural breakup and loss of the space shuttle
This was due to the ambient temperature at launch being lower than previous launches and the O rings were not rated for this kind of temperature. Therefore the failure could have been avoided by stating that launch should not go ahead for temperatures less than a certain value
How are do engineers contrast with industrial designers in terms off being able to be inventive
Engineers are trained to be cautious and to follow rules in design which can inhibit creativity and adventure.
Where as industrial designers are trained to be creative. with their training tending to be more project based.
How can design methods encourage creativity
by giving a structured step by step process to generating ideas
What are the 7 main drivers for innovation
- Legislation
- Customer wishes
- Technology breakthroughs
- Innovators/entrepreneurs
- Elite activities
- Affluence
- Competition
Give an example where legislation has drived innovation
Limits in emissions
Give an example where customer wishes are driving innovation
Reduce environmental impact
Give an example technology breakthroughs are driving innovation
Artificial intelligence for driverless cars
Give an example where innovators are driving innovation
Elon Musk: tesla cars, spaceX
James Dyson: appliances
Give an example where elite activities are driving innovation
F1
olympics/sporting events
What does affluence mean and how is it driving innovation
Affluence means that people will pay for higher performance products and allow nte markets to open up
What are the 12 key conceptual design methods
- Sketching
- Technology opportunities
- Inversion
- Structured questioning
- Brainstorming
- Prototyping
- backwards design
- functional decomposition
- technology transfer
- bio inspiration
- insight
- study the competition
Describe the conceptual design method of studying the competition
Analyse the best designs of competitors and draw inspiration from them
There are legal and ethical restriction in copying designs which have to be taken into account (iphone vs samsung case study)
Describe the conceptual design method of insight
understanding the physics of a problem helps to produce effective ideas
Give an example of where insight has been used for conceptual design
Large ships: Brunel pioneered large iron hulled ships. He notices that drag is proportional to the frontal area whilst fuel capacity is proportional to volume. Therefore meaning that range can be increased through scaling up the size of the ship
Describe the conceptual design method of bio inspiration
being inspired by solution in the natural world.
What are the advantages of bio inspiration
- Concepts that are proven to work efficiently in harsh environments
- Very large range of concepts
What are the disadvantages of bio inspiration
- Often extremely complex at micro level and difficult to copy in detail
- Not necessarily designed for long life
- Some strategies in nature are brutal
What is the difference by bioinspiration and biomimetics
Bio inspiration is why the design is inspired by nature where as biomimetic is where the method is attempted to be mimiced exactly. Bioinspiration is better than biomimetics
Give some examples of biomimetics
- Velcro
- self cleaning glass
- painless medical needle
- helmet design inspired by brain fluid
Describe the conceptual design method of technology transfer
This is where you transfer the elements of one technology from a product to another very different product
Give an example of where technology transfer has been used
Cyclone vacuum cleaner: James dyson transferred cyclone technology (from removal of sawdust at a local sawmill using large industrial cyclones) for a factory application to vacuum cleaner
Describe the conceptual design method of functional decomposition
Identify the individual sub-functions of the product and then consider feasible/ideal combinations of sub solutions
What is a morphological chart and what type of conceptual design method does it promote
When sub function and sub solutions are put in a table/ it support functional decompostion
Describe the conceptual design method of Backwards design
identifying an idealistic solution and them working backwards to make it work
What is the case stuy for backwards design
Double action worm gear set for spacecraft
This gearbox can act like a rack and pinion gear to absorb launch vibrations as well as a normal worm gearbox for deployment of the solar array
The device was invented by imagining a gearbox that could absorb enforced displacements and then working out how that could be achieved.
What are the advantages of prototyping
- Gives feedback on form and function very quickly
- Good for 3D visualisations
- can be cheaper than computer modelling
- You can learn things that computer models dont tell you as you can only model what you understand
- There may be no off the shelf computer models for novel products
- Aids team work
- Aids selling to investors
Describe the conceptual design method of brianstorming
Brainstorming is the uninhibited idea creation by a team of people bouncing ideas off each other.
Often a team is made up of people with different backgrounds such as design engineer, manufacturing engineers and materials scientists to stimulate a diverse range of ideas
To encourage creativity, criticism is not allowed
Describe the conceptual design method of structured questioning
A set of questions are created that consider what can and cannot be done to solve a problem
Give some examples of structured questioning for conceptual design
- Trains: Is it allowable to have much longer trains or multi-deck trains?
- Lorries: is it ok to join several lorries on a motorway?
- LED lights: how do they fail? is it possible to overcome this failure?
- Bikes: is it possible to fold bikes in a convenient way?
- Tube transport: is it possible to have super high speed transport inside a low pressure tube with such a tube buried under ground
Describe the conceptual design process of inversion
Investigate whether an existing design can be done another way round as sometimes a new design can be generated by inverting some part of an existing design
What is the advantages of inversion as a conceptual design process?
it starts with a working design
Give some examples of where inversion has been used in product design
- helicopters - rotating wings instead of static
- see through covers instead of coloured covers (vacuums)
- caterpillar tracks instead of wheels
- power from overhead power line instead of coming from the train
Describe using technology opportunities as a method for conceptual design
Use the latest technological breakthroughs to design new products.
Technological breakthroughs can create great scope for invention
Give examples of where technology breakthroughs have been used to generate design
- Artificial intelligence: driver less cars
- Magnetic levitation - trains
- smart materials
- sensors - smart buildings
- more powerful batteries in cars and phones
- CFRP for bikes and aircraft
What are the advantages of using sketching for conceptual design
- Easy to focus on the essential parts
- quick to produce
- Good for 3D visualisation
- can record notes
- good for team work
- impressionist (not exact)
- can record design options
What is 3 point perception good for
tall buildings
What is 2 point perspective good for
realistic views of cars
What are the 4 key methods of sketching
- 3 point perspective
- 2 point perspective
- isometric
- oblique
Which is the easiest form of sketching
Oblique
Give the case study of James Dyson as an innovator
James Dyson is a graduate of 2 of the UK’s most prestigious design schools
He is a graduate of industrial design
Dyson has successfully used analogies and prototyping in concept design
He first designed a wheel barrow that used a fibre glass ball instead of a wheel so that it didnt sink in the mud
Give the case study of Elon Musk as an innovator
Uses new technologies to leap frog current technologies (such as aiming to replace IC engine cars with electric cars)
He studied business and physics, graduated in economics and completed a second bachelors in physics
He founded paypal, spaceX and tesla motors
What is SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk
To launch the first commercial vehicle to the international space station
What is Solar City, bought by Elon Musk
SolarCity corporation is a subsidiary of Tesla that specialises in solar energy services and is headquartered in California. It markets, manufactures and installs residential and commercial solar panels
What is Tesla Cars, founded by Elon Musk
company dedicated to producing affordable, mass market electric cars as well as battery products and solar roofs.
Musk oversees the product development, engineering and design of the company’s products
What is the Hyperloop concept developed by Elon Musk
a concept for a new form of transportation called the Hyperloop, an invention that would foster commuting between major cities while severely cutting travel time.
Ideally resistant to weather and powered by renewable energy, the hyperloop would propel riders in pods through a network of low pressure tubes at speeds more than 700 mph.
Describe TRIZ
created by Genrich Altshuller
Developed around the key concept of ideality - the ideal state of the system is where all its functions are achieved without causing any problems. Having knowledge of the ideal system helps improve the existing system
Features are improved gradually to achieve the best design
TRIZ combines several concept design methods into one
What is the TRIZ method
There is a contradiction checklist of 39 features that can be improved
Contradictions are improved by using a list of 40 design principles
A contradiction matrix is created with improving and worsening features which contain numbers from the solution principle matrix
What different concept design methods does TRIZ combine
- Backwards design - similar to ideality
- structured questioning - similar to checklists
- inversion - ‘the other way round’ principle for improvement
- prototyping - many principles for improvement encourage physical insight
What is a (weighted) pugh matrix
assist with decision making
Sketch how a bio inspired knee joint works
SKETCH
Sketch how a self-healing composite works
SKETCH
