Manufacturing engineering
An example would be a company uses computer integrated technology in order for them to produce their product so that it is faster and uses less human labor.
This field also deals with the integration of different facilities and systems for producing quality products (with optimal expenditure) by applying the principles of physics and the results of manufacturing systems studies, such as the following: Manufacturing engineers develop and create physical artifacts, production processes, and technology.
Advanced statistical methods of quality control: These factories were pioneered by the American electrical engineer William Edwards Deming, who was initially ignored by his home country.
Industrial robots on the factory floor, introduced in the late 1970s: These computer-controlled welding arms and grippers could perform simple tasks such as attaching a car door quickly and flawlessly 24 hours a day.
Although large home production sites and workshops were established in China, ancient Rome, and the Middle East, the Venice Arsenal provides one of the first examples of a factory in the modern sense of the word.
Founded in 1104 in the Republic of Venice several hundred years before the Industrial Revolution, this factory mass-produced ships on assembly lines using manufactured parts.
British colonies in the 19th century built factories simply as buildings where a large number of workers gathered to perform hand labor, usually in textile production.
This proved more efficient for the administration and distribution of materials to individual workers than earlier methods of manufacturing, such as cottage industries or the putting-out system.
Cotton mills used inventions such as the steam engine and the power loom to pioneer the industrial factories of the 19th century, where precision machine tools and replaceable parts allowed greater efficiency and less waste.
Henry Ford further revolutionized the factory concept and thus manufacturing engineering in the early 20th century with the innovation of mass production.
Highly specialized workers situated alongside a series of rolling ramps would build up a product such as (in Ford's case) an automobile.
This concept dramatically decreased production costs for virtually all manufactured goods and brought about the age of consumerism.
The undergraduate degree curriculum generally includes courses in physics, mathematics, computer science, project management, and specific topics in mechanical and manufacturing engineering.
Professional Engineer, abbreviated (PE - USA) or (PEng - Canada), is the designation for licensure in North America.
To qualify for this license, a candidate needs a bachelor's degree from an ABET-recognized university in the USA, a passing score on a state examination, and four years of work experience usually gained via a structured internship.
This method has many benefits, including easier and more exhaustive visualization of products, the ability to create virtual assemblies of parts, and ease of use in designing mating interfaces and tolerances.
Analysis tools may be used to predict product response to expected loads, including fatigue life and manufacturability.
These tools include finite element analysis (FEA), computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM).
In addition, CAE analysis programs can model complicated physical phenomena which cannot be solved by hand, such as viscoelasticity, complex contact between mating parts, or non-Newtonian flows.
MDO tools wrap around existing CAE processes, allowing product evaluation to continue even after the analyst goes home for the day.
Typically, engineering mechanics is used to analyze and predict the acceleration and deformation (both elastic and plastic) of objects under known forces (also called loads) or stresses.
A technical drawing can be a computer model or hand-drawn schematic showing all the dimensions necessary to manufacture a part, as well as assembly notes, a list of required materials, and other pertinent information.
Engineers primarily manufacture parts manually in the areas of applied spray coatings, finishes, and other processes that cannot economically or practically be done by a machine.
Three-dimensional models created using CAD software are also commonly used in finite element analysis (FEA) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD).
The term mechatronics is typically used to refer to macroscopic systems, but futurists have predicted the emergence of very small electromechanical devices.
Advanced composite materials have broad, proven applications, in the aircraft, aerospace, and sports equipment sectors.
Successful students in manufacturing engineering degree programs are inspired by the notion of starting with a natural resource, such as a block of wood, and ending with a usable, valuable product, such as a desk, produced efficiently and economically.
Examples in Europe include Airbus, Daimler, BMW, Fiat, Navistar International, and Michelin Tyre.
This innovative steady state (non-fusion) welding technique joins previously un-weldable materials, including several aluminum alloys.
Current uses of this technology to date include: welding the seams of the aluminum main space shuttle external tank, the Orion Crew Vehicle test article, Boeing Delta II and Delta IV Expendable Launch Vehicles and the SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket; armor plating for amphibious assault ships; and welding the wings and fuselage panels of the new Eclipse 500 aircraft from Eclipse Aviation, among an increasingly growing range of uses.
