Design Step 7: Improve and Redesign/Manufacture a Product
Manufacturing a final project involves the use of various tools and machinery. This student uses welding equipment to fuse two steel bars together.
As students learn more about the manufacturing process, they use what they learned from testing their designs in the previous activity to continue to improve and redesign. Students also have the opportunity to manufacture their final product. Teams work with more advanced materials and tools, such as plywood, Plexiglas, metals, epoxies, welding materials and machining tools. (Note: Conduct this activity in the context of a design project that students are working on; this activity is Step 7 in a series of seven steps that guide students through the engineering design loop.)
Improving and redesigning is an important part of the engineering design process. It allows engineers to think about how they could improve their designs after testing. They often iterate to make the product the best that it can be. Once an engineer has developed a design for a product, s/he often creates an engineering drawing to be used by a machinist or manufacturer to create the product. Engineers must be careful about the details to assist in creating products that can be efficiently manufactured.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Evaluate the most successful aspects of a prototype and extend these to the manufacture of a final product.
- Describe how engineering drawings are the communication between engineers and manufacturers.
- Create a product according to specifications while working with more advanced building tools and materials.