To become a good mechanical design engineer, first, you require a degree or diploma in mechanical engineering. That will help you in improving your basic knowledge in the mechanical field. To become a mechanical design engineer, keep your focus on the basic skills discussed here.
If you have a plan to switch from any other department to design. Following skills can help you in achieving your goal.
You can achieve your goal of becoming a good mechanical design engineer if you can acquire skills that are required to do tasks done by mechanical engineers.
Update: If you do not have a degree, That does not mean you can not be a good mechanical design engineer. Any individual can learn engineering skills online and practice them to become a good mechanical design engineer.
Common Tasks of a Mechanical Design Engineer
Mechanical Design engineers play a very important role during product design and development. One can not become an expert in all of these tasks. But based on your experience and interest. It’s better to get expertise in multiple areas. Following tasks are performed by a mechanical design engineer.
- Understand market requirements.
- Concept / industrial design.
- Material selection
- Detailed part design.
- 3D CAD modeling.
- Structural simulation.
- Thermal simulation.
- Aerodynamics.
- Design for manufacturing.
- Vendor development
- Part and product-level testing.
Qualities and Skills of a Good Mechanical Design Engineer
Following qualities and skills are required to perform the above tasks effectively. During graduation, you should try to achieve these qualities and skills. It will help you in becoming a good mechanical design engineer in your professional life. During interviews, recruiters look for these qualities and skills in their prospective employees.
Mindset and Approach towards Product Design
Try to develop a design engineering approach by analyzing products around you from a design engineer’s perspective. Always ask yourself: Why is this product designed like this? Is there a better way of doing this?
During new product design, good engineers always brainstorm the following questions:
- Who is going to use this product: end customer?
- Product Competitors.
- What is product function and applications?
- Target Cost?
- Bench-marking (product existing alternatives).
- Is there a better way to design this product?
- Can we reuse existing design blocks?
- Reverse Engineering
Technical Know How
A good mechanical design engineer should have good technical knowledge. Because product design decisions are taken based on experience, engineering calculation, and engineering judgment.
For example, To design a consumer electronics product. Design engineers shall have the following knowledge and skills.
- Complete product knowledge
- CAD Design
- Plastic or Sheet Metal Design
- Material selection
- Structural and thermal calculations
- Design for manufacturing
- Tolerance Analysis
- Problem Solving Skills
- Manufacturing
- Product testing
Simulation Tools & Manual Calculation
Simulation tools are used to predict the behavior of a system before actually building it. This helps in saving costs and getting products faster into the market. As a student, you should develop an interest in simulation tools such as Ansys, Solid-works simulation, Flotherm, etc. Read this article to know the role of simulation in product design and development.
Always try to solve real-life problems using simulation software. For example while solving thermodynamics problems, match simulation or manual calculation results with actual results.
CAD (Computer Aided Design) and Engineering Drawings
Knowledge of CAD tools is one of the key skills to become a mechanical design engineer. This is not a mandatory skill but in the initial phase of your professional journey, it helps.
Being good in cad software does not mean someone is also a good mechanical design engineer. But it is a required skill.
As a fresher, you should learn cad tools. You can start practicing any of these cad tools such as solid-works, creo, CATIA or NX, etc. You can also start with these Free available cad tools.
Ability to understand engineering drawings
Knowledge of understanding engineering drawing is a must skill. Start creating 3D CAD models from 2D engineering drawings and vice-versa.
Work on a Live Project
To improve design knowledge, working on a live project is a good idea. In the live project, you will get an opportunity to solve real-life engineering problems. Real-life engineering problems and challenges are different from theoretical problems.
Engineering students can consider working on a design project as their final year project.
Develop Soft Skills
To stand out from the crowd. You shall start working on the following soft skills. Soft skills are equally important as technical skills.
- Communication skills.
- Positive attitude towards work.
- Ability to work as a team.
- Leadership qualities.
- Update yourself with current trends in the technical area.
We are continuously updating the ways to improve mechanical design skills. By doing so you can become a good design engineer. Add your comments or questions on How to become a good mechanical design engineer?
any site for live project
ActCAD uses the latest IntelliCAD 10.1a Engine Economical price cad software.
Learn, how the engineering materials are tested for their properties.Design engineer should be able to guide in selecting the material for a specific use.This is possible by reading and understanding the subjects ‘Applied Mechanics’,’Strength of Materials’.