The aim of this project is to strengthen manufacturing processes and product design education in mechanical engineering schools in the United States. Manufacturing processes are typically taught without significant laboratory experience, are taught apart from product design, and do not integrate well other key disciplines such as stress analysis, materials selection, and component and product design. This project will provide students with an experimental course which integrates mechanical design principles with manufacturing processing principles in a structured analytical and experimental format, following a design for manufacturability concept. The laboratory sequence requires CAD, CAM and data acquisition software, that is microcomputer based, a milling machine that can be externally controlled, digitally controlled testing machine, state-of-the-art process monitoring equipment including a video digitizing imaging system and tooling dynamometry, and testing instrumentation. All equipment selected is capable of interfacing with PC's to provide for an integrated approach of analysis, control and monitoring throughout the sequence.
