1.

1Design
What is design? Fashionable designer wear, a sporty look of a car, a design on the border
of a saree or a beautiful flower pot all are designed for looks. The term design is used by
different persons for different ends. All items above are designed for their aesthetic
appearance but as far as the design of the car is concerned besides its sporty look it also
involve other design aspects like design of gearing system, steering system, lubrication
system…….e.t.c which requires careful attention of a design engineer rather than by a
fashion designer who is having its own definition of design based on artistic imagination.

The dictionary meaning of design is a mental plan, a scheme of attack, end in view,
adaptation of means to end. Engineering design is defined as the application of scientific
principles, technology, automation, processes, services and their systems in the whole life
cycle.

1.2 Machine Design or Mechanical Engineering Design

It may be defined as designing of machine elements like fasteners, bearings, gears, shafts,
pulleys, belts and rope drives, cams etc which can be used as standard components for
different mechanism based on the knowledge of strength of materials, kinematics and
dynamic analysis of these elements, fluid mechanics, thermal aspects involved,
vibrations, manufacturing processes etc. Machine Design involve all fields of mechanical
engineering hence it is also known as Mechanical Engineering Design.

1.3 Design Methods

1. Design by Experience
On the basis of past experience and present practice a designer may evolve some
relations known as Empirical relations for determining the dimensions of the machine
elements in proportion of the principal dimension of any element. Some times it is
also known as Empirical Design.

2. Evolutionary Design
Technological growth becomes very fast due to the development of computers
because of which there is a continuous development process in the existing design
which was on a very slow pace prior to the development of computers so the designs
are improving day by day for example when NOKIA 3315 a black & white display a
limited featured mobile was launched no one can think about the NOKIA N series or
BLACK BERRY smart phones. Design by evolution is a step by step improvement in
the existing designs.
3. Designing New or Design by Invention
The design of something from non existence to fulfill the needs of the society like
invention of steam engine or an airplane or the telephone or electric bulb etc by the
application of scientific principles and creativeness.

4. Rational Design
In this design a relation between the dimensions, load and strength of the selected
material is obtained by the principles of solid mechanics and the relations so obtained
are known as design equations.

5. Industrial Design
 Industrial design deals with the designing of working pattern of any organization,
industrial processes, product design, layout of a workshop for example – Design of a
production line or assembly line

1.4 Basic Design Considerations

1. Load and Stress

The load supported by an element can come on it in many ways due to which different
types and level of stresses may set up in the machine member which a designer must
know.

2. Material Selection
It is a prerequisite that a designer must have the adequate knowledge of materials of
engineering use, their properties and how the material will behave under specific
conditions.

3. Shape and Size of the machine element

It is essential for a designer to know the shape of the part to be designed in order to
determine the size as per the load shared by the part during service.

4. Motion of the parts and Lubrication

A designer must know about the motion of the part to be designed such as rotation,
oscillation or reciprocation careful attention must be paid to the parts which moves in
contact with parts and offers frictional resistance like journals and bearings, gears etc
therefore a designer must have sufficient knowledge of lubrication system.

5. Standard Parts
A designer must have the knowledge of standard parts because it facilitates the
designer to select the standard parts and reduces the time required to design and
manufacturing.

6. Standard Codes
A designer must have the knowledge of standard codes in practice so that he can
follow them for the safety of machines and their operators.

7. Aesthetics
A designer must know the taste of its potential costumers besides strength the product
should also be good looking. The selection of proper color is an important factor in
the aesthetics of the product, the surface finish also plays an important role in the
appearance of the product.

8. Ergonomics
The science of comfort is known as ergonomics it deals with the design based on
anatomical factors of human beings such that the design provides the ease of
operating the machines such as the design of hand levers and hand wheels etc.
1.5 Standards in Design
The growing technology requires standardization because it is difficult for a person to
find the replacement for a damaged or worn out part therefore design should follow
standards of material, composition, shapes and dimensions, limits, fits, tolerances and
surface finish of the components.
 The advantage of the mass and the specialized production is gained through the
standardization because it is not possible for any single manufacturing plant to produce
all components. Standardization promotes interchangeability which ensures the
assembling of the units or replacement of damaged parts,so if standard parts are used for
the machines availability of spares is possible for repair and maintenance of the machines
at minimum cost.
A standard is a specification followed for a certain part regarding material, size and
operation to acquire uniformity and quality. It should be followed nationally or if possible
internationally.
There are various organizations national & international which provides codes for these
standard parts some of them are listed below
1. BIS( Bureau of Indian Standards)
2. ASME(American Society of Mechanical Engg)
3. SAE(Society of Automotive Engineers)
4. BSI( British Standards Institution)
5. ASM( American society for Metals)
6. ASTM(American society of testing and materials)
1.6 Design procedure

The design process is a plan to know that how design begins ? How ideas are to be generated
what factors controls the decisions and finally how design completes. The whole process
from start to end is shown generally by a flow chart as shown in the fig-1.3
This follows the following steps

1. Need
The design starts from the recognition of need which can be had from a potential
customer survey or by the difficulties faced by the user send in the form of feedback
for the improvement in the existing design.

2. Problem statement
After the recognition of need, it should be converted into need statement but need not
identifies the problem so the next step is to define the problem with all specifications
for the items to be designed.

3. Feasibility study
After the recognition of need when problem with all requirements is stated a
feasibility check is done for the chances of failure or success of the proposed design
for both technical and financial if any change is proposed on the basis of the feasible
study those changes are incorporated in the specifications of the design.

4. Analysis and Synthesis

Design analysis deals with selecting a mechanism, material, kinematics and dynamic
analysis of linkages, failure criteria, however synthesis is the decision process with
the aim to get the optimum solution.

5. Evaluation and Testing

 Evaluation and testing is the most important step in the process of design here a
prototype is being developed and tested in the laboratory to check weather it is
working as per the design specifications or not.

6. Communication and Presentation

After evaluation and testing if it is found that the design is fulfilling the needs as per
specifications. The design should be communicated and presented for final production
in the form of detailed drawings with bill of materials along with proper machining
symbols and sequence of operations required.

Design process flow chart

Fig-1.3
1.7 Selection of Preferred Size

While designing it is an obvious question what will be the size of the product here size
include many things like power rating, load, dimensions, weight etc.
Let a company manufactures drilling machines in 6 different capacities ranging from 0.5hp to
10hp so for the purpose of specifying the power capacities, preferred numbers are used.
Preferred numbers are the series of numbers based on geometric progression which was first
developed by the French engineer Charles Renard to decide the certain range with minimum
number of size to meet the need of different customers.
There are five basic series based on the geometric progression

R5 −−−−−−−−−−−−−− (10)1/5 = 1.58

R10 −−−−−−−−−−−−−− (10)1/10 = 1.26
R20 −−−−−−−−−−−−−− (10)1/20 = 1.12 ________ series factors
R40 −−−−−−−−−−−−−− (10)1/40 = 1.06
R80 −−−−−−−−−−−−−− (10)1/80 = 1.03

The preferred number in any series can be obtained by multiplying the series factor with the
previous number and then rounded off according international standards. The selection of a
series depends on the quantity of the product meaning thereby for starting purpose one can
use R5 and later on when production stabilizes the production can be switched to next higher
series.

R5 R10 R20 R40 R5 R10 R20 R40

1 1 1 1 3.35
1.06 3.55 3.55
1.12 1.12 3.75
1.18 4 4 4 4
1.25 1.25 1.25 4.25
1.32 4.5 4.5
1.4 1.4 4.75
1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6 5 5 5
1.7 5.3
1.8 1.8 5.6 5.6
1.9 6
2 2 2 6.3 6.3 6.3 6.3
2.12 6.7
2.24 2.24 7.1 7.1
2.36 7.5
2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 8 8 8
2.65 8.5
2.8 2.8 9 9
3.15 3.15 3.15 9.5
10 10 10 10

Table of Preferred numbers

Table-1.5

Example 3
A manufacturer of water heaters wants to produce four different water heaters ranging from
1.5kw to 10kw specify the heating capacity of the water heaters.

Solution
Using R5 series preferred numbers from table-1.5 the heating capacities of the four models
are 1.6, 2.5, 4, and 6.3kw