Design a future in product development
Sunit Dhawan

Growing focus on developing consumer and industrial products in this era of tough competition has created an environment wherein many engineers and industrial designers seek additional education to enable themselves to play a more substantial role in product development.

The concentration in manufacturing and design offers state-of the-art programmes in innovative manufacturing processes, design and development, and supporting technologies.

The areas of study include product design methods, layer-based manufacturing (solid freeform fabrication), machine design, unit manufacturing processes, robotics, contemporary prototyping, reverse engineering, optimisation techniques, computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM), computational geometry and machine intelligence.

A postgraduate programme in this discipline helps students gain a better understanding of the interdisciplinary approach required to develop products. It also promises them a competitive advantage in either starting a career or venturing into industry.

This course emphasises on the development of a design. The students of Integrated Product Design and Manufacturing use computer software to produce, analyse and evaluate models of projects solutions. They will study the design concepts of form and function, then use state-of-the-art technology to translate conceptual design into reproducible products.

The major thrust areas of this course are as follows:

Computer-Aided Design (CAD): It is the use of a wide range of computer-based tools that assist engineers, architects and other design professionals in their designing activities. It is the main geometry-authoring tool within the Product Lifecycle Management process and involves both software and sometimes special-purpose hardware.

Current packages range from 2D vector-based drafting systems to 3D parametric packages. CAD is used to design and develop products which can be goods used by end consumers or intermediate goods used in other products.

CAD is also extensively used in the design of tools and machinery used in the manufacture of components. It is also used in the drafting and design of all types of buildings, from small residential types (houses) to the large commercial and industrial types (hospitals and factories).

CAD is used throughout the engineering process from conceptual design and layout, through detailed engineering and analysis of components to definition of manufacturing methods. In today’s economy, market pressures to respond to ever-changing consumer needs are increasing. These changes shorten product life cycles and increase the need for customised products. The companies which can respond to these consumer demands will be more successful than others. The potential benefits to companies moving to 3D CAD technology are extensive.

Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM): It refers to the software used to generate the instruction codes for a CNC machine in order for it to cut out a shape designed in a CAD system. Computer-aided manufacturing with computer-aided design systems produces quicker and more efficient manufacturing processes. This methodology is applied in different manufacturing areas. In CNC manufacturing, the CAM system is used to simplify the machining and design process. In most cases, the CAM system will work with a CAD design made in a 3D environment. The CNC programmer will just specify the machining operations and the CAM system will create the CNC programme. This compatibility of CAD/CAM systems eliminates the need for redefining the work.

Computer-Integrated Manufacturing (CIM): It is the manufacturing supported by computers. It refers to the total integration of computer-aided design/manufacturing and also other business operations and databases.

This study programme will cater to the needs of various sectors, particularly aerospace, defence and scientific industries. The underlying objective of the course is to provide the engineering and technology graduates with an in-depth understanding of strategic, tactical and operational issues relating to technology-based industries.