Mechanical

What is mechanical design?

Mechanical design integrates technology, mechanism design, manufacturing specifications, standards, directives, and environmental constraints. The requirements below are used by research + DESIGN for this phase.

1. Concurrent strategy:
   Complex projects require multiple teams to operate concurrently, and a management strategy to align dependencies and outputs.
2. Guidelines:
   Guidelines are informally recognised best practice design recommendations that help inform project development.
3. Standards:
   Standards are formal and possibly internationally recognised design criteria, which a project may need to conform to.
4. Directives:
   Directives are official, authoritative, and state governed criteria that a design is required to conform to.
5. Dependency reduction:
   Reducing connectivity and dependencies between components reduces complexity, failure rates, and the risk of unforeseen knock-on effects.
6. Moving components:
   Moving components which employ a sliding, rotating, or folding action are positioned as individual mechanism-design projects.
7. Spurious noises:
   Unforeseen spurious noises that emanate from assemblies and component friction may not be desirable in certain applications.
8. Tamper detection:
   Tamper detection indicates when a design has been compromised, and tamper proofing attempts to prevent such an intrusion from occurring.
9. Vandal proofing:
   Vandal proofing aims to manage excessive impact force, defacement, and theft of publicly accessible designs.
10. Illumination design:
    Illumination design is concerned with the detailed setup and manipulation of lighting in environments and products.
11. Acoustic design:
    The acoustic design is concerned with the controlled emanation, propagation, and insulation of sound.
12. Impact resistance:
    Impact resistance is the ability of a design or material to withstand high force and shock over a short period of time.
13. Drop resistance:
    Drop resistance requires a design to remain functional when dropped during operation, storage, or transport.
14. Supporting load:
    Supporting load applies to both environment and product, and depending on the application, it covers static and dynamic forces.
15. Design stability:
    Product stability, also termed topple testing, is a design ability to remain upright when a lateral force is applied.
16. Electrical insulation:
    Safety compliance may require exposed or accessible electrically charged components or surfaces to be insulated to prevent shock.
17. Electrostatic Discharge (ESD):
    Certain electronic devices and components are sensitive to static discharge and require shielding.
18. Object ingress protection:
    A design may need to manage the potential ingress of the following solid objects: hands, tools, wires, or dust.
19. Water ingress protection:
    A design may need to manage forms of water ingress: falling drops, water sprays, water jets, or immersion in water.
20. Temperature range:
    Exposing a design to a temperate range or thermal cycle/shock exposes material, component, and mechanism-design weaknesses.
21. Humidity range:
    Management of humidity within the vicinity of, or within, a design helps prevent corrosion, electrical shortages, and material failure.
22. Scratch resistance:
    Scratch resistance preventative measures are typically applied to an area of a design, rather than to the design as a whole.
23. Chemical resistance:
    Certain chemicals can attack material properties, and resistance needs to be designed in. or appropriate warnings provided.
24. Ultraviolet (UV) resistance:
    Prolonged Ultraviolet (UV) radiation exposure, found in sunlight, can degrade certain material structures and surface finishes.
25. Radio Frequency (RF):
    Radio Frequency (RF) transparency is considered when a transmitter or receiver is enclosed or shielded.
26. Design evaluation:
    Apart from physical mock-ups, simulations with a declared Confidence Interval (CI) can be used to iteratively test ideas.