Engineers and designers frequently seek simplicity as a measure of excellence in products and machine designs. Simplicity has many virtues. Simplicity often means high reliability. Simplicity can translate to long life-expectancy.
So when planning products and machinery designs, several basic criteria should be considered at the outset. How many hours a day does the system need to operate? There’s a big difference between designing for a few hours day intermittent usage, and 24/7. Producing a million of something per day, beer in bottles, toothbrushes, or whatever, requires a different design perspective because the of the mission-critical nature that one million parts requires.
Machines and projects that involve a lot of complex subsystems can be daunting challenges. There are a few key ways to approach complexity to help insure success.
One way to help insure a successful project or product design it to slice the big project into its major parts. Evaluate each section of the design in terms of the unique criteria of that section and how that requirement will drive the interfacing requirements of differing lots of alternative strategies and look for “best in class” for each sub system. An easy pitfall to avoid is to keep in mind that the selection criteria might vary for different elements of the project. You don’t want to make a blanket decision regarding basic technology choices that becomes unwieldy or unsuitable for part of the application.
Sometimes the mix of technology requires integration of components that are not typical for a given company’s skill set.
Filed Under: Mechatronic Tips