Manufacturing and Design: Understanding the Principles of How Things Are Made

Manufacturing and Design presents a fresh view on the world of industrial production: thinking in terms of both abstraction levels and trade-offs. The book invites its readers to distinguish between what is possible in principle for a certain process (as determined by physical law); what is possible in practice (the production method as determined by industrial state-of-the-art); and what is possible for a certain supplier (as determined by its production equipment). Specific processes considered here include metal forging, extrusion, and casting; plastic injection molding and thermoforming; additive manufacturing; joining; recycling; and more.

By tackling the field of manufacturing processes from this new angle, this book makes the most out of a reader's limited time. It gives the knowledge needed to not only create well-producible designs, but also to understand supplier needs in order to find the optimal compromise. Apart from improving design for production, this publication raises the standards of thinking about producibility.