Course overview
This course advances students' skills in transforming design concepts into manufacturable products for low-volume production. It covers material properties, structural design, and the integration of appropriate technologies. Students will gain an understanding of material characteristics, structural integrity, and practical production applications. By fostering propositional, creative, and critical thinking, the course ensures students are prepared to address complex design problems, with a strong awareness of social, ethical, and environmental impacts, required in professional industrial design practice.
- Product Design for Low Volume & Digital Manufacturing.
- Design strategies for sustainability; product comparison.
- Static structures; design build and test.
Course learning outcomes
- Identify the materials and processes commonly used for low volume manufacturing and explain their physical characteristics, cost drivers and sustainability implications.
- Utilise core sustainability principles in design development and evaluate products based on sustainability criteria and metrics.
- Integrate key structural elements such as load, stress, strain, and material properties to develop simple load bearing structures.
- Execute various digital production techniques used in low volume manufacturing (e.g., 3D printing, CNC machining, laser cutting).
- Apply digital manufacturing technologies for low volume production techniques to the design and development process.