MMAN2130: Design and Manufacturing

25% - Engineering Drawing & Manufacturability Review
10% - 3 CAD Tests
35% - Final Report
10% - Prototype pump completion & operation
20% - TAFE assessments (basically each week you need to finish making whatever piece you need to make and give you a mark out of 100 each week and you get an average mark)

N/A

This course is for anyone who's doing a degree from the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering. I would describe this course to be ENGG1000 but with more effort and they actually teach you real engineering skills. You get to learn how to use CAD (specifically SolidWorks), you get to operate heavy machinery and you learn about different manufacturing processes and materials.

It's a unique course because you go to TAFE to learn how to operate machinery such as mills, lathes and drill presses. This is probably one of the only times you actually get hands-on experience. I will say, it's very exhausting. Pro tip: it would be highly beneficial if you put your TAFE class in the afternoon because if you put your TAFE class in the evening (like me) you finish at 9pm and by that point, you're completely exhausted, you're walking around the city late at night (which is scary for me) and you're hungry (you're given 30 minutes during the 4 hours to have a bit of a break). It definitely sucks more if you live far away from uni. In fact, I arrived home at 11pm every Monday because of those night classes. Even though it's really tiring, it's still cool to be able to develop hands-on experience with machinery, which really helps you understand different manufacturing processes.

This course also teaches you how to use CAD. To any engineering students who bought Macbooks instead of a laptop that uses a Windows system, you're screwed lol. SolidWorks is only compatible on Windows, so your options are either download Windows onto Macbook (which you can do through bootcamp - it's free!) or spend countless hours in Ainsworth 203/204. I did both. Regardless which laptop you use, SolidWorks uses up so much power because it's such an intense software so whenever you run it, it ALWAYS lags. Lag also happens when you're using a computer in Ainsworth, which is why your lab demos always tell you to save!

Speaking of lab demos, your CAD tests are probably initially stressful but by the time you're doing your last CAD test, it's not too bad. The first one always sucks because you're given 40 minutes to make an engineering part, which is difficult because you've only spent around 3 weeks using the software so you're still inexperienced. On top of that, 40 minutes is not enough time to complete the test. However, the next two tests (which is on Engineering Drawings and Parts and Assemblies) aren't too bad. Pro tip: it's better to over-dimension than under-dimension. If you over-dimension, you lose 1 or 2 marks, but if you under-dimension, you can lose up to 10 marks (in the assignment, you can lose up to 25 marks for under-dimensioning). While I found these tests stressful, they are worth 10% overall so it's not too bad in the end.
Finally, this is a group assignment, which means that you should make sure that all your group members are doing the tasks. If they're not, report to a lab demo because they can give you due date extensions (within reason of course). And because these assignments really emphasise on group work, you can't just completely reject your teammates. The final report is kinda long, everyone needs to contribute in terms of manufacturing the part and designing the pump parts so make sure you communicate!

1 x 2 hour lectures per week, 1 x 1.5 hour labs per week, 1 x 4 hour TAFE class per week

2/5

No.

Corey Martin

Lecture slides and CAD guides are on Moodle. Machinery guides are supplied by TAFE instructors via hard copy.

3/5

Material Selection in Mechanical Design, Ashby, M., Elsevier
I actually used this for the final report because the final report requires you to explain your reasoning for selecting the ideal material/manufacturing process and Ashby basically covers the steps for this (and it's good to throw in the diagram into the report). But you don't have to purchase the book because the e-book is available for free at UNSW library.

2019 T3