Yook
Materials
- Jun 23, 2017
- 9
I received a BS/MS in MSE from a well respected university and have been working in an entry level engineer position for about a year now. My group works to maintain a large variety of small and large machine elements and vehicles and consists of 15 or so mechanical engineers. As the first and only materials engineer in the group, my bosses do not have much of an idea what tasks to put me on. I have tried to find avenues to help the team and am on the path towards becoming a "jack of all trades" sort of materials engineer where I focus mostly on failure analysis of metallic components, heat treating, tribology and wear, materials selection, etc. I hope to learn enough about these topics to where I can solve common problems without having spent too much time delving deep into complete understanding of the intricacies of these fields. I have a few ASM handbooks and have access to textbooks on most topics I would need to know. I have recently felt quite incompetent in my work and wanted your advice on how best to succeed or become more knowledgeable in such a role as mine.
Someone will come to me with a practical question such as: "How can I heat treat this 4140 rod to achieve better wear properties" or "Can you estimate the cycles to failure/loading spectrum of this part which failed in fatigue?" I can hardly ever answer these questions off the top of my head and will whip open a textbook or ASM handbook only to feel overwhelmed with choices to make and not enough information to steer my decisions. Oftentimes I find information in textbooks which directly conflict with each other, and the internet is often very little help because it is so vast and hard to cipher through without some knowledge about what approaches will work. This forum seems full of very experienced engineers and I hoped to gain some insight to your path towards competence in this field.
After that rambling introduction, my questions for you are:
1. What references have you found the most practical in helping to aid mechanical engineers in solving general machine design, failure analysis, materials selection, etc. problems? My goal is to become a jack of all trades materials engineer with an emphasis on practicality and maintenance.
2. Without direct mentorship, how are you able to approach complex problems with which you have no experience and make a decision? I oftentimes become stuck in analysis paralysis because I feel that I am overlooking something or that my approach towards a problem is too arbitrary.
I understand this is a pretty open ended topic. I hope to start a conversation and am open to any advice on ways to grow as an engineer. It feels as though I completely forgot all of the information I learned in my college courses and I am now floundering in professional life. I am really trying to pull myself up by my boot straps but sometimes wonder if I need a mentor.
Someone will come to me with a practical question such as: "How can I heat treat this 4140 rod to achieve better wear properties" or "Can you estimate the cycles to failure/loading spectrum of this part which failed in fatigue?" I can hardly ever answer these questions off the top of my head and will whip open a textbook or ASM handbook only to feel overwhelmed with choices to make and not enough information to steer my decisions. Oftentimes I find information in textbooks which directly conflict with each other, and the internet is often very little help because it is so vast and hard to cipher through without some knowledge about what approaches will work. This forum seems full of very experienced engineers and I hoped to gain some insight to your path towards competence in this field.
After that rambling introduction, my questions for you are:
1. What references have you found the most practical in helping to aid mechanical engineers in solving general machine design, failure analysis, materials selection, etc. problems? My goal is to become a jack of all trades materials engineer with an emphasis on practicality and maintenance.
2. Without direct mentorship, how are you able to approach complex problems with which you have no experience and make a decision? I oftentimes become stuck in analysis paralysis because I feel that I am overlooking something or that my approach towards a problem is too arbitrary.
I understand this is a pretty open ended topic. I hope to start a conversation and am open to any advice on ways to grow as an engineer. It feels as though I completely forgot all of the information I learned in my college courses and I am now floundering in professional life. I am really trying to pull myself up by my boot straps but sometimes wonder if I need a mentor.
