New to Plastic/Sheet Metal design

[sahinoz]

Hello all,
I recently graduated from college and landed on a job where I do design with CATIA v5. As far as the Catia part goes, I am very confident at working with, but I don't have much experience with designing plastic and sheet metal parts. I often times ask for help and advice from other experienced co-workers. What would you all suggest to improve myself in this industry, they never thought the insides of plastics design at school, so sometimes I get lost when I try to design components. How can I become a good designer?
Thanks everyone,

 

[MikeHalloran]

Whenever you encounter a plastic item that is of no further use, e.g. toothpaste dispenser, milk bottle, take it apart and examine it closely.

High volume disposable products especially can teach you a lot, because the producers work hard to minimize resin use, and hence enhance the efficiency of the design.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[Heckler]

Sahinoz,

The key word is recently.....you will not become a good designer overnight. Your degree has given you some tools that will help you become a good designer. It's ultimately up to you.....if you want to take the time to research plastic part design and mold design. I do some medium volume plastic part design and I'm still learning. We have an old school mold maker on staff as a resource. I also suggest looking at high volume consumer products as good examples and search the net for resource sites. Best of luck

Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 5.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
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_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

"Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success." - Henry Ford

 

[Ashereng]

Read trade magazines.
Join trade organizations.
Look at other peoples' insides of plastic design.
Ask lots of questions of the more knowledgeable people in your company.
Read more books.

As long as you beleive that there is more to learn, then you will keep learning and gain knowledge and skill.

 

[Kinsrow]

look at the stuff that they did before and understand why. Just keep asking and asking.

 

[sahinoz]

I just took apart my old hp printer and found really interesting parts, thanks for the input everyone...

 

[nadam35]

i didnt think college grads were supposed to know how to do stuff?

 

[GregLocock]

True. But they are expected to learn how to do stuff very quickly, and it sounds to me like sahinoz is on the right track.


Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[Ashereng]

"Atta Boy" to sahinoz.

sahinoz is the type of recent grads we all seem to bemoan the lack of, and when he/she is trying to do the things that we all advise "new grads" to do, he/she has to put up with "put downs" such as this?