Material Detail

There has been a continuous push among industry, educators, and accreditation organizations to infiltrate all levels of engineering education with design skills development instruments. At Texas A&M University there was the unique opportunity to modify a manufacturing and materials laboratory with this ideal in mind. Prior to 2001 the materials and manufacturing laboratories were independent initiatives. Recently, these courses have been combined into one entity. It was proposed that if these two courses integrated fully under the umbrella of one project, that the students would better understand the nature of product development in design and that this simple change would result in a higher level of learning. The proposed manufacturing and materials selection project was a 1/8th scale replica of a 12 lb. Civil War Napoleon cannon in a field mount. The product was selected due to its ease of manufacture and potential for utilizing a sufficient variety of materials during development. The development of the product followed a simple timeline. Initially, students took an existing model and used it to develop working drawings. Next the barrel material was selected by examining the...

Disciplines:

• Science and Technology  / Engineering