John Erringtons Engineering Design Website

This website makes public resources developed by the author for a course on engineering principles as part of a degree program in Design for Industry. The aim is to provide these presentations particularly as a resource for students and tutors interested in this area, and also for industrial designers who may wish to extend their knowledge of engineering.

The course included three units described below aimed at preparing creative students with limited math and science for a role in design by providing them with an understanding of engineering principles. On this site you will find descriptions linking to the PowerPoint presentations used in delivering the program and its assessment; and (with their permission) some materials produced by students. Each year was assessed by completion of a practical project.

PLEASE NOTE: The PowerPoint presentations contain a macro to extract the slide titles to a text file. Its not harmful but feel free to disable macros it will still all work fine.

Year 1: Mechanical Engineering (double unit): includes: Structures and machines: Engineering materials and their properties; Further materials - engineering polymers and their properties. Construction - joining components; Fracture - how and why things break. Bending -flexure under load. Simple machines: inclined plane, wheel and axle, lever, pulley, wedge and screw.
Project: build a bridge to sustain a load of bricks.

Year 2: Electrical engineering: Introduction to electrical devices. Basic electricity: Charge, current, voltage, power
Basic electricity: Ohm's law, Kirchoff's laws: Capacitance and inductance
Electromagnetism and electromagnetic devices
Circuit diagrams components and symbols
Batteries and their characteristics;
New engineering materials - nanotubes, aerogels
Project: build a simple electrical machine.

Year 3: Active designs: Batteries and other energy sources
Sensors and Actuators: More about sensors
Example: Line following robot
Refrigeration systems and heat pumps
Safety in electrical systems; garden implements: patient safety, guarding machines.
Project: build an active (self-powered) machine. "Robot Olympics"