Manufacturing Engineering MEng

In this yearlong module you'll gain a deeper understanding of engineering design principles using practical project work. You'll learn CAD from the ground up, and by the end of the module you'll be well versed in the software.

Further you'll undertake practical workshops, where you'll learn how to use fundamental engineering machinery, which forms the basis of more advanced techniques you'll learn in higher level modules.

Topics covered include:

• Process of design supported by practical design activities
• Engineering drawing CAD solid modelling and drawing generation  
• Machine elements Group Design Project with Integrated Individual Element  
• Machine shop practical training 

This module introduces a range of fundamental elementary mathematical techniques that can be applied to mechanical engineering, manufacturing and product design problems.

The aim of the module is to provide engineering students with a base in mathematical knowledge which can then be built on if required in subsequent years, however as a product design student this will be the only maths module you will undertake.

This module includes:

• The calculus of a single variable, extended to develop techniques used in analysing engineering problems
• Advanced differential and integral calculus of one variable
• First-order ordinary-differential equations
• Algebra of complex numbers
• Matrix algebra and its applications to systems of equations and eigenvalue problems
• Functions and their properties
• Vector spaces and their applications
• Vector calculus

This year long module comprises a number of elements to provide you with:

• professional engineering, information searching, data analysis, health and safety and oral presentations 
• laboratory skills and development of house style laboratory report
• writing and understanding of computer programs including, loops, conditional statements, program flow, functions, basic input output, sound processing, image processing, variables, (1/2D) arrays, advanced plotting and simple computer graphics. 
• the application of computer code to control mechanical devices as part of a group project. 
• introduction to professional responsibilities of engineers including the fundamental role of sustainability, legal issues, patents, ethics and standards 

The aim of this module is to introduce students to fundamental concepts and principles of solid mechanics and dynamics, and their applications to mechanical engineering systems. A wide range of engineering structures and mechanical components need to be designed to support static loads and as an engineer it is important to understand the way in which forces are transmitted through structures for efficient and safe design. This module includes:

• Static equilibrium: force and moment analysis in design; frictional forces.
• Stress, strain and elasticity.
• Bending stresses in beams.
• Relationship between angular and linear motion.
• Work, energy and power, including kinetic and potential energy.
• Geared systems.
• Static and dynamic balancing.

A deep understanding of both materials and manufacturing techniques used to process these materials is essential for all product designers, to produce effective and commercially viable products. This year long module introduces students to the properties of materials, the main failure mechanisms which a designer will be concerned with (e.g overload, fracture, creep, fatigue) and core manufacturing methods used in engineering applications.

It includes the following topics:

• Role of materials and material properties in the design process.
• Selection and use of materials.
• Basic science underlying material properties Approaches to avoid failure of materials.
• Introduction to manufacturing in the UK.
• Casting, machining, moulding, forming, powder processing, heat treatment, surface finishing and assembly.
• Introduction into additive manufacturing an introduction to manufacturing metrology.

This is an introductory module covering the fundamental concepts and principles of thermofluids and their applications to engineering problems. Topics covered include: 

• introductory concepts; properties of fluids, equations of state and the perfect gas law 
• hydrostatics The first and second law of thermodynamics, including heat engines 
• fluid dynamics: continuity, Euler and Bernoulli equations 
• processes undergone by closed systems 
• the steady flow energy equation 
• momentum flows including linear momentum, friction factors and pipe flows
• heat transfer

This module seeks to develop an understanding of materials in design across a wide range of engineering applications. The module is arranged in 4 blocks covering designing with light alloys, polymers, composites, and functional materials. This covers important functional ceramics as well as other functional materials. Each block will explore the design requirements in detail of a particular case study followed by other examples, key material properties relevant to the engineering application, manipulation of the microstructure through processing and example calculations against failure of the product/component. This module will explore:

• Material Attributes
• Engineering Context
• Manufacturing of Material
• Production Processes
• Environmental Impact

This module will introduce design methodology through the entire design cycle from establishing users' needs and generating creative concepts to developing fabricable engineered solutions.

You will develop knowledge of machine elements and mechanical systems and develop enhanced skills in communicating effectively in a team environment and operating machine tools for manufacturing and testing of design.

This module aims to introduce concepts of rigid body dynamics, vibrations and feedback control, and develop the student's ability to analyse these aspects in simplified engineering situations. 

In this module you will apply concepts and principles of thermofluids to fluid mechanics, thermodynamics and heat transfer situations in simplified applied situations.

The aim of this module is to introduce more advanced topics in linear elastic solid mechanics, plasticity and failure, introduce relevant analysis methods for this materials behaviour and demonstrate the application of these methods to the design of engineering components. 

The aim of the module is to introduce students to the fundamental concepts of manufacturing automation, present key automation technologies in manufacturing and their advantages and limitations.

The module will introduce the relevant theoretical background and fundamental concepts of different automation approaches and technologies. The focus will be placed on the role of sensors, CNC machine tools, industrial robotics and programmable logic controllers within different manufacturing contexts. Methods and indicators for quantitative production performance and cost analysis will be covered as well.

The module aims to provide students with knowledge of key environmental and sustainability issues of relevance to energy supply and use, materials consumption, and product design/manufacture.

Topics include:

1. Drivers for sustainability, including patterns of energy use, material consumption, waste generation, and associated environmental impacts in UK and globally.
2. Factors influencing the availability of non-renewable and renewable energy and material resources.
3. Principles for the efficient use of energy resources including energy use in buildings, heat and power generation, and heat recovery systems.
4. Life cycle assessment of engineering activities, with focus on greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions, their impacts, and mitigation measures.
5. Economic analysis of investments in energy savings, material substitution, product design, and value recovery from end-of-life products; Cost-benefit analysis incorporating environmental externalities; and the role of government regulations in influencing business decisions.

Delivery

Assessment method

The project involves four or five students, working as a team to design, manufacture and develop a product. Starting from the design brief prepared by the supervisor, the group will be required to devise and evaluate alternative design concepts, undertake the detailed engineering analysis and mechanical design, manufacture a prototype, evaluate its performance and undertake development work to improve it. Assessment of the financial viability and marketability of the product will be a major requirement. 

This module introduces the important aspects of advanced automated manufacturing principles. It aims to help you develop a sound understanding of flexible automated manufacturing solutions. Through case studies, you’ll study their role in the context of current and future manufacturing challenges, as well as their advantages and limitations. Topics include:

• computer integrated manufacturing
• implications of mass customisation on automated manufacturing systems
• the impact of enterprise agility on their manufacturing facilities

This module is to provide a level of understanding about the operations of a food factory commensurate with that expected by a manager to include: information on the units operations, appropriate legislative issues, control of goods in and out of the establishment, appropriate hygienic regimes and controlled flows.

This module explores the strategic importance of operations in business management, within and across organisations, and in addressing environmental and societal challenges. Organisations in this module refer to organisations from the public, private and third sectors; service and manufacturing.

Examples of topics include:

• value and performance
• the links with other business functions
• sustainability
• product and service innovation
• managing the supply chain and network
• resource management
• excellence through improvement and quality

This module aims to develop your understanding of quality management. It begins by introducing you to the ways in which thinking about quality has developed historically. You’ll discuss different definitions and concepts of quality and the specific quality management needs in the manufacturing and service sectors.

The module will give students in-depth understanding of technical capability of modern manufacturing processes in relation to product design. The aim of the module is to develop students’ abilities to understand and assess the capability of single and combined manufacturing processes. You’ll spend two hours in lectures and two hours in seminars each week when studying this module.

In this module you will start to develop one of the key skills for an engineer – that of being able to program. You will gain the skills required to analyse, design and implement solutions to practical engineering problems through the use of computer aided design tools and the development of software based solutions.

Within the Innovation Incubator module you’ll have the opportunity to develop and test your own business ideas. You’ll learn about the principles of innovation and entrepreneurship, and you’ll be embedded in a supportive tutorial environment where external inspirational practitioners provide feedback on business concepts as they are being developed. A ‘Dragon’s Den’ experience towards the end of the module provides you with vital experience in business-to-business communication.  

This module will introduce you to:

• supply chain fundamentals, including: the supply chain planning processes and the need for them
• planning processes and methods, including: forecasting; aggregate planning; MRP; capacity management; theory of constraints (TOC); JIT (kanban); inventory management
• IS/IT support for planning including ERP systems
• planning through the supply chain, examining the challenges in different contexts through case studies

This module provides an understanding of the factors which influence a company's choice of location, and of how to approach the design of layouts to support a company's strategic objectives and maximise the efficiency of its operations.

An introductory module on the design, manufacture and performance of fibre-reinforced composite materials. 

Constituent materials including fibres, resins and additives are described. Processing techniques and the relationships between process and design are highlighted. Design methodologies and computer-aided engineering techniques are demonstrated for component design. Case studies from a variety of industries including automotive and aerospace are presented.

Method and Frequency of Class:

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This module covers a range of topics relating to basic airframe structure. Airframe component manufacturing techniques, automated manufacture, geometry and material constraints will be covered. 

The project aims to give experience in the practice of engineering at a professional level. It involves the planning, execution and reporting of a programme of work which will normally involve a mixture of experimental, theoretical and computational work together with a review of relevant previous work in the field.

This module will cover design, processing and material aspects of additive manufacturing and 3D printing technologies, as well as the current and potential applications of the technology in a wide variety of sectors. Topics include commercial and experimental systems, material requirements, design for additive manufacturing, software and systems, as well as case studies in industry and society.

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This module aims to equip students with fundamental knowledge and skills regarding the physical characteristics of people (body size, strength, flexibility, etc.) and environments (lighting, thermal, sound, etc.) as they relate to the design of products, workplaces and tasks/jobs. You’ll spend two hours in lectures each week when studying this module.

This module will provide you with a thorough understanding of cognitive ergonomics and the way in which the consideration of cognitive ergonomics can impact on human performance in the workplace. 

For human factors/ergonomics work, simulation tools can enable designers, managers and end-users to experience products and systems in realistic, interactive environments. Such advancements have significant cost implications, enabling designs and their implications to be visualised early in the development life cycle. In addition, virtual/augmented reality and other advanced human-machine interfaces (HMIs) are being developed in many different industries to support different user needs.

This module will provide you with the knowledge and skills required to understand and utilise computers as human factors tools for understanding peoples’ interactions with new technology. Moreover, the module will consider HMIs that are increasingly common in modern life and frequently designed and evaluated using simulation techniques.

The module is a mix of practical and research-oriented content, and you will make extensive use of the simulation facilities and on-going research projects within the Human Factors Research Group and elsewhere in the University.

Topics include:

• virtual reality technologies/environments/interfaces
• augmented reality; fidelity and validity of simulators
• presence factors for simulation
• understanding and minimising simulator sickness
• multimodal interfaces including the use of natural language and gesture interfaces, computers and collaborative/social interfaces, accessibility, in-car interfaces 

Delivery

Assessment method

A broad-based module covering the chemistry, material properties and manufacturing methods relevant to polymers.

Topics include:

• Polymer chemistry and structure
• Routes to synthesis, polymerisation techniques, practical aspects of industrial production
• Viscoelasticity, time-temperature equivalence
• Rheology of polymer melts, heat transfer in melts, entanglements
• Properties of solid polymers, yield and fracture, crazing
• Manufacturing with polymers, extrusion, injection-moulding
• Design/ processing interactions for plastic products

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The module aims to give an in-depth coverage of supply chain management and logistics in the context of contemporary operations, taking into account the major competitive drivers of efficiency and responsiveness and the solutions enabled by new technologies. 

This module will help students to understand the knowledge and skills required to manage innovation by considering a number of different perspectives. 

This modules aims to give an understanding of systems approaches to the design and analysis of effective and safe work, primarily in the context of industrial systems but also in relation to major projects, public and social systems and digital systems.

It is vital that students learn that technical, human, organizational and economic factors must be addressed when understanding the operation and potential failure in existing systems, and in developing requirements, implementation and evaluation approaches for social and socio-technical systems, and for systems of systems.

In this module, particular attention will be paid to distributed (in time and space) systems and ones with elements of automated processes (all of which will have to interact with human and organisational elements at some point and time). The potential causes of accidents and of human error are explained, and an introduction given to methods of reporting and investigating accidents and techniques for analysing accidents and systems reliability which will lead to the design of safer organisations and work systems.

Topics covered include:

• risk and risk perception
• risk assessment and management
• accident models and accident causation
• causes of human error
• epidemiology, accident reporting and analysis
• accident prevention
• human reliability assessment
• safety climate and culture
• safety systems management

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This module will provide students with a thorough understanding of the growth of IT and human computer systems. To examine the concepts and methods available for the analysis, design and evaluation of computer-based interfaces through hardware, software, task and systems design. 

This module examines, in-depth, the processes used for joining metallic (e.g. steel, aluminium and titanium alloys) and non-metallic (e.g. polymers and fibre reinforced composites) materials. 

Topics covered include:

• mechanical joining
• adhesive bonding
• soldering and brazing
• solid state joining (friction welding and diffusion bonding)
• fusion welding (arc welding and the many classes thereof, resistance, electron beam and laser welding)

The fundamental characteristics of the various processes are examined along with procedures for practical applications. The origins of defects within joints and methods needed to control or eliminate them are also considered. The mechanical behaviour of joints is analysed, as is the effect of joining on the microstructural characteristics and mechanical properties of the base materials. Other features such as residual stress and distortion are addressed. Attention is also given to appropriate design for manufacture in a modern manufacturing context.

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Topics include:

• working as a human factors engineer/HCI professional
• predictive evaluation techniques (eg GOMs, Fitts Law)
• psychophysical methods
• verbal protocol analysis
• qualitative approaches and methodologies
• eye-tracking methodologies
• ethical considerations in human factors research
• capturing and analysing human physiological data