School of Engineering
Title
Code
Level
Credit rating
Prerequisites
Type
Aims
Learning
outcomes/objectives
Content
Teaching and
learning strategies
Learning support
Manufacture
ME216
5
30 credits
ME112 or equivalent.
Triple module delivered over two semesters.
To provide students with an understanding of the basic manufacturing techniques and
processes to enhance appropriate selections to produce given outputs.
On successful completion of this module students will be able to:
 select a suitable manufacturing process to meet product specifications in terms of
production quantity, dimensional precision, finish and cost.
 apply the techniques of design-for-manufacture and automation to industrial situations.
 devise process planning sheets for component manufacture and estimate floor-to-floor
times.
 apply the techniques of quality control.
Making plastic components: plastic gravity casting, dip moulding, extrusion, injection moulding,
blow moulding, blown film extrusion, thermoforming (including vacuum forming), rotational
moulding, compression moulding, transfer moulding, plastic sintering.
Making glass components: float glass, manual and mechanised glass blowing, glass rod
moulding, glass sintering, glass pressing, glass spinning, glass tube making.
Casting metal components: continuous casting, green sand casting, shell casting, disamatic
casting, lost wax investment casting, lost foam investment casting, gravity diecasting, pressure
diecasting (hot and cold chamber).
Metal deformation: forging, extrusion, hot and cold rolling, metal spinning, sheet metal forming.
Joining components together: mechanical fastenings (permanent and temporary), adhesives,
soldering, brazing, manual metal arc welding, spot welding, friction welding, electron beam
welding.
Machining processes: machine tool mechanisms, cutting tool geometry, the effects of cutting
speeds, feed rates and depths of cut for given material properties, tool life, form tools,
broaching, electron beam machining, electrodischarge machining, plasma arc machining,
ultrasonic machining, electrochemical machining, electrodischarge wire cutting,
electrodischarge grinding, hydrodynamic machining, laser beam machining.
Manufacturing automation: Design-for-manufacture. Group technology, component coding and
classification systems. Assembly aids: component form and orientation, bowl and cartridge
feed, pick and place machines. Industrial machine vision, automated visual inspection, part
and position identification and sorting, robot guidance and control.
Process planning: machine setting time and cycle time estimation, work flow analysis, charting
techniques, floor-to-floor time estimation, synthesis and contingency allowances.
Quality control: Tools for improving performance consistency and traceability. Process
capability, statistical process control, sources of variation, control charts for attributes.
Basic cost characteristics: impact of quantity, shape, tolerance and surface finish, process
capability. Product related costs, material, direct labour, consumable and partial overhead
costs, fixed and variable costs, economic break-even analysis and process selection.
Rapid Prototyping: 3D printing processes, Tooling, CAD link. NC, CNC, DNC machines, CNC
fundamentals, manual programming and the application of CNC packages, linked to geometric
modellers, to give integrated capability from design to manufacture.
Lectures, guest speaker, tutorials, laboratories, and industrial case studies.
Reading List:
Core:
Plummer, S, Manufacturing Systems (Module ME216) Lecture Notes, School of Engineering,
University of Brighton.
Indicative:
1. Groover, MP, Fundamentals of modern manufacturing – materials, processes, and systems,
2nd ed, pub Wiley, 2002. ISBN 0471400513.
2. Kalpakjian, S, Manufacturing processes for engineering materials, 4th ed, Prentice-Hall,
JL/CG
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Assessment
Brief description of
module and/or aims
Area examination
boards
Module
team/authors
Semester offered
Date of first
approval
Date of last revision
Date of approval of
this version
Version number
Replacement for
previous module
Course(s) for which
module is
acceptable and
status in course
School Home
External examiner
JL/CG
2
2003.
3. Koshal. D, Manufacturing Engineer’s Reference Book, Butterworth-Heinemann, 1993. ISBN
0 750611545.
4. Wetherill BG, Brown, DW, “Statistical process control: theory and practice”, Chapman and
Hall,1991. ISBN 0412357003.
Salient details (e.g. module descriptor, programme of study, announcements; PowerPoint
presentations) will be accessible via studentcentral.
70% examination; 30% coursework
Most items we use in our every day lives are manufactured. This module introduces
manufacture as a way of adding value to material and describes some of the basic
manufacturing processes used to make plastic, glass and metal components for use in
mechanical and electrical products.
Mechanical Engineering
Dr Steve Plummer and Dr Dal Koshal
1
February 2005
February 2005
February 2005
1.0
Resulting merger of ME106 and ME206
MEng/BEng (Hons) Mechanical Engineering portfolio (compulsory)
Engineering
Dr James Wallbank
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