Manufacturing Processes for Design Professionals

I graduated from mechanical engineering school about a year ago and got a job shortly after. If it's one thing I've learned, it's how grossly unprepared school made me for designing manufacturable parts and explaining manufacturing techniques in any sort of detail. Thankfully, this book fills the gap nicely. I'd consider this book an encyclopedia of virtually every kind of manufacturing technique out there. And the author explains things quite eloquently, in a concise and consistent manner. Thousands of diagrams and full-color photographs aid the explanations. Quick, at-a-glance facts about the different techniques tell you their costs and suitability for various situations. Perhaps most importantly, tons of case studies are scattered throughout which put real-world examples to the topics. I was a little skeptical after reading other reviews mentioning this book is only good for furniture design. That's not true. While certain manufacturing techniques are covered that may be mostly suitable for furniture design versus other, engineered parts, this book covers manufacturing techniques for engineers like casting, forming, and molding. To be honest I'm surprised such a high-quality book sells for only $50, considering I've easily paid twice that for books in college that weren't nearly as informative or helpful. I'm just sad I didn't find and buy this book months ago when I was struggling to research this information online (and trust me I never found a web site or web sites that compare to this book).

While aimed at designers, this book is a great introduction to a large number of manufacturing processes, that even mechanical engineers benefit from. It gives a good background, explains the processes at a high level and hence give folk an insight into the capabilities of the process. Is it anything near the TMEH series published by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers? Of course not. On the other hand, you get a whole lot of manufacturing processes explained in a single tome with lots of pictures vs. literally thousands of pages (of mostly 1980-1990's era data) that get the average interested person so lost in the detail that they become meaningless. Thus, I bought a copy of this book for our office to help colleagues understand manufacturing processes they had not encountered before. This book is a great primer not on the details of each process, but on the general rules of the road. More importantly, it gives just enough background to allow readers to ask the right questions about process capabilities, costs, and so on. Highly recommended.

What an incredible resource to have for designers and curious minds, alike! I've always been the type that feels the need to get to know how things work and more and more find myself drawn to the world of manufacturing and have never found a good resource for the enormous amount of techniques that are used to create the many products that we enjoy day to day. This book couldn't have gotten it more right! As an architect with interests extending well beyond architecture into industrial and furniture design, this book is going to be a go to for me for a long time to come! Can't wait to order the other books within the series.

If you are looking to buy a book on manufacturing processes, look no further. This is by far the best book I've ever read and it's tough to find in public libraries as it is always in demand. Descriptions are detailed and relevant pictures makes it easy to understand. This makes the whole book very lively instead of a bunch of equations and derivations/explanations. I bought this book from Hay-on-Wye booksellers. Their service takes awhile to reach from UK to US but they do ship a quality product. Would definitely recommend this book to any manufacturing engineer/design professionals.

I absolutely love this book. I wish I had it while I was in undergrad. My friend found it and shared it with me; then I bought myself a copy. When I showed it at work (I work in consumer product development), we bought two copies for the office. This is an excellent book because: It is well-organized. You can use it as a reference, or read it like a novel. There are two main sections: processes and materials. Processes is further broken into Forming, Cutting, Joining, and Finishing functions. It is modern- it was first published in 2007. Each processes illustrated has a table with bullet lists with the important information about the process. (on the "Blow Molding" process, it shows "Costs, typical applications, suitability, quality, related processes, and speed". Each process has drawing illustrating the process and a case study. Really, this is a great book, for anyone in the product development industry.

I got this book to solve a problem I had trying to find how to make a part for furniture. Not only did I find it but I found something better and other ideas for future projects. Great for artist and designers.it goes through Metal, wood, plastic and even silkscreening,laser cutting etc. But the hard part is finding a company that has this equipment.

This is the perfect primer of the best ways to manufacture an object. Everything from painting techniques to carbon fiber pre-preg layup are covered and each in well-illustrated or photographed detail. This book is fascinating for anyone interested in how things are made on an industrial scale. It is completely digestible and written in non-technical language so that anyone can understand. A master class in a book.

I was beyond pleasantly surprised with this book. I would describe it as more than just a compendium of manufacturing techniques and materials. The descriptions, photos and illustrations (1,200+) extend well beyond brief encyclopedic articles. Many of the processes are described in detail. The book is divided into five sections that have conveniently color coded edges. I was also shocked at the high quality printing (2014 reprint). It is on par with collectible art books. Could the book be improved - of course, It was written in 2007. If/when Rob Thompson creates an updated edition, I will be among the first to purchase it. The biggest shock factor was the price. With my Amazon Prime membership, I bought this book for $62 making it a no-brainer purchase decision. Enjoy.

I would like to see an update on the contents of this book

good explanations an illustrations

El libro es muy claro y de alta calidad. Tiene bien definidos los procesos de manufactura y los describe con sus aplicaciones, además de que aborda muchos materiales. La calidad es excelente, las hojas son a color y vienen plastificadas, entonces te ofrece colores muy vividos.

I found as a new mechanical engineering graduate this has helped my understanding of manufacturing processes and how to use that knowledge to help my engineering designs. Very informative and well structured. One of the best textbooks I own (I have a large collection).

Very informative book. Highly recommend it as a reference book for anyone in design.