Making It: Manufacturing Techniques for Product Design

By Chris Lefteri, 2007

There are many different ways in which a product can be manufactured but many designers probably know only a handful of techniques in any detail. Both informative and inspirational, Making It covers a broad range of almost 90 production methods. As well as describing each process, the text offers guidance on its pros and cons and on suitable production volumes, the costs involved, speed of production, relevant materials and typical applications. With specially commissioned diagrams, product shots and photographs of the manufacturing process, Making It uses contemporary design as a vehicle to describe production processes. It will appeal not only to product designers involved in lighting, consumer electronics, packaging, domestic accessories and tableware, but also to interior designers, furniture and graphic designers who need access to a range of production methods, as well as to all students of design.

Featured processes are:

1. Complex: Injection moulding / Reaction injection moulding (RIM) / Gas injection moulding / Insert moulding / In-mould decoration / Over-mould decoration / Metal injection moulding (MIM) / Die-casting / High-pressure casting / Investment casting / Pressing glass / Sand casting / Viscous plastic processing (VPP)
2. Cut from Solid: Metal cutting: machining / CNC cutting / Electron-beam machining / Turning Jiggering and jollying / Plasma-arc cutting / Lathing
3. Into Solid: Cold isostatic / Hot isostatic / Compression moulding / Transfer moulding / Foam moulding / Foam moulding: veneers / Inflated wood / Forging / Powder forging / Precise-cast prototyping
4. Continuous: Blown film / Extrusion / Pulshaping / Pultrusion / Roll forming / Rotary swaging / Pre-crimp weaving / Veneer cutting / Calendering
5. Sheet: Chemical milling / Die cutting / Water-jet cutting / Wire EDM / Laser cutting / Oxyacetylene cutting / Sheet forming whistle / Slumping glass / Metal spinning / Metal cutting / Thermoforming / Superforming / Explosive forming / Blown metal / Bent plywood / Deep 3D forming in plywood / Trays
6. Thin and Hollow: Press and blow / Blow and blow / Plastic blow moulding / Injection blow moulding / Extrusion blow moulding / Dip moulding / Rotational moulding / Slip casting / Glass blowing by hand / Hydroforming / Impact extrusion / Paper / Hand lay-up / Vacuum infusion / Autoclave moulding / Electroforming / Filament winding / Centrifugal casting
7. Advanced: Inkjet printing / Contour crafting / Stereolithography / Micro moulding / Selective laser sintering / Sintering / Smart Mandrels / Incremental

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PB

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