Manufacturing Processes for Design Professionals

Good and deeply informative book.

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).

I'm currently studying industrial design, and multiple professors of mine had separately recommended this reference book as an essential. In their professional careers aside from teaching, they still reference this book for their work projects to this day, and they've had their books for quite a few years already. I'm looking forward to using this book myself for many years to come :)

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.

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.

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 strongly recommend this book.This is probably the best such book I have come across.It covers a load of the basic stuff you probably already know, plus a lot of more obscure things.A little light on high-volume processes but it is really good as a primer for low-volume manufactureres, students, super-serious hobbiests, etc.Don't count on it being a specific how-to kind of book, but a very good reference on what is involved in executing a specific process.There is still a place for a book like this to go into more depth on the 'how to' but until that one is written, I really like this one.Much more better than "Process" which is a good coffee-table kind of book.This on is more useful for the professional.