2.1.1: Case Study- Bottom-Up Design

Select a product in your home, at school, or anywhere in between. Pick something you can pick up or at least walk around and inspect closely. Now make a list or sketch of all the individual parts you can see and note if it is a fastener (screws, rivets, nut/bolt), purchased part (motors, bearings, screens), or a unique component (frame, case, drive shaft). If you can, and it is practical, safely disassemble and remove as much as possible. Be sure to remove and discharge all power sources before you take anything apart.

✅ Key Takeaways from the Case Study:

• Standard fasteners allow for mass production and replaceable parts.
• Purchase parts reduce design complexity and offload risk.
• Unique parts designed with parametric modeling practices allow engineers to adjust individual parts without affecting the entire assembly.

Exercise \(\PageIndex{}\)

💡 Exercise: Create a sketch of an assembly with components labeled as either standard or custom. If custom, guess at the manufacturing process used to make it. See the example below.

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