What does a mechanical engineer do?

Question

Keep getting that they are a very versatile group and that they work on cars, airplanes, robots, engine, etc...

But this is a bit vague. What exactly do they do on a car, airplane, robot? Are they in charge of building and designing engines all by themselves or do other engineering disciplines help out? what do they do on these projects? How does someone with this knowledge start their own company?

Answer 1

Mechanical engineering is a broad field that can be applied to many different types of products, but in general, you'd be doing a lot of the same kinds of things.



If you were designing a robot for example, you might start with coming up with ideas for how the arms would work, where to place the joints, the motors that control them, that sort of thing. You would develop 3-dimensional solid models of the design using various software tools like AutoCad or ProEngineer. You could simulate the motion of the arm to see that it moves how you want it to, and change the design as you need to.



You might perform a mechanical stress analysis using finite element modeling to see where the mechanical stresses are in the various structural components and change the design if parts are too weak or too strong. You might also perform thermal analysis of heat buildup in the electronics (with some help from electrical engineers) to see how hot various components are getting, and whether forced cooling (e.g. fans) might be needed for cooling. And if so, you'd participate in the selection of the fans, and their location and packaging



You would select / specify the various mechanical components for the robot arm, such as bearings, fasteners, etc. For components that need to be fabricated, you would select the materials that they would be made from and generate detailed drawings or CAD files including all dimensions and tolerances that would allow machinists to create the parts.



And, you'd participate in the final assembly, test and debug. When everything comes together, does it work like it's supposed to? Probably not the first time. So you'll need to figure out how to fix whatever problems arise, and change the design - usually very quickly as there's now schedule pressure to get the product working and shipped!



In some designs, precision is important, and careful design and tolerancing is called for. In others the design needs to be very stable over temperature so that you need to carefully consider thermal expansion. And in many designs, both are necessary. For example, think about the design of a lens for a digital SLR camera. The individual optical elements inside need to be positioned very accurately to keep the lens focussed. They can't move around when the temperature changes or the optical focus gets degraded. Lots of other precision components inside the lens too, autofocus sensors, motor drive, etc. The design needs to be rugged, compact, easy to manufacture and low cost. And as a mechancial engineer, you have to figure out how to do it! (But you'll have plenty of help, especially just starting out)



This give you some idea of what an ME might do depending on the types of products you might be working with. Over time, you might decide that you like the the analysis aspects and become more of an expert in stress analysis. Or, if you're very creative, you might do more conceptual work, envisioning new mechanisms and structures, etc and let other engineers do more of the detailed analysis and fabrication work. Or, you might develop special skills and expertise in precision design, or adhesives, etc.. and end up doing more work in that area.



Over time, depending on what field you end up in, you'll generally also have the opportunity to learn about the other engineering dicsciplines and technologies associated with the products your working on, and beome more versatile.



Hope this helps and gives you some perspective,



-Guru

Answer 2

For starters, cars, airplanes, engines etc are complex and are designed by teams of engineers from various disciplines. You might after 10 to 20 years get sufficient experience and knowledge to design one of these items by yourself.



To start your own company you also need that 10 or more years of experience. This is necessary so you know what you are doing and also so your clients will have confidence that you know what you are doing.



As to the original question. Mechanical engineers so lots more that be involved in the obvious like cars and planes. They work in manufacturing and processing plants to design equipment, processes as well as supervise their operation and maintenance. Others work in putting together systems using various pieces of mechanical and electrical equipment. Some specialize in the application of a single type of equipment like a pump, compressor or even a boiler. Project engineering and project management is another area that they are very good at. Some other areas of involvement are HVAC, commercial and industrial construction as well a things like quality control and reliability engineering.



One final comment. Many engineers end up working outside of their specific discipline some or all of the time. Do not think that getting a degree in mechanical engineering will force you to work in a specific area. I can not begin to tell you all of the things I have ended up working on that were outside of my degree in mechanical engineering.

Answer 3

Only about 1% of Mechanical engineers do any type of work on cars, planes, or robots.



And for the few who do get to work in those industries, they could design tooling fixtures or mechanical components like bolts and screws and springs and brackets. They do not design entire engines, but they may design components of an engine.



Industrial Engineers typically work in getting the product to market while maintaining quality and low cost. They work in manufacturing of the product. Mechanical Engineers do the same in the manufacturing industry.

Answer 4

Often now not. I am a chemistry most important and have a brother who's an engineering fundamental. My measure has little to nothing to do with engineering and depending on the courses you take on the chemistry side you're going to not even get into the devices used for chemistry in some cases. So fairly you in general have to head to an additional institution due to the fact majoring in chemistry often is not going to do you so much just right for chemical engineering.

Answer 5

Most MEs do not work on cars, planes and robots. Google the words below and read the pertinent information at the sites.