Manufacturing Processes for Design Professionals

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 :)

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.

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.

Buy this instead of "Prototyping and Low-Volume Production" by the same author. The information is quite poorly organized. It is more of an overview of each process and some of its uses rather than an encyclopedic description of each. This + wikipedia is pretty much all you need on almost every manufacturing process you will encounter in design.Gripes: The index is terrible. I have probably not seen a worse index in a technical resource in I don't know, ever! For example, if you want to look up Vacuum Forming it is not listed under Vacuum. You must First look up thermoforming before you find it. What if you don't know this? Pressure Forming is also not listed, nor are MANY other processes.Want to get material information about ABS? Look up ABS in the index and it won't give you anything. You have to look under styrene, and then it gives you 1 sentence on all of the 6 different types of styrenes that are out there. Terrible resource for materials. Want to learn about something called Bendy wood? Sure, you will never EVER encounter it in design, but there is a bunch of info on it. Thrilling.

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.

This is a truly beautiful book which I am glad to own but I am not sure that it really delivers on its title so I have knocked a star off. Design professionals are surely going to feel there is not too much meat once they strip away the plumage.The plumage: High gloss paper, thousands of photographs, enough processes to populate an encyclopedia - which is really what this book is - and a heck of a lot of book design with boxed off coloured areas for technical descriptions and icons telling you the functions each process performs.The problems: - The manufacturing processes are actually treated rather superficially with coverage dominated by photographs. You could get similar depth of text from Wickipedia. You could get video of processes off Youtube. I am sure that the sellers of manufacturing equipment detail case studies for many/most of the processes. - The book is divided into essentially independent sections, one for each manufacturing process but there is little or no organizational material at a higher level. For example, if you know you want to mould a part in plastic then the book offers 17 possible processes, each described in its own section but there is no section with a title like 'molding in plastic' to guide you to a choice between the possibilities or to understand in depth the trade-offs.I feel a bit mean focussing on the drawbacks of a book I genuinely like. If it had only been called "Manufacturing Processes for the Design Professionals' Coffee Table", I could have given it five stars.

A mighty book that picks up where Chris Lefteri’s finish. How products and materials are formed, cut, joined and finished. For a product design to be successful you have to be able to make it, this book will help you design and develop for manufacture from the initial concepts. The descriptions are highly detailed and it is worth revisiting regularly.

Excellent value for £30. It's a huge book, and contains detail on a whole array of manufacturing processes. Great for anyone with an idea for a product who is unsure which materials or methods to consider for its manufacture.

I am a product designer and this book did bring tears to my eyes, no kidding, i just felt like i could have done with such a book years ago ! what a treassure, thanks to the author , the best purchase of my life i dare say, very impressed. The huge volume covers any manufacturing process that you can think of in reasonoable depth, priceless!

Brilliant book. Being a student on a Product design course, I required something that told me about materials and manufacturing processes that the tutors just expect you to know. Everything in here is useful and is definitely going to play a key role in my final year and it will be my main source for reference. Furthermore, I feel it is better than Chris Lefteri's "Making It" although a good source of information, it doesn't go into the depth that Rob Thompson does. Highly recommended.