Manufacturing Engineering Handbook

Whether as an engineer, manager, researcher, professor, or student, we are all facing increasing challenges in a cross-functional manufacturing environment. For each problem, we must identify the givens, the unknowns, feasible solutions, and how to validate each of these. How can we best apply technical knowledge to assemble a proposal, to lead a project, or to support the team?

Our challenges may include designing manufacturing processes for new products, improving manufacturing yield, implementing automated manufacturing and production facilities, and establishing quality and safety programs. A good understanding of how manufacturing engineering works, as well as how it relates to other departments, will enable one to plan, design, and implement projects more effectively.

The goal of the Manufacturing Engineering Handbook is to provide readers with the essential tools needed for working in manufacturing engineering for problem solving, for establishing manufacturing processes, and for improving existing production lines in an enterprise. This Handbook embraces both conventional and emerging manufacturing tools and processes used in the automotive, aerospace, and defense industries and their supply chain industries.

The Handbook is organized into six major parts. These six parts comprise 61 chapters. In general, each chapter includes three components: principles, operational considerations, and references. The principles are the fundamentals of a technology and its application. Operational considerations provide useful tips for planning, implementing, and controlling manufacturing processes. The references are a list of relevant books, technical papers, and websites for additional reading.

Part 1 of the Handbook gives background information on e-manufacturing. Tools for product development and design are introduced. Part 2 covers conventional and emerging manufacturing automation and technologies that are useful for planning and designing a manufacturing process. Part 3 offers fundamentals on heat-treating, hot-working, and metal-forming. Part 4 discusses major metalworking processes, briefly reviews moldmaking, and describes machine design fundamentals. Part 5 covers essential assembling operations including robotics, machine vision, automated assembly, and surface preparation. Part 6 reviews useful tools, processes, and considerations when planning, designing, and implementing a new or existing manufacturing process.

The Handbook covers topics ranging from product development, manufacturing automation, and technologies, to manufacturing process systems. Manufacturing industry engineers, managers, researchers, teachers, students, and others will find this to be a useful and enlightening resource because it covers the breadth and depth of manufacturing engineering. The Manufacturing Engineering Handbook is the most comprehensive single-source guide ever published in its field.