Skip to Content

Design for Manufacturing

Manufacture Your Path

Design for Manufacturing is an activity developed by Learning Undefeated to help students understand the work of design engineers including product design and testing.

In this activity, students will be challenged with designing a custom part for a new product. Students will need to choose the correct tools to gather precise measurements as well as draw the needed part with labels for part lengths and angle connections. Once students have completed their design, they will be challenged to rapid prototype with the use of a 3D pen. To model prototyping with a 3D printer, students will develop the g-code for the pen handler to interpret and follow to create the design. Once created students can test to see if their part fit well and redesign to get tighter tolerances.

Learning Objectives

  • Standards Alignments + Connections

  • Activity Components

  • Additional Resources

    Design for Manufacturing: A Complete Guide

    This article review DFM principles, outlining the timeline and benefits, as well as examples of DFM in different manufacturing industries.

    Your Ultimate Guide to Design for Manufacturing (DFM)

    This article shares expertise on DFM best practices, common pitfalls to avoid, and how to leverage DFM principles to create better products more efficiently.

    3D Printing G-Code Tutorial

    This article reviews the most common commands used in g-code, the program used to control CNC machinery.


    Keep Going! Your Students May Also Enjoy...

    Operation Polar Eye: Think Like a Drone
    polar

    Operation Polar Eye: Think Like a Drone

    In this activity, students will use computational thinking to write a code sequence for a drone to survey an arctic map. This activity is based on the work done by Northrop Grumman in Operation Polar Eye.

    Grade Level: High School (9 - 12)

    Lean Manufacturing

    Lean Manufacturing

    Improve an out-of-date airplane assembly plant to learn about process improvement, kaizen, and push/pull assembly flow.

    Grade Level: High School (9 - 12)

    Subject: Manufacturing

    Breakout Box: AI Mission

    Breakout Box: AI Mission

    Working with our own advanced AI-powered systems, you must protect our power hubs across the country, restore power to critical areas, and prevent the hacker from a complete takeover.

    Grade Level: High School (9 - 12)

    Subject: Computer Science

    How Did It Go? Send Us Feedback (or Pics)!

    Join the Mission