Design Definition and Design Technology

Design Definition 
The term “design” has many connotations. They can range from industrial designers to high structural load engineering designers. A few of these will be summarized in order to highlight that different designer skills are used to meet different product requirements. Essentially it is the process of devising a product that fulfills as completely as possible the total requirements of the user, and at the same time satisfies needs in terms of cost-effectiveness or ROI (return on investment). It encompasses the important interrelationship practical factors such as shape, material selection (including unreinforced and reinforced, elastomers, foams, etc.), consolidation of subparts, fabricating selection, and others that provide low cost-to-performance products. Product design is as much an art as a science. Recognize that a successful design is usually a compromise between the requirements of product function, productibility, and cost. Basically design is the mechanism whereby a requirement is converted to a meaningful plan. Design guidelines for plastics have existed for over a century. With plastics to a greater extent than other materials, an opportunity exists to optimize product design by focusing on material composition and orientation to structural member geometry when required. The type of designer to produce a product depends on the product requirements. As an example in most cases an engineering designer is not needed because the product has no major load requirement. All that is needed is experience and/or a logical evaluation approach based on available material and processing data. This practical approach is the least consumer of time and least expensive. 
Design Technology 
It is the prediction of performance in its broadest sense, including all the characteristics and properties of materials that are essential and relate to the processing of the plastic. To the designer, an example of a strict definition of a design property could be one that permits calculating product dimensions from a stress analysis. Such properties obviously are the most desirable upon which to base material selections. However, like with metals, there are many stresses that cannot be accurately analyzed. Hence one is forced to rely on properties that correlate with performance requirements. Where the product has critical performance requirements, such as ensuring safety to people, production prototypes will have to be exposed to the requirements it is to meet in service. In plastics, these correlative properties, together with those that can be used in design equations, generally are called engineering properties. They encompass a variety of situations over and above the basic static strength and rigidity requirements, such as impact, fatigue, flammability, chemical resistance, and temperature.
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