Reduce product costs by including materials engineering expertise during product design to avoid expensive components.
Component costs are a big part of the cost of a product. There are two main contributors to component costs - materials and ease of component fabrication. Both are determined when a product is designed, when materials are selected for components. Unfortunately, materials engineering expertise is missing from most design teams, so there are often missed opportunities to reduce component costs.
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When designing a product, design engineers select the mechanical form (shape, size, features) and materials for each component in the product. Selecting the lowest cost materials that enable meeting performance and reliability requirements is critical to keeping costs low. Also, selecting materials and mechanical features that enable easy component fabrication is critical to keeping costs low.
However, design teams often miss cost goals or miss opportunities to bring costs below budget. This is usually because of a lack of materials engineering expertise. Materials engineers have deep knowledge of different types of materials, their properties, applications, and costs, and how to evaluate materials to assess their suitability for an application. This knowledge helps them identify low-cost materials options that meet performance and reliability requirements for components.
High component costs often stem from decisions made during component design that are related to a component’s materials. This is usually because of a lack of materials engineering expertise in design teams.
In addition to the cost of the materials in components there is also the cost of fabrication. Component fabricators prefer components that don’t have fabrication problems. Wouldn’t you? When component manufacturers quote a high price they're often responding to expected fabrication difficulties. They charge more to deal with the hassles. Sometimes they even refuse to provide a quote because they don’t want to deal with the hassles.
Common reasons for component fabrication hassles due to design missteps:
Many of these situations can be prevented through collaboration between design engineers and materials engineers.
Here are two examples of fabrication hassles because of the materials selected:
Both situations resulted in higher than expected component costs.
Design for manufacturing involves considerations of how to make it easy to fabricate a component. DFM adds more requirements to the design, possibly reducing options, but the benefits are lower component costs, meeting product development schedules, and a more robust supply chain.
Different materials have different properties and behaviors for the different fabrication and secondary processes. So, when selecting the materials for a component, it’s important to consider the compatibility of the materials and the processes that will be used. For metals, this may mean considering different types of alloys such as aluminum, steel, stainless steel, and even specific types of alloys within the larger group.
Component drawings include specifications for the materials. This might include composition, mechanical properties, heat treating, surface finish, etc. Specifications may also include references to industry standards that must be followed regarding composition, properties, and testing methods.
Specifications must be accurate, thorough, and up-to-date. Missing information, requirements that don’t make sense, or outdated standards lead to confusion for fabricators. It also leads to confusion for the design team.
Materials engineers are familiar with the information that should be included on component drawings and are familiar with the industry standards are applicable for different types of components, fabrication processes, and materials.
There are a few risks associated with sourcing. From the designer perspective, one thing that can be done to mitigate these risks is select materials that are readily available. This makes it easy for component fabricators to obtain the material from multiple sources and eliminates the need to keep a large stock. Both will help keep component prices low.
Materials engineers are knowledgeable of the wide range of materials available, and which are more commonly used and available.
Unfortunately, many companies do not have materials engineers on staff. Instead, engineers from other fields make decisions and solve problems that involve materials. These are skilled engineers, but they have little or no training in materials science and engineering and their expertise is not in materials selection, materials characterization, and the effects of use and process conditions on materials. As a result, decisions about the materials used in components are sub-optimum, or just bad. The result is high component costs and difficulty finding suppliers willing to make the components.
Don't wait until you're facing expensive component surprises. We offer metallurgy consulting to help design teams design low-cost components. If you need help, let's talk for 15 minutes. Use this brief form to get started.
Michael Pfeifer, Ph.D., P.E. is President of Industrial Metallurgists and a metallurgical engineering consultant with more than 30 years of experience in product design, manufacturing, failure analysis, and metallurgy training. He helps clients worldwide solve design and manufacturing problems and is the author of Materials Enabled Designs.
