Making it, Manufacturing Techniques for Product Design

Making It is a pretty key piece of reading material for anyone interested in manufacturing things

Written to explain industrial processes to product designers, it takes you inside the world of machines, materials and de-mystifies manufacturing processes.

The book takes you through how different processes work, with an overview of the technical requirements for them. Things like how fast a process works, what materials it works with, and what type of volume you are looking at.

What's the best part?

The best part is that Chris has divided the chapters based on the type of forms you are trying to make - which is brilliant if you have an idea of what kind of thing you are trying to do but don’t have the engineering term for it. For example, in the ‘Thin and Hollow’ section, you will find dip moulding alongside slip casting and rotational moulding. In ‘Sheet’ you will find processes like laser cutting, water-jet cutting and die-cutting. It is a great way to explore new processes and get inspired for what is out there.

We use it at Make Works to double check information about manufacturing processes. We also use it as a check-list for sourcing manufacturers. Eventually, we will have found a fabricator for every process discussed in here!

Related titles -

Manufacturing Techniques for Industrial Design - Rob Thompson

Materials for Inspirational Design - Chris Lefteri