National Year 12 Design and Technology: Product Design

1. 3.1 Technical principles

3.1.1 Materials and their applications · 3.1.2 Performance characteristics of materials · 3.1.3 Enhancement of materials · 3.1.4 Forming, redistribution and addition processes · 3.1.5 The use of finishes · 3.1.6 Modern industrial and commercial practice · 3.1.7 Digital design and manufacture · 3.1.8 Requirements for product design and development · 3.1.9 Health and safety · 3.1.10 Protecting designs and intellectual property · 3.1.11 Design for manufacturing, maintenance, repair and disposal · 3.1.12 Feasibility studies · 3.1.13 Enterprise and marketing · 3.1.14 Design communication

• Materials and Their Properties: Why Things Are Made of What They Are – Every product is made from materials chosen for their properties. The main families are papers and boards, timbers, metals, polymers (plastics) and textiles. Physical properties describe what a material is like (density, conductivity, how it reacts to heat and water). Working properties describe how it behaves when we use or shape it (strength, hardness, toughness, elasticity, plasticity, malleability, ductility). Materials come from natural sources such as trees, ores and crude oil, and are sold in standard stock forms like sheets, bars, tubes and planks. A designer picks a material by matching its properties to the job, and also thinks about cost, availability, looks and the environment.
• Production Methods – Firms choose how to make things by how many they need. One-off (job) production makes a single item to order; batch production makes a set of identical items, then switches; mass (flow) production makes huge numbers on a line; continuous production runs non-stop. Lean production and just-in-time cut waste and stock. Quality control checks products against a target size with a tolerance (for example 50 ± 0.5 mm), and quality assurance builds quality into every stage.
• Surface Treatments and Finishes – A finish is a coating or treatment applied to the surface of a material. Finishes do two jobs: protect (against rust, rot, water, UV light, wear, stains, fire) and improve looks or feel (colour, shine, texture). Woods are painted, varnished, oiled, waxed, stained or treated with preservatives. Metals are painted over a primer, powder coated, galvanised with zinc, electroplated or, for aluminium, anodised. Many polymers are self-finishing from the mould, but can be polished or printed. Papers and boards are laminated or varnished. Fabrics get chemical or mechanical finishes such as water-repellent, flame-retardant, anti-crease or brushed, and laminated membrane fabrics keep rain out while letting sweat vapour escape. Choosing a finish means matching it to the material, where the product is used, its cost, how it is applied and its environmental impact.
• CAD/CAM: Digital Design and Manufacture – CAD (computer-aided design) is drawing and testing a product on a computer as an exact 3D model. CAM (computer-aided manufacture) turns that model into instructions (a toolpath, saved as G-code) that a computer-controlled machine follows to make it. CNC milling and lathes cut material away (subtractive). 3D printers build up layers (additive). Laser cutters cut flat sheets. Using CAD and CAM together makes parts accurate, repeatable and quick to change, and lets designers make fast prototypes (rapid prototyping). The costs are expensive machines, training and less hand skill.
• The Design Process: From Problem to Product – The design process is a loop of steps designers use to solve a real problem for real people: investigate the need, define it in a brief and a measurable specification, generate many ideas, build a prototype, then test and evaluate it against the specification. Whatever fails sends you back round the loop. This repeating is called iteration, and it is how almost every product, app, building and artwork is improved.
• Health and Safety: Hazards, Risks and Controls – A hazard is anything that can cause harm. Risk is how likely the harm is and how bad it would be: risk = likelihood × severity. A risk assessment finds hazards, decides who could be harmed, rates the risk, adds controls and is reviewed. Use the hierarchy of control: eliminate, substitute, engineering controls, admin (rules, training, signs), then PPE last. Safety signs use colour and shape. Workshops, art rooms and workplaces need guards, ventilation, labelled materials, clear exits and first aid. Laws in most countries make employers and workers share the duty to stay safe.
• Data Protection and Intellectual Property Rights – Intellectual property (IP) is a creation of the mind, such as a story, song, program, invention or logo. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) give the creator control over its use. Copyright protects creative works (text, music, art, software code) automatically once created; a patent protects a new, useful invention for about 20 years and must be applied for; a trademark protects brand names, logos and slogans. Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work as your own without credit. Infringement is using protected IP without permission (copyright, patent or trademark infringement). Public licences let creators share on their own terms: Creative Commons (BY, SA, NC, ND) for creative works, and software licences such as GPL (copyleft: modified versions must stay open) and Apache (permissive: can be used in closed products with notices).
• Sustainable Design: Products That Are Kind to People and Planet – Sustainable design means making products that meet our needs while harming nature and people as little as possible. Every product has a life cycle: materials, making, transport, use and end of life. A life cycle assessment adds up the ecological footprint (energy, CO₂, water, waste) at each stage. The social footprint is the effect on workers and communities: pay, safety, child labour, fair trade. Designers use the six Rs (rethink, refuse, reduce, reuse, repair, recycle), design for maintenance, repair and disassembly, and avoid planned obsolescence. Ecodesign also weighs the economic side: a product must be affordable and profitable, so the best designs balance environment, society and economy.
• Market Research: Finding Out What Customers Want – Market research means collecting and analysing information about customers, competitors and the market so a business can make better decisions and reduce risk. Primary (field) research collects new, first-hand data through surveys, interviews, observation, focus groups and test marketing. Secondary (desk) research uses data that already exists, like government statistics, reports and websites. Because you cannot ask everyone, you choose a sample: random, stratified, quota or convenience. Data can be quantitative (numbers) or qualitative (opinions and reasons). Results help with market segmentation, market mapping, finding gaps and building a value proposition. Research has costs and limits: bias, small samples and out-of-date data.
• Technical Drawing: Communicating Design Ideas – Technical drawing is a shared visual language for showing the exact shape and size of an object. Designers start with freehand sketches, then use pictorial views (isometric, oblique) to show the object in 3D, and orthographic projection (front, top and side views) with standard lines, dimensions in millimetres and a scale so that anyone can make it. Today most drawings are made with CAD software.