Mechanical Components: Part Two of a Four-Part Monthly Series
In part one of this series, we presented the notion that being
‘knocked-off’, although serious, isn’t the largest danger in protecting
your intellectual property. Losing control of your documentation package
to the manufacturer or engineering firm that helped design the product is
far more problematic. Limited supply mobility, costly reengineering, and
rights protection issues are all too common results of not tightly
securing your documentation package.

The following are some of the basic mechanical component files that need
to be included in the documentation package.

Solid Models Of All Parts
These should preferably be in the native format that they were designed in
(Solidworks, Pro-Engineer, etc). You don’t necessarily need to have the
software required to read these mechanical component files, although most
have free viewers available.

Neutral file formats like STEP and IGES are acceptable, but not as good,
since it is much more difficult to make design changes if required down
the road.

2D Drawings
2D drawings are important supplementary mechanical component documents to
the 3D CAD data. They contain tolerance and material information, assembly
directions, and more.

It is important that all of this be captured.

Material Information
Be sure that you have the mechanical component manufacturer and grade
number for resins, metals, etc. You should also have information about any
colorants or fillers that are blended by the manufacturer.

Tool Drawings
While not as important as the other items it is a good idea to have copies
of all mechanical component tool drawings. There are subtleties in
manufacturing that may have to be relearned if you redesign the tool from
scratch with another supplier.

In the next parts of this series, we will address electronic and
programming. In the meantime, feel free to email us with any questions
that you have.

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