A Strategy for Selecting Engineering Components

Selecting components from catalogues is an important engineering activity and it is found that computerizing the process provides major advantages for the design engineer and has serious implications for manufacturers. Difficulties arise when computing the selection procedure, however, because catalogue data formats and analysis techniques (which are essential for verifying suitability in an application) have evolved from manual usage. Computer data handling methods and search strategies differ significantly, consequently, major changes are necessary to transfer information from catalogue formats in order to achieve a fully computer aided system approach. Experience has been gained at Bath University designing and developing numerous component selection programs; dealing with bearings, springs, gears, fastenings etc. One system has been developed to a commercial standard. This paper describes why there is increasing interest in automating the selection of catalogue components. It discusses the nature of the data and some of the salient features which are considered desirable if such programs are to be fully exploited by practising engineers. In particular, the strategy which has been used for efficiently dealing with the different data types inherent with mechanical components is shown.