What is the job role of a mechanical design engineer ?

Designers typically have working knowledge of mechanical parts as well as computer-aided design (CAD) software, such as Auto CAD. To become a mechanical designer it is necessary to have a certificate or associate’s degree in mechanical design technology or a related field. This career requires strong computer and math skills. Certification is optional, but may increase job prospects for those seeking employment in this field. Mechanical designers typically begin a project by meeting with project managers, engineers, and clients to understand the needs and requirements for a new product or mechanical system. For example, designers working on a project to create an automobile engine may consult engineers regarding which structural materials to use or clients regarding engine efficiency requirements. Once materials and specifications have been determined, designers begin using CAD software to plan and develop models. This may include testing and modifying models under different conditions, such as temperature or humidity.

In design field there are mainly 3 divisions.

Product development division
Design Service division
Analysis division

Product development team mainly focused on design concepts. Before moving into the CAD works,the team will finalize the scope of work and concept generation through hand sketches, brainstorming. After approval of the concept by client, product development team will continue with CAD creation. This will have lot of iteration till the completion of project.Once the model/set up is ready, prototype will be generated that is actually taken care by manufacturing team.
Design Service division deals with regular service requests from client. This includes creating CAD as per the Client’s guidelines.iteration of work in this team is limited. CAD package to be delivered in shorter interval of time unlike P.D team. But there are lesser chances of risk in this division since team will work based on clients direction. Apart from this team will work on creating 3D models from the existing 2D drawing. Scanned parts are recreated in design Service team completely.
Analysis division checks the design life through FEA. There are few tools such as LS Dyna,hypermesh which converts/processes given CAD file to mesh. Mesh regions are necessary to evaluate the design through finite element analysis(FEA).All the product development designs will go for design analysis and validation.If any design fails through FEA,then it will go for re-work/ strengthening. This cycle completes when the design doesn’t fail under the given safety standards/No.of cycles.

Other Design related Job Roles are :

Advanced CAD software:
In future much more smooth, easy-to-use software is expected to spring up. Cloud computing for CAD will be at the peak. Maybe the structural analysis may be embedded into CAD modelling with advanced Optimization techniques which would choose the dimensions required as per the load rating.
Advanced Finite Element Methods:
Advanced FEM such as i) Discontinuous Galerkin methods, ii) Spectral Element methods, are being invented every day which results in much more accurate solutions in less time, from numerical analysis instead of experimentation.
Computational Mechanics:
This area, also, is rapidly emerging. Structural Dynamics is fast developing in Computational sciences which has also brought out Computational contact dynamics, Multi-physics problems, Fluid-Structure interaction etc. It has a lot of future scope scope in multiple fields. Especially, it is emerging very fast in the fields of Bio-physics and Bio-medical engineering.