I am familiar with mechanical equipment design workflow. When I was at school, most of our projects were mechanical equipment design. From the project negotiations to the end of the project, the whole process I have experienced many times. It was in early 2010, I came into contact with the design of construction machinery. At first, I think mechanical equipment design is very complex. But I now think it`s easy. The beginning I met a lot of troubles. Such as structure, materials, manufacturing technology, etc. But the most important thing is how to communicate with partners, especially the engineers of the partners. The following will shows the workflow of ZL50G.
••• Sign the project •••
Contract
The most important part of the project is the contract. All work related to the contents of the contract. If you want to do the project well you must be written the contract well. I didn't want to describe how to write contract. It`s not our focus. You must fulfill your obligations and enjoy your power.••• Discover •••
Research
After sign the project, we expand the research. ZL50E and ZL50F are their old wheel loaders. We interviewed the general manager, the chief engineer, front-line workers, after-sales service workers, etc. We had asked many questions about ZL50E and ZL50F. They also told us the problem of their product. But we thought a comprehensive investigation is not only the manufacturers but also the user. Mostly the user`s suggestion is more important. According to the interviewee got a lot of first-hand information. It took us about a week.
Analysis
Analysis of the information is very important. We got a lot of information, what we had done first is to determine what information is valid. Then we summed up the problems of ZL50E and ZL50F. Another important thing is to know the level of the current international wheel loaders, the International design trends.••• Design •••
3D Modeling
I had used Solidworks to design the 3D modeling .The final Chinzen ZL50G Wheel Loader assembly as the picture shows. Firstly I build the 3D model of the parts which needn't re-design according to the engineering drawings. The engineering drawings come from the last generation of ZL50F Wheel Loader. (For this product the bucket, boom cylinder, frame, etc. can`t be changed). Then I designed the cab, the hood, the back cover, the light, the fender, the weight, etc. Size is very important in the modeling process. All the size must consider the ZL50F Wheel Loader`s engineering drawings. Then I assembled all parts. The whole modeling was an iterative process. Need to go through repeatedly modified until satisfy the project partner. Eventually submit the data model to the project partner. It took me about two month.
Rendering
Sometimes renderings were not necessarily needed. For ZL50G I provided the final renderings to our partner. The most important things are the engineering software data model the engineering drawing. Renderings can be used as the final reference in the manufacturing process. I used Autodesk Showcase to do the rendering.