Mechanical Engineering, Key Skills, Career and Earnings

Mechanical engineering is the discipline that applies engineering physics, engineering mathematics and material science to design, analyze, manufacture and maintain mechanical systems. It is one of the oldest and most important of the engineering discipline. It is one of the oldest and most important disciplines of engineering. It deals with any things that have relative motion in between them from machine to the human body. Mechanical Engineers examine methodically and in detail, their work using the principles of motion, energy and natural forces- ensuring that the designs and product function safely, efficiently and reliably, all at a affordable cost.

Mechanical Engineering combines creativity, knowledge, power of imagination and analytical tools to complete the difficult task of shaping an idea into reality.

It does make a difference in real life conditions as it focuses on creating technologies to meet human needs. Virtually every product or service in modern life has probably been touched in some way by a mechanical engineer to help mankind.

Solving present problems and creating things to ensure future in transportation, space exploration, health care, energy, world hunger, climate change, agriculture, and many more is all mechanical engineer primary objective.

Mechanical Engineering is broadest disciplines and have enormous range of opportunity and education mirrors the dimension of subjects. Some of the major but not all mechanical disciplines are listed below:

• ·         Automobile
• ·         Aerospace
• ·         Aeronautical
• ·         Agro-Mechanical
• ·         Automation
• ·         Automotive
• ·         Acoustics
• ·         Biotechnology
• ·         Control Systems
• ·         Composites
• ·         Computer Aided Designs (CAD)
• ·         Designing
• ·         Energy
• ·         Human health
• ·         Hydro Mechanics
• ·         Manufacturing and Advance manufacturing
• ·         Mechatronics
• ·         Nanotechnology
• ·         Production
• ·         Robotics
• ·         Structural analysis

Mechanical Engineer: job description

Mechanical engineer produce specifications for design, develop, manufacture and install new or modified components or system by ensuring greater life span and efficiency.

Job responsibilities vary greatly according to the size and type of company they are working for. However, duties typically includes:

• ·         Assessing project requirements
• ·         Measuring the performance of mechanical components, devices and engines
• ·         Agreeing budgets, timescales and specifications with clients and managers
• ·         Maintaining and modifying equipment to ensure that it is safe, reliable and efficient
• ·         Using computer aided design/modeling softwares
• ·         Liasing with suppliers
• ·         Undertaking relevant research
• ·         Producing and implementing designs and test procedures
• ·         Presenting designs and model to managers and clients
• ·         Testing, evaluating, modifying and re-testing products
• ·         Writing reports and documentation
• ·         Providing technical advice
• ·         Analyzing and interoperating data. 

 

Key skills for Mechanical Engineers:

• ·         Effective technical skills
• ·         The ability to work under pressure
• ·         Problem solving skills
• ·         Creativity
• ·         Interpersonal skills
• ·         Verbal and written communication skills
• ·         Commercial awareness
• ·         Teamworking skills

A Mechanical engineer to be placed in a core company should have the basic ideas in the following subjects with some practical exposure:

• ·         Engineering drawing
• ·         Engineering mechanics
• ·         Strength of materials
• ·         Engineering materials
• ·         Material science
• ·         Finite elements method
• ·         Fluid mechanics
• ·         Solid mechanics
• ·         Project management
• ·         Computational Fluid Dynamics
• ·         Solid waste management
• ·         Fracture mechanics
• ·         Machine drawing
• ·         Manufacturing methods
• ·         Design of machine components
• ·         Kinematics of machines
• ·         Applied thermodynamics
• ·         Heat and mass transfer
• ·         Control engineering
• ·         Industrial engineering
• ·         CAD/CAM
• ·         Automation
• ·         Nanotechnology
• ·         Mechatronics
• ·         Theory of machines and more…

Softwares that Mechanical engineer should know to use:

• ·         Solid Modeling Software:

Ø  Solidworks,

Ø  AutoCAD,

Ø   CATIA,

Ø  Inventor

Ø  ProE, etc

• ·         Analysis and Simulation:

Ø  ANSYS,

Ø  COMSOL,

Ø  HyperMesh, etc

• ·         Programming language:

Ø  C++,

Ø   JAVA,

Ø   PYTHON, etc

• ·         MATLAB

Duties of Mechanical Engineer:

Careers in Mechanical Engineering can be tough and call for a variety of tasks.

• ·         Conceptual design
• ·         Analysis
• ·         Developmental design
• ·         Measurements
• ·         Data interpretation
• ·         Presentations and documentation
• ·         Multidisciplinary teamwork
• ·         Research
• ·         Concurrent engineering
• ·         Analysis (FEA and CFD)
• ·         Benchmarking the competition
• ·         Working with suppliers
• ·         Project management
• ·         Prototyping
• ·         Testing
• ·         Consulting and sales
• ·         Customer satisfaction

Earning of Mechanical Engineers:

A good Mechanical engineer like careers in many other engineering fields, are well paid. Comparing with other fields, mechanical engineers earn well above average throughout each stage of their careers. According to the Unites States Department of Labor, the mean salary for a mechanical engineer is USD 89,800 with the top ten percent earning close to USD 131,350.