Computer aided design

Preparation and Planning

This lesson requires students to have access to a computer with CAD software. You will also need to present PowerPoint slides and a video.

Students will need pens and compasses for the activity in Episode 1.

Enough copies of Student Worksheets 1 and 2 are required for students working in pairs and every individual student will need a copy of Student Worksheet 3 and 4. These could be photocopied in advance of the class.

About the MOD Topic

MOD suppliers:
Each year the MOD spends around £16 billion on a wide range of goods and services to equip and support the UK Armed Forces and to meet defence estate management requirements.
During the 2007-08 financial year, the MOD placed around 26,000 new contracts and of these, over 70% by value were placed as a result of competition, with over 90% of these commitments being valued at under £100,000.

To ensure the best quality designers are sourced, competition remains at the heart of defence procurement policy, and the approach the MOD takes is that if a company has the capability and capacity to meet a particular MOD requirement it should be given a reasonable opportunity to bid for the MOD work.
A full list of MOD suppliers can be found on the following website: http://www.armedforces.co.uk/companies

CAM presents many benefits to the MOD:
- Speeds up the delivery of a product significantly
- Products are likely to be more precise and more reliable than those made by hand
- Some equipment can be tested in a virtual environment meaning that more design ideas can be evaluated at lower overall cost
- The precision of the process means that the cost of products is probably easier to calculate and generates less waste materials than production by hand.

MOD example of using CAM for testing
An MOD supplier and the Royal Air Force 5 Squadron conducted six CAM tests to assess and prove the operational capabilities of the ASTOR system which provides information and intelligence on the battlefield. The tests built on one another in complexity to demonstrate how the system would work in an actual mission scenario.

Airborne components and tactical ground station aspects of the system were tested. The results boosted confidence that the system was ready for operational deployment but also helped to stretch the limits of the technology, ultimately allowing higher performance and raising the capability.

Further Opportunities for Learning

Students could use other types of CAD/CAM to explore processes.

Students could design an alternative type of ID tag for the Armed Forces (i.e. consider how ID could be displayed using different means).
Students could manufacture their ID tags using pewter casting.

Student worksheet answers

Download the teachers notes PDF to access the answers for this lesson.