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Articles
Practical guides on FEA, CFD, thermal design, injection moulding and mechanical engineering.
FEA Boundary Conditions: The Most Common Mistakes and How to Fix Them
Incorrect boundary conditions are the number one cause of unreliable FEA results. This guide covers the most common mistakes engineers make when setting up constraints and loads in SOLIDWORKS Simulation — and how to avoid them.
The Cost Mistake Engineers Make Before the Factory Even Opens
By the time your product reaches the production line, 80% of its cost is already decided—in the design room. Why cost-down is an R&D discipline, how to break the mental walls that block it, and a systematic process that actually works.
Why DFM is the Survival Strategy Every Mechanical Engineer Needs
DFM is not a polite checklist—it's a zero-decision mandate that strips human judgment out of the assembly line. A deep dive into error-proofing geometry, the Rule of Ten, tooling risk, and how to break the wall between R&D and production.
Fans Are Fun: What Every Thermal Engineer Should Know About Forced Convection
Fan performance is deeply rooted in fluid mechanics, system resistance, and practical trade-offs. This guide covers why fans work, how to select them correctly, fan curves, bearing types, PWM control, and altitude effects.
Thermal Design Workshop Series 4: Heat Sink Selection, Demystified
A systematic guide to heat sink selection for electronics covering convection fundamentals, what really drives heat sink performance, how to read datasheets correctly, and a pre-commit validation checklist.
Bridging the Gap: A Practical Guide to Thermal Interface Materials (TIM)
A comprehensive guide to thermal interface materials: why they matter, how the main types compare, how to choose between grease, pads, PCM, gel, tape, and liquid metal, and what emerging materials offer.
Taming Heat in Modern ICs
As ICs pack more transistors into smaller nodes, thermal management becomes a first-order design challenge. A practical guide to IC heat sources, overheating effects, the two-resistor model, and a workflow from spec to concept.
Thermal Management Workshop Series: Session 1 — Thermal Resistance Basics
The first session of an in-house thermal management workshop for mechanical engineers: thermal resistance, series vs parallel heat paths, and why good thermal design starts long before you open a CFD tool.
What Years in Mechanical Architecture Taught Me
From fast-cycle mobile phone development to deliberate product architecture: what mechanical architecture really means, who should do it, and the four steps I follow on every project.
Is a Go/No-Go Gauge Really the Answer?
Go/no-go gauges feel like a quick fix on the factory floor—but they're an inspection tool, not a quality strategy. Here's why process stability beats sorting every time.
Helping Young Engineers Grow: Reflections from My Journey
What I've learned from both sides of mentorship—as a junior engineer guided by seniors, and as a senior engineer guiding others. Four principles that actually work.
Systematic Troubleshooting: Lessons from the Field and the 80/20 Principle
A practical 7-step framework for engineering troubleshooting, drawn from real field experience—covering root cause analysis, the 80/20 principle, Fishbone diagrams, and how to avoid scope creep.
Engineer and Business Man
A turning point in my career came from one sentence by a Japanese manager: 'An engineer is a businessman.' What that means in practice—and why it makes better engineers.
Should Mechanical Engineers Think Like a Boss?
The best mechanical engineers don't just execute specs—they ask why. A framework for moving from order-taker to strategic design partner, and why it matters for the product and your career.
Thermal Simulation of a Counter-Flow Chiller
A flow simulation study of a counter-flow wort chiller used in homebrewing, verifying heat transfer efficiency and exploring the relationship between flow rate and cooling performance.
Thermal Simulation of a Parabolic Solar Cooker
Shocked by your power bill? I simulated a parabolic solar cooker using SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation to find out how much power it really delivers and what limits its efficiency.
Thermal Simulation of Winter Camping in Alaska
A CFD thermal simulation of a YouTuber's Alaskan winter camping setup鈥攖ent, sleeping bag, and portable wood stove鈥攖o find out just how warm or cold it really gets inside.
CFD Analysis on a Townhouse of Auckland
Using computational fluid dynamics to investigate heat build-up in a typical Auckland townhouse during a hot summer day, and what the results reveal about ventilation and passive cooling.