Posted on

NUS Mech Engineering Review: ME3162 Manufacturing Processes

This was by far my favourite module and I’m quite sure many felt the same way. I’m not entirely sure but I guess level 3000 modules are less theory and calculations but more application based? I enjoyed studying for this module as I found it really applicable to real life, knowing how most things around you are designed and manufactured. This time, two thirds of the mod is handled by Prof Seah Kar Heng while the remaining one third is taken by Dr Woon Keng Soon.

I must say NUS is rather fortunate to have such a cool and passionate Professor going by the name of Prof Dr MAJ (NS) Seah Kar Heng. Despite his age, he is an amazing person who evidently enjoys teaching and is well-versed in his field of research. Okay enough of the praises, let’s get to the review!

At the start of the mod, every student was urged to buy Prof Seah’s textbook authored by him ($16) which had something like A5 sized pages (edit 12/12/2020: oh god I can’t believe I mistook A5 for A3). The main reason for getting it is that Finals were open book. Personally, I got mine for $10 on Carousell. The textbook was kinda okay but it was nice to carry around and perfect to read on the go while travelling on public transport. Simply because of that, I’ve been constantly reading it whenever I have nothing to do and practically brought it everywhere I go outside during the sem. The book didn’t really have as many words as one might expect but it was a good read nonetheless. Its contents include metal manufacturing processes like Rolling, Welding, Forging, Casting, Powder Metallurgy and Electro Discharge Machining, each having different variations within their types. The textbook also includes Plastics and how they are manufactured.

It really is a comprehensive read as there are student FAQs included inside too but do add in your own notes if not make your own notes as there are things the textbook doesn’t cover. However, as Prof Seah mentioned before, everything tested in the exam can be found in the textbook. I don’t really buy that idea so I wrote my own extra stuff which didn’t help much for the exam but it’s fine because I enjoyed learning more things, however irrelevant they may be to the exam. Don’t forget to annotate the topics on your book with book labels or something if you want to be extra safe.

There also wasn’t any lecture notes for the first part of the mod, only videos of the manufacturing processes which were pretty old but still interesting in my opinion. I recommend watching them to understand the manufacturing processes better, especially for hollow extrusion. As usual, I attended almost all the lectures and they were the most relaxing ones to attend since we could simply sit back and listen without needing to struggle to understand the concepts being taught.

Head over to our Shop for more module content!