Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical Engineering is one of the oldest and broadest engineering branches and hence, one of the most preferred one by the engineering aspirants. The branch applies the principles of engineering, physics and material science for the design, analysis, manufacturing and maintenance of mechanical systems. This branch of engineering involves design, production, and operation of machinery.

Mechanical Engineering includes design, manufacture, installation and operation of engines, machines, robotics, heating & cooling systems and manufacturing processes. In this profession, you will be responsible for designing and developing machines right from bicycles to supersonic fighter jets and toasters which can be extremely challenging and fulfilling, requiring analytical skills together with an ability to work in a team. You must love machines and be comfortable working with tools!

This special feature of Careers360 we brings to you an overview of this branch of Engineering,  its career opportunities & scope, job profile details and top engineering colleges offering Mechanical Engineering. We also bring you insights on job profiles and top recruiters for Mechanical Engineering.

Mechanical Engineering: An Overview

As the name suggests, Mechanical Engineering is associated with designing machines, analyzing and manufacturing mechanical production and systems. The tasks involved in this branch include designing machines and assembling engines, power plants, vehicles and structures of various elements and properties.

India has also set for itself an ambitious target of increasing the contribution of manufacturing output to 25 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025, from 16 per cent currently. With the launch of the ‘Make in India’ campaign, it is expected that India will get the desired recognition as the global manufacturing hub.

The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow into India's miscellaneous mechanical and engineering industries during April 2000 to January 2015 stood at around US$ 3,948.17 million, as per the data released by the Department of Industries Policy and Promotion (DIPP).

In order to be a mechanical engineer, the students need to have an understanding of the core concepts of mechanics, kinematics, thermodynamics, materials science, structural analysis, and electricity. The mechanical engineers utilize these core concepts along with tools like computer-aided design, and product lifecycle management to design and analyze manufacturing plants, industrial equipment and machinery heating and cooling systems, transport systems, aircraft, watercraft, robotics, medical devices, weapons, and others.

What is Mechanical Engineering?

As mentioned above, the basic concepts of this field of engineering include mechanics,kinematics,thermodynamics, materials science, structural analysis, and electricity. There are several other fields which are interrelated with that of mechanical engineering such as aerospace engineering, metallurgical engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering, manufacturing engineering and chemical engineering.

The relevance of Mechanical Engineering is also apparent in other fields such as Biomedical engineering, specifically with biomechanics, transport phenomena, biomechatronics, bionanotechnology, and modeling of biological systems.

The core courses which are taught in the noted engineering colleges of India include the following:

• Mathematics

• Physical Sciences

• Statics & Dynamics Control

• Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer

• Fluid Mechanics

• Mechanism and Machine Design

• Strength of Materials and solid mechanics

• Materials Engineering

• Theory of Design

• Fuels, Combustion

• Instrumentation and measurement

• Manufacturing Engineering

• Hydraulics

• Engineering and Product Design

• Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Manufacturing

Mechanical Engineering is rightly called Evergreen field owing to its relevance and linkage with other branches of Engineering. Hence, there is a wide range of scopes and opportunities for students who pursue this field.

What do you do as Mechanical Engineer?

For a Mechanical Engineer, the role is spread across various fields of the Manufacturing sector. The job profiles or the roles of the Mechanical Engineers range in the Research & Development, Production, Design, Analysis and Testing, Installation and Maintenance.

The demand for the Mechanical Engineering jobs is high in India and abroad. The popular and most common industries where a Mechanical Engineer can be employed are Thermal Power Plants, Oil & Petroleum Plant, Electronics Industry, Aerospace, Shipping Industry, Pharmaceutical Industry to name a few.

To answer the question, what do you do as Mechanical Engineer, the responsibilities include designing – either manually or with the help of CAD and implementing equipment modification in order to improve the production quality, project management and ensure smooth running of operations of the plant or the manufacturing unit.

The mechanical engineers are also responsible for installing and maintaining various machines and tools which had been researched and developed by them. In short, the engineers have to ensure the overall smooth running of the process.

How to pursue Mechanical Engineering

Aspirants of Mechanical Engineering must have appeared in the 10+2 with Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics as core subjects. They have to appear for the various Engineering Entrance Exams such as JEE (for IIT, NITs, IIITs, CFTIs and SFTIs), BITSAT (for BITS) and VITEEE (VIT University) to name a few. On the basis of their performance and counselling, the candidates will be allocated the engineering branch.

Top Colleges offering Mechanical Engineering

Click here to get the full list.

The total duration of the programme is 4 years for B.E or B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering.

Scope & Opportunities of Mechanical Engineering

Graduates can work in the automotive, aerospace, chemical, computer, communication, paper, power generation and almost all manufacturing industries. Mechanical engineers also work in maintenance and service profiles in all industries. Also they can choose teaching profession in universities and colleges.

After completing a B.Tech/BE you can opt for M.Tech/MS in various specializations such as Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Mechanical Handling and Automation, Mechanical Systems Design & Thermal Energy and Environmental Engineering.

In the year 2015, according to the NIT Silchar Placement Report, Mechanical Engineering students were recruited by private companies as PSUs did not participated in the recruitment process. 60 percent students have been placed in IT sector and 24 percent in core sector jobs. The highest package was offered by ITC at Rs. 9.5 LPA and the average salary was Rs. 5 LPA.

Top Recruiters

Job Profiles

• Design Engineer

• Machine component designer

• Technical Officer

• Product Manager

• Purchasing Officer

• Sales & Maintenance Engineer

Stay tuned to engineering.careers360.com for more on Engineering Branches.