Research Guides: EGRB 301: Biomedical Engineering Practicum: Build Your Product

Materials and Pricing

ThomasNet
Directory of suppliers for components and completed parts. Includes some product information and supplier contact information for more detail and pricing.

Material Connexion
For designers of all disciplines, includes information about over 4,500 material, including fabrics, ceramics, metals, and polymers. Material Connexion includes images of the materials and contact information for manufacturers.

Grainger
Grainger is one of the larger Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) businesses. (You can find others by searching the Web for MRO.) Like McMaster-Carr, it has many of the things you would find in a hardware store plus more specialized parts and equipment.
McMaster-Carr
Catalog from a supplier for industrial and commercial facilities. Like Grainger, it has many of the things you would find in a hardware store plus more specialized parts and equipment.
McRAE's Blue Book
This industrial manufacturing directory can be used to find large-scale suppliers.
Global Supplier Directory
Published by the same organization as ThomasNet, this resource includes information about suppliers both inside and outside the United States. Contact information is included to request price information.
Electronic Engineers Master Online
Electronic products and components are listed here with specification sheets. Some manufacturers include direct contact information to contact for pricing, but others only provide a URL.

Knovel Library
This collection of online reference books includes a data search tool to search by materials properties. Use it before going to vendors, to help establish what materials suit your needs.

Innovative Media
VCU Libraries Workshop (lower level, Cabell Library) has state-of-the-art audiovisual equipment and a cross-platform editing lab for video, sound and graphics as well as large-format printing. Staff can help you create and illustrate your designs.
Engineering Innovation Maker Garage
Students and faculty in the VCU College of Engineering who complete the training and safety requirements have access to a machine shop and a rapid prototyping service with 3D printing.
Hardware Stores Map from Google Maps
Lowe's at 1640 W. Broad, phone: (804) 219-0640 and Pleasant's Ace at 2024 W. Broad, phone (804) 359-9381 are the hardware stores closest to the Monroe Park Campus.
Hack.RVA
A local "hacker collective", members take things apart, put things together, and build things. Hack.RVA has a makerspace with tools for members and has members who can lend expertise.

The New Way Things Work by David MacAulay
Call Number: Cabell Library Reference T47 .M18 1998
From levers to lasers, from cameras to computers, this is an amusingly presented overview of the machines and inventions that shape our lives.
How Things Work by Louis A. Bloomfield
Call Number: Cabell Library General Collection QC21.3 .B56 2006
This book is an unconventional introduction to physics and science that starts with whole objects and looks inside them to see what makes them work.
HowStuffWorks
From Discovery Communications, this website provides easy-to-understand explanations of how the world actually works.

Prototyping for Designers
ISBN: 1491954035
Rapid Prototyping and Engineering Applications by Frank W. Liou
This book covers the basics of selecting materials for prototypes and of buy / build decisions. Examples are interspersed throughout the book. Despite end-of-chapter questions, this book reads more like a practical handbook for beginners than a textbook.
Effective Transition from Design to Production by David F. Ciambrone
Written from an engineering perspective, this book describes the process and challenges of moving an idea into a manufactured product. The ramp up from design to production is described using a step-wise process, with outlines of GANTT charts and descriptions of the risks and costs to consider at each step.
Manufacturing Engineering Handbook by Hwaiyu Geng
Coving such topics as machining processing, press work, manufacturing estimating, and material management, this handbook gives readers ready access to information on specific subjects in manufacturing engineering.
Manufacturing by Beno Benhabib
From concept development to final production, this comprehensive text thoroughly examines the design, prototyping, and fabrication of engineering products and emphasizes modern developments in system modeling, analysis, and automatic control.