Materials selection, manufacturing processes, CAD and lifecycle analysis — the technical reasoning behind a design decision.
These are the statements the Design and Technology syllabus makes about Materials, Manufacturing and Digital Design. Dux records each one against the questions you answer, so you can see which of them you have actually been tested on and which have never been asked.
Material properties, selection criteria, and the processes that convert a material into a product.
Modelling, simulation and digital twins, and what CAD changes about the design process.
Cradle-to-grave assessment, embodied energy and the design decisions that dominate a product's footprint.
Strength, durability, workability and cost, and selecting on the property the application actually demands.
Forming, joining, cutting and finishing, and the trade-off between tooling cost and unit cost.
Why one-off, batch and mass production demand different design decisions.
Tolerances, fit and quality control, and the cost of tightening a specification.
Design for disassembly, modularity and repair, and why circularity is a design choice.
Where energy is consumed across a product's life, and which stage usually dominates.
Load testing, destructive testing and the analysis of why a product failed.
HSC Design and Technology - Written Paper Shape is 40 marks in 90 minutes. Questions on Materials, Manufacturing and Digital Design are not one shape repeated: the command word decides what the marker is looking for, and the mark value decides how much of it. These are the ones Design and Technology uses.
Dux writes practice for this module in exactly these shapes, so the drill is the same task the paper sets — not a general knowledge quiz with the module name on it.
Materials, Manufacturing and Digital Design is module 3 of 3 in Design and Technology. Students routinely lose marks because a question spans two modules, so the neighbouring modules are worth reading next to this one.
Dux diagnoses Design and Technology dot point by dot point, then writes questions in the shape this course marks. Written answers come back marked against the bands.