What do R&D engineers in manufacturing companies do? Is there a future?

Generally speaking, R&D engineers are divided into two types, namely mechanical structure R&D engineers and electronic R&D engineers. Let's take R&D mechanical structural engineers as an example to introduce them to you. R&D engineers of mechanical structures usually belong to R&D departments, and some large companies are called R&D centers. There are several R&D departments under the R&D center, including R&D department managers, R&D engineers, assistant engineers, technicians, modelers, clerks and so on.

R&D engineers of mechanical structures in manufacturing enterprises are not unattainable. Strictly speaking, they belong to applied R&D, and mainly focus on the design of new product projects. Their so-called innovation is usually micro-innovation, which will not involve bottom-level or basic R&D. The real bottom-level R&D and basic R&D only exist in a few large companies. They usually belong to the research institute of the company or the basic research department of the R&D center. Only these departments involve basic R&D and basic R&D, and the R&D mentioned by most other companies is actually applied R&D.

R&D engineers have a wide range of work and a long workflow, which can be said to run through the whole process of new product development, including technical feasibility analysis, cost analysis, patent analysis, product function realization, product structure design, scaffolding (rapid prototyping) manufacturing, functional prototype test experiment, mold design, mold manufacturing, engineering trial production, process trial production, small batch production, product verification, product safety regulations certification, mass production and so on. It can be said that the whole development process is led by R&D engineers. Many companies require R&D engineers to do both product design and project management, which is a position with high comprehensive ability.

As mentioned above, R&D and sales are called the company's two carriages by many companies. Therefore, the income and status of R&D engineers are top in the industry. Many companies have many R&D engineers, whose income is higher than that of directors and managers of many functional departments, and even the income of R&D managers of some companies exceeds that of some directors of the company. Personally, if you have the opportunity to become an R&D engineer, the prospects and Qian Jing are very good.