As I've done various EE and product / system design work over the years I often end up working with mechanical engineers and being involved in projects that ultimately get turned into injection molded assemblies, 3D printed prototypes, maybe sheet metal designs, etc.
From what I've seen done and what I've picked up casually I get the generalities of 2D/3D MCAD design and molding and 3D printing and so on. And I have taken apart the various 3rd party gadget over the decades to get an idea of how they've done things like enclosures, batteries, buttons / keypads, etc.
But I'd like to learn more about historical and modern "idioms" and techniques and technologies for industrial design / mechanical engineering / molded gadgets etc.
I feel like there must be entire books about hinges, latches, clamps, clips, bosses, aluminium / plastic extrusion profiles, inserts, DFM, mold design, etc. etc. that would just be scratching the surface of what's out there.
I don't expect to become an expert ID / ME but I'd like to evolve my knowledge to suit a good foundation of things that are likely I could be able to take advantage of "DIY" by 3D printing / rapid prototyping services where you provide the MCAD of a workable design and they provide cheap prototypes without doing any of the design work for you.
Also I'd like to know about what sorts of things to consider as practical or idiomatic / canonical as design options and practices and rules of thumb when considering conceptual designs that could ultimately be manufactured by professional type injection molding equipment but where the generic design attributes and concepts for an enclosure or user interface are probably determined in rough sketch long before a professional ID / ME is involved to "optimize" it for DFM.
It would be awesome to have something like a "visual encyclopedia" of "design patterns" for ID / ME just as there are "design patterns" for software. Here are the various kinds of clips / clasps that can be injection molded to close an assembly. Here are various kinds of button designs and how they're molded, designed, retained, "sprung", etc. Here are various kinds of materials and thicknesses that are used in practice to make certain kinds of common gadgets, cell phones, MP3 players, mice, keyboards, whatever.
I have some old (1700s-1900s) "mechanical engineering" books that touch on general things like pulleys, gears, screws, simple machine design, etc. etc. but not really anything touching on 1990s-2018 realm plastic and other sorts of "technology gadgets" or rapid prototyping capabilities / limitations / design patterns..
Teardown photos are interesting but I'd like to see a lot more like keyboards, mice, MP3 players, monitors, car / industrial electronics, consumer electronics, whatever, and see what they've done to get a feel for the approaches and results. Maybe some good commentary about what's bad / ok / good, etc.
100 different calculators and watches and telephones and PDAs from 1980 to the present. Whatever.
What resources do you use for learning about this stuff and expanding your horizons of ID / ME / DFM etc.?
I don't mind literal textbooks and encyclopedias and academic literature and stuff but due to time / cost / availability and "a picture is worth 1000 words" factor I'd like to see some free web based or PDF type resources maybe online open course material and class / thesis projects with good lab / presentation / thesis summaries or whatever.