The difference between designers and engineers

Thought I would chime in on the subject and share what I have learned recently. As many of you know I have been in business for about six months. Prior to that I worked for a manufacturers rep helping contractors with design and installation problems, start-ups, and working on industrial boilers. Prior to that I worked for contractors parting myself out as a radiant floor heating expert for large projects.

After working all around the industry I have gained some really great experience and I understand alot about engineering and design. I have even solved some pretty complex problems mathematically that have to do with hydronics, steam, and combustion.

My business partner however is a mechanical engineer (the professional type). Intersting enough he has no experience in hydronics other than working with me in the summers while he was attending school. I have had to teach him how hydronics go together including piping, mixing, controls and construction methods.

Can I toot my own horn and say that I tought him everything he knows about hydronics? Not by a long shot. He blows my mind regularly. He already understood fluid dynamics, electronics, and layout. Piping, mixing, hydronic controls just gives him an outline. He has the ability to find routes and lay things out that I had never even considered.

I'll give this for an instance. Recently we had a pump that was cavitating badly. After running the calculations that I know by heart we were able to determine that we needed to modify the pump by machining down the impeller. I was about to get on the line with my former employer and ask for the charts when my partner spit out the exact calculations. He began to explain to me how he came up with the numbers but I didn't understand at all. I trusted him and when we got the pump back together it ran perfectly on the money with what the design engineer had specified originally. The rep actually messed up the calcs when they were putting the pump package together.

He had NEVER worked with pumps before but he know his fluid dynamics and understood cintrifugal force. It is for that reason that I respect what a professional engineer does and is capable of.

Just my thoughts on the matter thats all.

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