VALIDATING COOPERATIVE SYSTEMS SIMULATION AND REMODELING FOR PUMP COVER DESIGN AND MANUFACTURING IN A VIRTUAL ENTERPRISE

In order to integrate the manufacturing systems in virtual environment some changes must be made in manufacturing systems architecture. To support this environment, the basic infrastructure for the enterprise must to consider two main modules: The Internal Module, that represents the autonomous unit of a particular company and includes the manufacturing system, the complete structure of the company information (databases, information system etc.) and all the decision making processes;virtual enterprise, manufacturing systems, remodeling, simulation, cooperative systems

EXPLORATION OF COLLABORATIVE DESIGN SPACES: ENGINEERING INTERACTIONS AND WORKFLOWS IN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) initiatives can improve an enterprise’s efficiency by increasing collaborative design opportunities within its business structure. PLM solutions provide digital mediums to collaborate on all aspects of a company’s workflow, including engineering, testing, manufacturing, marketing, business, and field support services. This paper examines the major PLM tools and software used to establish a collaborative engineering design space; computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided engineering (CAE), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), and product data management (PDM). The interactions between these PLM tools and a design team’s organizational structure are analyzed to determine some of the most effective PLM integration strategies to improve collaboration for all business functions. Engineering enterprises may split their work functions into technical and non-technical categories and match them with PLM solutions to create a collaborative design space that integrates all departments. A case study presents a university design team whose objective was collaborative creation of a digital twin for a scale tracked vehicle. The Siemens Teamcenter software tool was integrated within the team’s design procedures to improve the process. The results of integrating advanced PDM software into their workflow, including troubleshooting issues and problems, were explored in this paper. PDM and workflow interactions throughout the case study produced many unique outcomes that require additional PLM engineering solutions. Overall, advanced PDM software increased collaboration and efficiency of their design process

Investigating the design workflow for designing a component for Additive Manufacturing: A case study of designing a Jet engine combustion chamber component for AM

The increasing integration of Additive Manufacturing (AM) in the Product Development and production phase has brought a need for developing a new design for manufacturing methodology which is distinct to AM. Commonly known as Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM), it aims to take complete advantage of the unique capabilities of AM by developing rules, guidelines, and design methodologies. The existing studies on DfAM do not address practical problems faced during the design stage which leads to dilemmas and uncertainties in decision making concerning the design elements. Therefore, a workflow for implementing the methodologies of DfAM is important. To solve this problem, this thesis develops and documents the workflow for modeling lattice structures and minimal structures using the best tools available. In addition to this, the study analyzes the workflow developed with the help of a case study. In this case study, a component is developed for heat management which makes the use of heat transfer between solid and fluid. The design process in the case study is developed with the integration of Design for Six Sigma methodology. The outcomes are documented, and best practices from the study are reported

Flow-based fabrication: An integrated computational workflow for design and digital additive manufacturing of multifunctional heterogeneously structured objects

Structural hierarchy and material organization in design are traditionally achieved by combining discrete homogeneous parts into functional assemblies where the shape or surface is the determining factor in achieving function. In contrast, biological structures express higher levels of functionality on a finer scale through volumetric cellular constructs that are heterogeneous and complex. Despite recent advancements in additive manufacturing of functionally graded materials, the limitations associated with computational design and digital fabrication of heterogeneous materials and structures frame and limit further progress. Conventional computer-aided design tools typically contain geometric and topologic data of virtual constructs, but lack robust means to integrate material composition properties within virtual models. We present a seamless computational workflow for the design and direct digital fabrication of multi-material and multi-scale structured objects. The workflow encodes for and integrates domain-specific meta-data relating to local, regional and global feature resolution of heterogeneous material organizations. We focus on water-based materials and demonstrate our approach by additively manufacturing diverse constructs associating shape-informing variable flow rates and material properties to mesh-free geometric primitives. The proposed workflow enables virtual-to-physical control of constructs where structural, mechanical and optical gradients are achieved through a seamless design-to-fabrication tool with localized control. An enabling technology combining a robotic arm and a multi-syringe multi nozzle deposition system is presented. Proposed methodology is implemented and full-scale demonstrations are included

Digital design of medical replicas via desktop systems: shape evaluation of colon parts

In this paper, we aim at providing results concerning the application of desktop systems for rapid prototyping of medical replicas that involve complex shapes, as, for example, folds of a colon. Medical replicas may assist preoperative planning or tutoring in surgery to better understand the interaction among pathology and organs. Major goals of the paper concern with guiding the digital design workflow of the replicas and understanding their final performance, according to the requirements asked by the medics (shape accuracy, capability of seeing both inner and outer details, and support and possible interfacing with other organs). In particular, after the analysis of these requirements, we apply digital design for colon replicas, adopting two desktop systems. ,e experimental results confirm that the proposed preprocessing strategy is able to conduct to the manufacturing of colon replicas divided in self-supporting segments, minimizing the supports during printing. ,is allows also to reach an acceptable level of final quality, according to the request of having a 3D presurgery overview of the problems. ,ese replicas are compared through reverse engineering acquisitions made by a structured-light system, to assess the achieved shape and dimensional accuracy. Final results demonstrate that low-cost desktop systems, coupled with proper strategy of preprocessing, may have shape deviation in the range of ±1 mm, good for physical manipulations during medical diagnosis and explanation

Process improvement in a virtual organization focused on product development using collaborative environments

Collaborative Engineering Environments (CEE) have become really important in Virtual Organizations (VO) because they enable the coordination and collaboration among engineering groups, supported by tools and methodologies that enable intellectual capital sharing and engineering activities in real time, among organizations regardless of their locations -- A platform that integrates and facilitates the operation in Virtual Organizations focused in manufactured product development, is an important tool that supports a rapid respond to customers, and improve the communication among its members -- This paper present a way to improve business process in a VO based on the development and use of a CEE -- The methodology presented in this paper was implemented in a real manufacturing VO, improving the product transfer process: the coordinators of each business opportunity easily manage VO information, and VO partners were totally involved during the proces

Topology optimization for additive manufacturing

Topology optimization provides design engineers the opportunity to create light and complex structural parts. Additive manufacturing produces parts easier than traditional manu-facturing. Due to the above mentioned flexibility, parts that are designed for AM have the same structural load as the old parts but with reduced mass. This study utilizes topology optimization techniques, aiming to reduce the mass of the existing parts. Further weight loss is achieved by implementing lattice structure. The core of this thesis is to examine the workflow to include topology optimization in the process of design for AM. This was achieved by minimizing the mass of two parts of an electric scooter, neck and platform. The study produced new geometry for the existing parts. Cost analysis showed that the optimized design was cheaper to manufacture using the same AM method than the initial one. Within the context of the present work we came across the pros and cons of topology optimization and FEA through the Inspire software and proved that load conditions may directly affect the final result and product

virtual eco design how to use virtual prototyping to develop energy labelling compliant products

Abstract The paper defines a framework called virtual eco-design aiming to support designers and engineers in the development of sustainable energy-related products. Virtual prototyping is used to perform energy consumption tests according with ecodesign and energy label regulations. The goal is to build a knowledge-based repository in which virtual tests are stored and classified to create eco-knowledge. Induction hob has been analysed to verify the applicability of the approach and the integration in a traditional product development process. Results highlight how the proposed methodology increases company eco-knowledge providing a tangible support in the definition of energy-label compliant products

A Distributed Decision-Support System for Virtual Prototyping

Virtual Prototyping (VP) is a data-driven design process that promotes both knowledge reuse and innovation. High-profile applications in the automotive and aerospace industries have demonstrated its potential to significantly reduce prototype cycles, time to market, and total product cost. This paper addresses VP as a specialized application of Decision-Support Systems, and discusses common requirements for engineering design tools, as well as requirements specific to the design of electronic products, such as mobile phones. Motorola Labs' test bed for VP is introduced in terms of its open, agent-based architecture utilizing Java CORBA. One of the key principles of the VP System is the reuse of expert knowledge across multiple engineering domains. This is highlighted via several use cases, showing that the system can function not only as an Intranet-accessible repository of model services but also as an integral part of decision-making within the native CAD environment