Product development knowledge management portal and case studies to demonstrate the need for better design knowledge management using it

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2001.Page 123 blank.Includes bibliographical references (p. 121-122).Product development process is a complex one due to the involvement of highly coupled tasks and people over a certain period of time. So far there has been little success in capturing and storage of the knowledge that goes into making such a complex process in a easy to use and readily accessible way within a detailed framework. This thesis presents a product knowledge management portal to categorize such vast knowledge effectively to achieve those objectives. It thus serves as a map and a knowledge repository of the entire product development process starting with the evaluation of customer needs, functional requirements and constraints subsequently leading to specific design parameters, the process variables and the final output of the product itself. Within this framework is also contained the details of each of these individual processes, lessons learned from the past experiences, task division and interactions between people and tasks over time and the interconnections and links between these processes themselves. The thesis then studies three cases of products at two companies with different company cultures and size to learn how these companies manage the product development process knowledge using the above-developed framework. The results suggest the insufficiencies in different areas of knowledge backed by quantitative data. It also points out the common results and differences among the way companies manage the product development knowledge.by Guru Prasanna.S.M

Design and fabrication of novel microfluidic systems for microsphere generation

In this thesis, a study of the rational design and fabrication of microfluidic systems for microsphere generation is presented. The required function of microfluidic systems is to produce microspheres with the following attributes: (i) the microsphere size being around one micron or less, (ii) the size uniformity (in particular coefficient of variation (CV)) being less than 5%, and (iii) the size range being adjustable as widely as possible. Micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) technology, largely referring to various micro-fabrication techniques in the context of this thesis, has been applied for decades to develop microfluidic systems that can fulfill the foregoing required function of microsphere generation; however, this goal has yet to be achieved. To change this situation was a motivation of the study presented in this thesis. The philosophy behind this study stands on combining an effective design theory and methodology called Axiomatic Design Theory (ADT) with advanced micro-fabrication techniques for the microfluidic systems development. Both theoretical developments and experimental validations were carried out in this study. Consequently, the study has led to the following conclusions: (i) Existing micro-fluidic systems are coupled designs according to ADT, which is responsible for a limited achievement of the required function; (ii) Existing micro-fabrication techniques, especially for pattern transfer, have difficulty in producing a typical feature of micro-fluidic systems - that is, a large overall size (~ mm) of the device but a small channel size (~nm); and (iii) Contemporary micro-fabrication techniques to the silicon-based microfluidic system may have reached a size limit for microspheres, i.e., ~1 micron. Through this study, the following contributions to the field of the microfluidic system technology have been made: (i) Producing three rational designs of microfluidic systems, device 1 (perforated silicon membrane), device 2 (integration of hydrodynamic flow focusing and crossflow principles), and device 3 (liquid chopper using a piezoelectric actuator), with each having a distinct advantage over the others and together having achieved the requirements, size uniformity (CV ≤ 5%) and size controllability (1-186 µm); (ii) Proposing a new pattern transfer technique which combines a photolithography process with a direct writing lithography process (e.g., focused ion beam process); (iii) Proposing a decoupled design principle for micro-fluidic systems, which is effective in improving microfluidic systems for microsphere generation and is likely applicable to microfluidic systems for other applications; and (iv) Developing the mathematical models for the foregoing three devices, which can be used to further optimize the design and the microsphere generation process

A Short Review on 4D Printing

Additive Manufacturing can be described as a process to build 3D objects by adding layer-upon-layer of material, the material traditionally being plastics, metals or ceramics, however ‘smart’ materials are now in use. Nowadays, the term “3D Printing” has become a much-used synonym for additive manufacturing. The use of computing, 3D solid modeling applications, layering materials and machine equipment is common to majority of additive manufacturing technologies. Advancing from this 3D printing technology, is an emerging trend for what is being termed “4D printing”. 4D printing places dependency on smart materials, the functionality of additive manufacturing machines and in ingenious design processes. Although many developments have been made, limitations are still very much in existence, particularly with regards to function and application. The objective of this short review is to discuss the developments, challenges and outlook for 4D printing technology. The review revealed that 4D printing technology has application potential but further research work will be vital for the future success of 4D printing