Developing modular product family using GeMoCURE within an SME

Companies adopt the strategy of producing variety of products to be competitive and responsive to market. Product variation is becoming an important factor in companies' ability to accurately meet customer requirements. Ever increasing consumer options mean that customers have more choices than ever before which put commercial pressures on companies to continue to diversify. This can be a particular problem within Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) who do not always have the level of resources to meet these requirements. As such, methods are required that provide means for companies to be able to produce a wide range of products at the lowest cost and shortest time. This paper details a new modular product design methodology that provides a focus on developing modular product families. The methodology's function is described and a case study detailed of how it was used within an SME to define the company's product portfolio and create a new Generic Product Function Structure from which a new family of product variants can be developed. The methodology lends itself to modular re-use which has the potential to support rapid development and configuration of product variants

Application of context knowledge in supporting conceptual design decision making

Conceptual design is the most important phase of the product life cycle as the decisions taken at conceptual design stage affect the downstream phases (manufacture, assembly, use, maintenance, and disposal) in terms of cost, quality and function performed by the product. This research takes a holistic view by incorporating the knowledge related to the whole context (from the viewpoint of product, user, product's life cycle and environment in which the product operates) of a design problem for the consideration of the designer to make an informed decision making at the conceptual design stage. The design context knowledge comprising knowledge from these different viewpoints is formalised and a new model and corresponding computational framework is proposed to support conceptual design decision making using this formalised context knowledge. Using a case study, this paper shows the proof of the concept by selecting one concept among different design alternatives using design context knowledge thereby proactively supporting conceptual design decision making for an informed and effective decision making

Computer Support for Integrated Design and Manufacture Engineering

Computer Support for integrated design and manufacture Engineerin

IT-Based Proactive design and synthesis For X in product LifeCycle

Pas de Résumé car Direction d'ouvrag

Haptic-enabled virtual planning and assessment of product assembly

Purpose: This study aims to present a new haptic-enabled virtual assembly system for the automatic generation and objective assessment of assembly plans. The system is intended to be used as an assembly planning tool along the product development process. Design/methodology/approach: The generation of product assembly plans is based on the analysis of the assembly movements and operations performed by the user during the virtual assembly execution, and the objective assessment of product assembly is based on the definition and computation of new proposed assembly metrics. Findings: To evaluate the system, a case study corresponding to the assembly of a mechanical component is presented and analyzed. The results demonstrate that the proposed system is an effective tool to plan and evaluate different product assembly strategies in a more practical and objective approach than existing assembly planning methods. Research limitations/implications: Although the virtual assembly execution time is larger than the real assembly execution time, the assembly planning and evaluation results provided by the system are valid. However, the development of higher performance collision detection algorithms is needed to reduce the simulation time. Originality/value: The proposed virtual assembly system is able to not only simulate and automatically generate assembly plans but also objectively assess them from the virtual assembly task execution. The introduction and use of several assembly performance metrics to objectively evaluate assembly strategies in virtual assembly also represents a novel contribution

In-process monitoring and quality control of hot forging processes towards Industry 4.0

The importance of quality control in any manufacturing process has always been recognised. However, now more than ever before, it is a key requirement in order for manufacturing companies to remain competitive in the digital age. Because of the complexities and globalization of the manufacturing supply chain, real-time product quality analysis has become an important issue in the global manufacturing industry. However, in the metal forging industry, the attainment of efficient real-time quality control within forging processes has been faced with many technological challenges. These challenges are associated with the need for more sophisticated process modelling and simulation tools, cost-effective self-tuning sensors and a lack of robust and efficient in-process monitoring and quality control technologies for the forging industry

Transformer fault diagnosis based on probabilistic neural networks combined with vibration and noise characteristics

When the transformer is running, the vibration which is generated in the core and winding will spread outward through the medium of metal, oil, and air. The magnetic field of the core changes with the variation of the transformer excitation source and the state of the core, so the corresponding vibration and noise change. Therefore, the vibration and noise of the transformer contain a lot of information. If the information can be associated with the fault characteristics of the transformer, it is significant to evaluate the running state of the transformer through the vibration and noise signal, which improve the intelligence, safety, and stability of the transformer operation. Based on this, modeling and simulation of transformer multi-point grounding, DC bias, and short-circuit between silicon steel sheets fault are first carried out in this paper, and vibration and noise distribution of transformer under different faults are given. Second, a fault diagnosis method based on transformer vibration and noise characteristics is proposed. In the process of implementation, vibration and noise signals under multi-point grounding, DC bias, and short-circuit between silicon steel sheets are taken as the sample data, and the probabilistic neural network algorithm is used to effectively predict the transformer fault. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed scheme is verified by identifying the simulation faults-the proposed fault diagnosis method based on PNN can be effectively applied to transformer

Optimal path planning based on a multi-tree T-RRT* approach for robotic task planning in continuous cost spaces

This paper presents an integrated approach to robotic task planning in continuous cost spaces. This consists of a low-level path planning phase and a high-level Planning Domain Definition Language (PDDL)-based task planning phase. The path planner is based on a multi-tree implementation of the optimal Transition-based Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (T-RRT*) that searches the environment for paths between all pairs of configuration waypoints. A method for shortcutting paths based on cost function is also presented. The resulting minimized path costs are then passed to a PDDL planner to solve the high-level task planning problem while optimizing the overall cost of the solution plan. This approach is demonstrated on two scenarios consisting of different cost functions: obstacle clearance in a cluttered environment and elevation in a mountain environment. Preliminary results suggest that significant improvements to path quality can be achieved without significant increase to computation time when compared with a T-RRT-based implementation

Toward a methodology of structuring the interactions dynamic within the Multi-Domains and Multi-Views design model (Application to the design of modular product families)

Dans le contexte économique actuel, il faut proposer des produits personnalisés dequalité, à faible coût et dans des délais de plus en plus courts. La société MABI a choisi devoir chacune de ces contraintes comme une opportunité de repenser ses produits en misantsur l innovation. Il faut alors optimiser certaines tâches routinières d ingénierie afin dedégager du temps pour la conception des nouveaux produits. Le travail de recherche réalisés inscrit dans le cadre d une thèse en convention CIFRE en partenariat entre la société MABIet le laboratoire IRTES-M3M de l UTBM. MABI conçoit, assemble, commercialise et assurele service après-vente de produits propres dans le domaine de la protection et la rénovationdes bâtiments. Ses besoins d amélioration concernent le processus de développement deproduits qui doivent répondre aux besoins des clients tout en respectant des contraintesd assemblage spécifiques à l entreprise. La finalité industrielle de la thèse consiste à décliner au niveau du domaine du Produit , la méthodologie générique élaborée sur la base de notre travail de recherchescientifique. A ce niveau, notre problématique scientifique consiste à rendre opérationnel etdynamique le modèle Multi-Domaines et Multi-Vues (MD-MV), structuré de manière plutôtstatique , en y apportant des éléments de raisonnement contribuant à créer des interactionsinter-domaines et inter-points de vue. Pour ce qui est du domaine du Produit , il endécoule la méthodologie FARD (Functional And Robust Design) qui vise à concevoir et àgénérer rapidement l ensemble des variantes de produits d une même famille modulaire touten assurant le respect des besoins clients (conception fonctionnelle) et des contraintesd assemblage à travers une aide à la décision pour le choix de la séquence d assemblage,contribuant ainsi à créer une interaction dynamique avec le domaine du Process . Quatrethèmes de recherche sont abordés : la modularité, la conception fonctionnelle, la conceptionpour l assemblage (dès les phases amont du processus de conception) et la simulation(accélérée grâce au paramétrage du maillage). Habituellement, le domaine de la modularitéest souvent associé à celui de la conception fonctionnelle ou encore à celui de la conceptionpour l assemblage, mais rarement les trois ensemble, ce qui constitue la spécificité de nostravaux. Enfin, l aspect paramétrique de la méthodologie FARD, à travers les liens établisentre les quatre thèmes de recherche évoqués précédemment, rend possible la générationrapide des produits d une même famille à partir d un produit générique et ainsi de gagner dutemps de conception, en vue d atteindre nos objectifs de conception routinière HautementProductive . Trois cas d études industriels et académiques illustrent l application et lafaisabilité la méthodologie FARD...In current economic context, enterprises must provide quality custom products at alower cost and a shorter delay. MABI Company chose to consider these constraints as anopportunity to rethink its products through innovation. Then certain routine tasks must beoptimized to free up time in order to have more time to innovate and design new products.This thesis is part of a CIFRE partnership between the MABI Company and the IRTES-M3Mlaboratory at UTBM. MABI designs, assembles, sells and provides after-sales service ofproducts in the field of the protection and the renovation of buildings. MABI needs ofimprovement are in the development process of its products that must meet customer needs,while respecting its assembly constraints.The industrial purpose of the thesis is to decline in the Product domain, the genericmethodology developed on the basis of our scientific research work. At this level, ourscientific problematic is to make operational and dynamic the Multi-Domains and Multi-Viewsdesign model (MD-MV), structured in a "rather static" way, and to enriched these models byadding reasoning procedures. It follows the FARD methodology (Functional And RobustDesign) which aims to design and quickly generate variants of a modular product family whileensuring compliance with customer requirements (functional design) and assemblyconstraints. Four domains are covered: modularity, functional design, design for assembly (atthe early stages of the design process) and simulation (accelerated through theparameterisation of the mesh). Usually the domain of modularity is often associated withfunctional design or with the design for assembly, but rarely the three together, thatconstitutes one of our added values. Finally, the parametric aspect of the FARDmethodology, that is the link between the four domains, allows accelerated the generation ofproducts of the same family from a generic product and thus saving design time to achieveour goal of "High Productive" routine design. Three industrial and academic case studiesillustrate the application and the feasibility of the FARD methodology...BELFORT-UTBM-SEVENANS (900942101) / SudocSudocFranceF