Interoperable manufacturing knowledge systems

For many years now, the importance of semantic technologies, that provide a formal, logic-based route to sharing meaning, has been recognised as offering the potential to support interoperability across multiple-related applications and hence, drive manufacturing competitiveness in the digital manufacturing age. However, progress in support of manufacturing enterprise interoperability has tended to be limited to fairly narrow domains of applicability. This paper presents a progression of research and understanding, culminating in the work undertaken in the recent EU FLEXINET project, to develop a comprehensive manufacturing reference ontology that can (a) support the clarification of understanding across domains, (b) support the ability to flexibly share information across interacting software systems and (c) provide the ability to readily configure company knowledge bases to support interoperable manufacturing systems.     

纸浆模塑制品结构设计

纸浆模制品在产品的包装与固定、产品的缓冲防震应用中,是通过各种结构形式来满足对产品的包装保护要求及使用要求.纸浆模塑产品结构设计影响着纸浆模制品的缓冲性能,影响着对产品的包装要求,因而影响着纸浆模制品的包装结构、加工生产及模具设计与加工方法.     

A hybrid case-based reasoning CAD system for injection mould design

Injection mould design generally lies on the critical path of a new product development. The design efficiency will have significant impact on the overall lead time of a new product. This paper presents a prototype injection mould-design system using a hybrid case-based reasoning (HCBR) approach. Case-based reasoning (CBR) is a solving paradigm that uses previous episodes on solving problems similar to the problem at hand (the new problem) as the basis for solving the new problem. In this hybrid system, CBR is incorporated with generalized design knowledge, and provides a flexible and comprehensive model of design. The knowledge base of the system would be accessed by mould designers through interactive programs so that their own intelligence and experience could also be incorporated with the total mould design. The approach provides a workable model of mould design system with CBR and knowledge-based expert system intelligent support, which could suggest good and proven design solutions to new design problems quickly, avoiding the time necessary to create those designs from scratch, for the plastic products manufacturing industry.     

Information sharing in multiviewpoint injection moulding design and manufacturing

Global competitiveness challenges manufacturing industry to bring to market well designed and manufactured new products at competitive prices in as short a lead-time as possible. To achieve this, inputs are needed from experts in a multitude of disciplines as well as from customers and suppliers. While the use of design teams is achieving success, there is a need for modern software tools that support design and manufacture to be radically improved. Typically, design for manufacture software systems does not support the multiple views of information needed for information systems to be able to support multiple manufacturing perspectives. This paper proposes a linked, multiviewpoint, product model structure as a means of supporting the many views of product information necessary in team-based design and manufacturing systems. To test the ideas developed, an experimental product model has been implemented using an object-oriented database that focuses on views related to the design and manufacture of injection-moulded products. The experimental system explores the relationships between three views: mouldability, cavity design and cavity machining views.     

Examining the State of Risk Management Research in New Product Development Process

New products are major sources of competitive advantage and success for a manufacturing enterprise. However, not all new product development (NPD) initiatives result in a successful product and are therefore a major cause of wasted resources. Furthermore, NPD processes are becoming increasingly complex and risky due to today’s globalized market and customers’ desire for technologically advanced products. While there has been a significant interest in academia about NPD risks, the existing literature is spread across multiple outlets, making it difficult for any practitioner or researcher to synthesize the current work. This article aims to minimize that gap by providing a comprehensive overview of current research activities in the field of risk management in NPD process in one place. The research design is based on mapping and classification of the existing body of knowledge into the domains of NPD risk analysis and management. The article analyzes the contemporary NPD risk analysis methods on three fronts: risk identification, risk assessment, and risk mitigation. Based on the review, the article then identifies and discusses several key areas for future research significant to engineering management practices. Finally, an integrated framework is presented to provide a holistic approach toward risk management in the NPD process, followed by the practical implications for engineering managers and practitioners.     

Implementation specification for software process improvement supportive knowledge management tool

Software process improvement (SPI) is a long-term journey, which is made comfortable by many means. The most dominant and preferred plan is a knowledge driven methodology with which software development organisations are experimenting. To have a look and feel of knowledge and its management, it has become essential to have a standardised knowledge management tool (KMT) that comprises specifications like-acquisition, representation, sharing and deploying. Although several tools and techniques are available for managing knowledge to solve domain problems, it is felt in the knowledge society that no standard KM tools exist that would facilitate SPI. In this piece of implementation work, the authors outline the features that are deemed significant to implement a KMT that drives the journey of SPI. Four process areas are chosen and four subsystems are identified in covering these process areas. A series of studies conducted among organisations requiring the support of a KMT in making a decisive SPI initiative are also discussed with elaborate and significant results. Implications of this work demands the cooperation of software development companies with the research community in finding a better approach to their improvement program.     

Knowledge integration and sharing for complex product development

Product development is a highly creative and knowledge-intensive process that involves extensive information and knowledge exchange and sharing among geographically distributed teams and developers. How to best integrate such heterogeneous product knowledge has become an extremely important knowledge management (KM) subject associated with product development. Product development knowledge integration and sharing is becoming a key issue in the enterprise KM. This paper addresses the challenges of product development knowledge integration and sharing during product development. The aim of this research work effort is to develop a method to enhance the integration and sharing of product knowledge during the development phase. This study presents a systematic approach to developing knowledge integration and sharing for product development. The proposed approach includes the steps for designing a framework of product development knowledge sharing, developing representation model for product development knowledge, designing product development knowledge sharing process, designing product development knowledge integration ontology, developing knowledge integration and sharing method for product development based on ontology, and implementation of product development knowledge integration and sharing method. The proposed method could bring out an efficient and proactive way for knowledge integration and sharing among product developers in the product development process.     

Effects of gate design and cavity thickness on filling,morphology and mechanical properties of microinjection mouldings

Miniaturized parts weighing up to tens of milligrams represent a large category of microinjection moulded products. Both miniaturization and extreme processing under microinjection moulding cause material to experience high shear rates and high cooling rates, and to have different morphology and final properties from conventional injection moulding. It also makes mould design quite challenging. This study investigates micro gate design (opening and thickness) and cavity thickness (100–500 μm) on filling, morphology and mechanical properties of Poly(ether-block-amide) miniaturized dumbbell parts. It is found that a reduction of gate size has two conflicting effects: increased shear heating increases flow length; increased cooling rate reduces flow length. Filling increases significantly with an increase of cavity thickness. In addition, skin ratio reduces from ∼70% to ∼10%, when part thickness increases from 100 μm to 500 μm. Such oriented skin layer determines molecular orientation and broadly influences Young’s modulus, elongation and yield stress. Natural aging at room temperature induces an increase of modulus and yield stress, and a decrease of strain at break. Mechanical properties of microinjection mouldings are significantly different from conventional injection mouldings and measurement at the microscale is required for successful miniaturized product design.     

A template approach to manage mould-testing stage in a plastic injection mould project

Two major tasks are involved in the mould-testing process stage for any mould project: (a) to troubleshoot and make decisions during the internal/external mould-testing; and (b) to perform dimensional inspection of satisfactory moulded parts. In any plastic injection mould industries, the mould-testing process stage is often the most hectic. The main reasons behind the buzz of activities are that enormous amounts of data need to be sorted and managed and decisions have to be made dynamically. The mould-making industries also rely heavily on field experts during the decision-making of the mould-testing process stage. It is both time-consuming and unproductive to manage the large amount of data, and sending field experts overseas to oversee the mould-testing and to make decisions is an expensive fraction on the company's expenses. The template approach can be executed to overcome the problems faced. The reason being that the expertise on the decision-making during the mould-testing is not unique. These expertises can easily be consolidated into a knowledge database and novice personnel could simply obtain the information from there and make similar decisions as the field experts. This template approach also offers an avenue to manage the data systematically through a proper channel of recording the necessary information without duplication. A case study was also presented to demonstrate the use of templates in managing the mould-testing stage of a mould project.     

The reuse of machining knowledge to improve designer awareness through the configuration of knowledge libraries in PLM

The nature of competition induces the need to constantly improve and perform better. For global aerospace manufacturers, this is as timely an epithet as ever as market forces urge for more growth, better financial return and market position. The macroeconomic aspect is compounded by the growth of product complexity and the need for higher product quality, hence the drive to reduce waste places emphasis upon production costs and the need to improve product performance. This paper focuses upon a rapid development and deployment method that enables the capture and representation of machining knowledge so that it may be shared and reused by design engineers to accelerate the design-make process. The study and mapping of information and knowledge relationships are described and put forward as a lightweight ontology. From this, a set of knowledge document templates were created to facilitate the capture, structuring and sharing of machining knowledge within a collaborative multidisciplinary aerospace engineering environment. An experimental pilot system has been developed to test and demonstrate that knowledge document templates can accelerate the sharing of machining knowledge within an industrial product lifecycle management environment. The results are discussed to provide a case for further development and application within the product domain.     

A framework for developing engineering design ontologies within the aerospace industry

This paper presents a framework for developing engineering design ontologies within the aerospace industry. The aim of this approach is to strengthen the modularity and reuse of engineering design ontologies to support knowledge management initiatives within the aerospace industry. Successful development and effective utilisation of engineering ontologies strongly depends on the method/framework used to develop them. Ensuring modularity in ontology design is essential for engineering design activities due to the complexity of knowledge that is required to be brought together to support the product design decision-making process. The proposed approach adopts best practices from previous ontology development methods, but focuses on encouraging modular architectural ontology design. The framework is comprised of three phases namely: (1) Ontology design and development; (2) Ontology validation and (3) Implementation of ontology structure. A qualitative research methodology is employed which is composed of four phases. The first phase defines the capture of knowledge required for the framework development, followed by the ontology framework development, iterative refinement of engineering ontologies and ontology validation through case studies and experts’ opinion. The ontology-based framework is applied in the combustor and casing aerospace engineering domain. The modular ontologies developed as a result of applying the framework and are used in a case study to restructure and improve the accessibility of information on a product design information-sharing platform. Additionally, domain experts within the aerospace industry validated the strengths, benefits and limitations of the framework. Due to the modular nature of the developed ontologies, they were also employed to support other project initiatives within the case study company such as role-based computing (RBC), IT modernisation activity and knowledge management implementation across the sponsoring organisation. The major benefit of this approach is in the reduction of man-hours required for maintaining engineering design ontologies. Furthermore, this approach strengthens reuse of ontology knowledge and encourages modularity in the design and development of engineering ontologies.     

基于深度阅读体验的电纸书产品设计

目的 从信息体验的角度设计一款电纸书产品，采用情感化产品设计、自然用户操作界面和构建社交化阅读平台的方式，使阅读者在阅读过程中形成无缝式体验信息的过程，从而使阅读者达到深度阅读体验和完成心流的目的。方法 分析电纸书产品的特性，总结现有市面上主流电纸书产品的优缺点，分析研究阅读者的习惯特点和需求，完善产品的设计及易用性。结论 提出面向消费类电纸书产品设计的思路，包含产品外观、交互方式操作界面以及基于知识分享的大数据社交阅读服务平台设计。     

头戴产品人因设计与测评研究综述

目的 围绕头戴产品人因设计与测评领域的理论、方法、支撑技术与研究进展,综述总结头戴产品的人因设计与测评研究成果,为头戴产品设计提供理论及实践支撑.方法 对影响头戴产品人因设计的支撑技术现状进行详细论述,对比头部数据、辅助设计软件工具、测试头模及人因测评方法等4个方面的国内外研究进展.以耳罩式耳机人因设计和医用防护用品适配性的评价方法为例,介绍头戴产品人因设计与测评研究思路,,并就目前头戴产品研究存在的问题提出了一些建议.结论 我国成年人头部数据库建设及应用已经有了一定的积累,国内外头戴产品的设计研究发展模式存在较大差异性.我国的学术和行业机构应基于自身的优势和需求,建立头部数据共享和设计联盟,促进头戴产品设计能力提升,改善产品的用户体验,激发消费潜能.     

An integrated framework for protective packaging design and manufacture

Computer-based techniques are becoming more widely used to solve design and manufacturing problems, but some firms remain sceptical as to its technical functionalities in providing realistic price/performance improvement and flexibility. The local protective packaging industry is one of those where computers are not widely used to automate the various stages of design and manufacture. A fundamental deficiency in the data integration, therefore, exists between these two processes. This paper describes an integrated technological approach to the design and manufacture of polyfoam protective products. The work will involve the use of knowledge-based techniques for protective packaging design, automated procedures for mould design, and an information communication link to the production of prototype samples and moulded products. Special emphasis would also be made as to the nature and integration of data between the various areas.     

基于“Z”字形映射的并行设计研究

本文将产品开发过程划分为五个域,在分析了“Ｚ”字形映射方法的基础上,提出了利用“Ｚ”字形映射方法实现相邻域之间的映射能满足并行设计要求的观点。     

面向制造的注塑模具结构设计

把DFM思想引入到注塑模具的结构设计中，采取了分阶段对产品进行设计和可制造性评价的策略，并以此为基础进行产品结构方案的评价，提供了总体的设计修改意见。通过将制造知识引入到设计的早期阶段，克服了由于设计不合理反复试模的弊端，降低了产品成本，缩短了模具制造周期。     

System for computer-aided cavity layout design for die-casting dies

Die-casting is one of the methods used to produce a large number of components with a good surface finish by injecting cast alloys into a metal mould under high pressure. The design of a die-casting die requires human expertise and is normally performed by trial and error, which leads to monetary and time losses. Automation at the initial die design stage would result in higher productivity and would reduce the production lead time. Decisions regarding the number of cavities, the layout pattern and the placement of cavities in die-casting are critical for die design and manufacturing. This paper presents research work on a system for computer-aided cavity layout design for die-casting dies. The proposed system consists of three modules: (1) determination of number of cavities; (2) selection of layout pattern; and (3) placement of cavities in the die base. It enables die designers to generate a cavity layout design automatically from a computer-aided design (CAD) file of the part with little information provided manually. The optimal number of cavities is determined by considering economic, technical, geometrical and time limitations, followed by the selection of a layout pattern. Thereafter, cavities are placed in the die base. The developed system depends on a database of die-casting machines and materials along with a knowledge base of die design. This system has been tested on a number of die-casting parts and results have been found to be along the lines of those obtained by the industry. The proposed system is more comprehensive than those presently available and is a step in the right direction for design-manufacturing integration for die-casting.     

Micrographic studies on adhesively bonded scarf repairs to thick composite aircraft structure

The hard-patch approach to scarf repairs involves adhesively bonding a pre-formed patch into the scarf cavity. This approach has several potential advantages compared with the conventional soft-patch approach, which involves forming the patch from pre-preg and co-bonding it with the adhesive during cure of the patch directly in the repair cavity.Two methods for producing the hard-patch were investigated. The first was the moulded approach where the patch was laid up in a mould and cured prior to bonding in the repair cavity. The development and implementation of the moulded hard-patch repair technique on an F/A-18 horizontal stabiliser is described. The second approach involves machining the patch from a composite panel using digitised data obtained from the use of surface profiling equipment to capture the scarf cavity surface. Micrographic techniques were used to assess critical features of the bond-line produced from the different techniques. The results are compared with microscopic studies from a second F/A-18 horizontal stabiliser that was repaired much earlier using the soft-patch approach. Each repair is assessed in terms of the consolidation of plies along the bond-line and the conformity of the patch to the repair cavity as well as adhesive uniformity and porosity.     

Feature-based integration of conceptual and detailed mould design

The plastic production industry has been growing rapidly in recent years, and injection mould, which is especially widely used in 4C (computer, communication, consumer electronics, and car) products, is the most popular in moulding plastic. The diverse requirements of customers and pressures of just-in-time production are big challenges in the injection mould industry. The advantages, that keep products’ quality and increase work efficiency, will decide a company's competitive capabilities. Therefore, this study proposes a feature-based integration of the conceptual and detailed mould design process within the computer-aided design (CAD) tool. It adopts a feature-oriented method and the dedicated application programming interface (API) to implement the features integration function of the conceptual and detailed mould design. Based on intellectualised, customised, and standardised procedures, not only does this prevent probable engineering mistakes and generate consistent web reports, but also transmits the intact feature information from conceptual to detailed mould design, thus shortening detailed mould design processes. In the case studies of this paper, using the feature-based navigating system can result in time savings up to 56% and 59%. The results show significant time savings over traditional mould design processes.     

Verification of knowledge shared across design and manufacture using a foundation ontology

Seamless computer-based knowledge sharing between departments of a manufacturing enterprise is useful in preventing unnecessary design revisions. A lack of interoperability between independently developed knowledge bases, however, is a major impediment in the development of a seamless knowledge-sharing system. Interoperability, being an ability to overcome semantic and syntactic differences during computer-based knowledge sharing, can be enhanced through the use of foundation ontologies. Foundation or core ontologies can be used to overcome differences existing in more specialised ontologies and to ensure seamless knowledge sharing. This is because these ontologies provide a common grounding for domain ontologies to be used by different functions or departments. This common base can be used by mediation and knowledge verification systems to authenticate the meaning of knowledge understood across different domains. For this reason, this research proposes a knowledge verification framework for developing a system capable of verifying knowledge between those domain ontologies which are developed out of a common core or foundation ontology. This framework makes use of ontology logic to standardise the way concepts from a foundation and core concepts ontology are used in domain ontologies and then, by using the same principles, the knowledge being shared is verified.