Information mapping across injection moulding design and manufacture domains

The process of developing new products is complex, partly due to the wide areas of expertise that need to work together to achieve the best results. Whilst a broad range of software tools is now available to support specific areas of product development, and Product Lifecycle Management systems are starting to support information sharing, the provision of software environments that enable the sharing of information and knowledge across multiple domains of expertise is still a major issue. This paper utilises a set of engineering domain ontologies and investigates the development of mapping methods between them. The work focuses on the development of plastic injection moulded products and has used the particular domains of mouldability, mould cavity design and mould cavity manufacturing to explore the mapping methods across domains. It identifies the critical requirement for mapping methods as understanding the pre-conditional knowledge that constrains the domain boundaries. Experimental mapping methods based on these requirements have been constructed and are discussed in the context of case studies in information sharing for injection moulded product development.