An information-integrated framework to support e-Manufacturing

The information integration of geometric design, finite/boundary element analysis (FEA/BEA), and numerical control (NC) machining is an important issue in e-Manufacturing and product development in geographically distributed sites. In this paper, a unified information-integrated framework based on XML (the eXtensible Markup Language) was created to support e-Manufacturing and integrate geometric design, FEA/BEA, and NC machining via the Internet. The structures of DTDs (Document Type Definitions) and XML files of geometric design, FEA/BEA, and NC machining were developed. Key technologies of supporting the XML-based integration and information communication, such as SAX (the Simple API (Application Programming Interface) for XML), DOM (the Document Object Model), SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), etc., are discussed. XML-based information integration via the Internet will shorten the development cycle, save costs in product development, and, finally, improve the competitive capability of e-Manufacturing in the global competition of product development.