An integrated disassembly constraint generation approach for product design evaluation

Abstract

Computer-aided design (CAD) has been a de facto industry standard approach for common product design. Analysing the manufacturing factors of the product at its design stage can greatly reduce its cost at the later stages of product life cycle. This article presents an integrated approach of disassembly constraint generation, based on which an object-oriented prototype is designed and developed. The approach is implemented as an embedded application on commercial CAD software platform so as to provide a tight and seamless integration to CAD process. It utilises the CAD model information directly and allows designers to evaluate the on-going design for its disassembly properties. Moreover, since the modules and objects are well encapsulated, it is possible for further disassembly planning applications to build on top of or integrate to it. The case study on a widely used shaft assembly demonstrated the effectiveness of the integrated approach.