Design For Manufacturing Concept Research Articles

Design for manufacturing to design for Additive Manufacturing: Analysis of implications for design optimality and product sustainability

In response to the development of new materials, improved design methods, and increased societal demands to manufactured products, Design for Manufacturing (DfM) concept has paved the way to incorporate these demands into the development of more sustainable products. However, the emergence of Additive Manufacturing (AM) techniques has brought new manufacturing capabilities that are beyond the conventional DfM concept. For this reasons there is a need to rethink design considering the capabilities of these technologies and make smooth transition from design for manufacturing to design for Additive manufacturing (DfAM). In this paper, the possible paradigm shift from DfM to DfAM is analyzed, the impacts on the realization of optimum design, and accommodation of the requirements for product sustainability is assessed. The role that DfM played in previous approaches to product development process and the factors that are the drivers of the DfAM approach are also discussed.

Remote Control of Quality Using Ethernet Vision and Web-enabled Robotic System

A dynamic, globalized and customer driven market brings opportunities and threats to companies, depending on the response speed and production strategies. One strategy is concurrent engineering (CE) that focuses on improving the product development process, by the consideration of various factors associated with the life cycle of the product from the early stages. Design for manufacturing (DFM) has proven to be an effective approach to implement CE concept. Recently, an important DFM concept in product quality has drawn much attention from both academia and industry. This is because intense domestic and international competition has put more emphasis on quality. This study investigates the feasibility of integrating Ethernet-based vision system and assembly robot for the purpose of remote quality control. The accuracy and repeatability of the system were tested and verified over the Internet, prior to the quality inspection. The web-enabled quality check and robotic operations present many benefits, such as ubiquitous access, remote control/programming/monitoring capability, and integration of production equipment into information networks for improved efficiency and product quality within the framework of CE and DFM.

REAL-TIME MACHINING QUALITY INSPECTION FOR DESIGN FOR MANUFACTURING (DFM)

A dynamic, globalized and customer-driven market brings opportunities and threats to companies, depending on the response speed and production strategies. One strategy is Concurrent Engineering (CE) that focuses on improving the product development process, by considering various factors associated with the life cycle of the product from the early stages of the product design. Design for Manufacturing (DFM) has proven to be an effective approach to implement CE concept. Recently, an important DFM concept in machining (i.e. a real-time inspection) has drawn much attention from both academia and industry. This is because intense domestic and international competition has put more emphasis on the part quality to achieve a shorter inspection time, improved part accuracies, and reduced scrap. The current methodology, using a machine mounted touch probe, suffers from the fact that the measurement accuracy is affected by the individual machine tool's positional accuracy and positioning system. To address this concern, the cutting experiments were conducted to collect touch probe measurement data. The data were analyzed to verify whether using a touch probe is suitable for real-time inspection. The analysis results show the touch probe has the higher capability index numbers and consistencies than the coordinate measuring machine (CMM), suggesting that the touch probe can be integrated into DFM as a means of real-time quality inspection.

Development and application of a mixed product/process-based DFM methodology

This article presents the results of a research project on Design for Manufacturing (DFM) (Vliet 2001), carried out at Delft University of Technology from 1997 until 2001. The aim of the project was to enable effective application of the DFM concept during the entire design process, in order to help reduce design and manufacturing lead times and costs. A DFM methodology has been developed that can be used to support the designer to apply DFM. The methodology is based on the approaches of design coordination and continuous design evaluation. Both approaches have been implemented to provide an active form of design support during the entire design process. The methodology supports the principles of systematic design. To enable the designer to apply these principles effectively, two new design tools have been developed for, respectively, the product design specification stage and the conceptual design stage. In order to be able to verify the DFM methodology, it has been implemented. The prototype computer-guided DFM system has been evaluated by experienced designers of various companies of the Dutch metalworking industry. The conclusion is that the proposed method of active design support is a suitable one, and that the DFM methodology enables effective application of the DFM concept.

An approach to And the minimum wall thickness of a part from its B-Rep model

Recently, concurrent engineering (CE) has become one of the major conceptual approaches in reducing product developing time. Design for manufacturing (DFM) and design for assembly (DFA) are two of the major areas in CE. Several researchers have integrated a CAD/CAM system and a knowledge-based system to implement DFA and DFM concepts. However, the incompatibility of the data representation methods between CAD/CAM and knowledge-based systems is the major issue in this integration method. In this paper, an approach is proposed to find the minimum wall thickness of a part from its boundary representation (B-Rep) model. These data can then be directly utilized by a knowledge-based system to analyse the manufacturability of thin wall parts such as injection moulded or diecast parts.