Product Design Specifications Research Articles

The form-affordance-function (FAF) triangle of design

AbstractFor centuries, the relationship between form and function has been a point of debate in the communities of architecture and design, leading to the development of various theories which have attempted to establish a tangible relationship between these two entities. Besides, the concept of affordance, adopted from Gibson’s ecological psychology theory, has appeared as a widely-used concept in design practice and research. Nevertheless, while it is generally accepted that these concepts have close dependencies and interactions, it appears that there is no explicit theoretical framework that relates three of the most fundamental concepts of design, namely form, function, and affordance. This paper aims to analyze the concept of affordance in the context of industrial design, where we attempt to develop insights into the role of affordances in relation to form and function. To this end, we define the form-affordance-function (FAF) triangle of design as a major contributor to the establishment of a partial product design specification (PDS) in the design process. We present several examples to investigate the position of affordances in competition with other design considerations such as engineering performance, ergonomics, and aesthetics. The insights into these relationships could have potential implications for designers in making informed early-stage design decisions.

Generation of Dissimilar Alternative Product Formulations Using Graphs

In this work, alternative product formulations are represented as a bipartite graph, and mixed-integer programming is used to find a graph partitioning that identifies the most dissimilar formulations within a potentially large design space. This involves fully integrating available models for product properties and known heuristic rules for product formulation. The set of dissimilar alternative formulations thus found constitutes the best exploratory plan of experiments in the face of the available knowledge. Also in this work, a cosmetic emulsion example is explored, where some ingredients (in a non-specified number) have to be chosen from a pool of 32 possible. The number of possible combinations of ingredients is around half a million. With the new tools proposed herein, one is able to identify small sets of alternative formulations that adhere to available models and known heuristics rules, have maximum dissimilarity, and are optimal regarding a specific product design objective (cost or other), in a few minutes of computational time.

Social Listening for Product Design Requirement Analysis and Segmentation: A Graph Analysis Approach with User Comments Mining.

This study investigates customers' product design requirements through online comments from social media, and quickly translates these needs into product design specifications. First, the exponential discriminative snowball sampling method was proposed to generate a product-related subnetwork. Second, natural language processing (NLP) was utilized to mine user-generated comments, and a Graph SAmple and aggreGatE method was employed to embed the user's node neighborhood information in the network to jointly define a user's persona. Clustering was used for market and product model segmentation. Finally, a deep learning bidirectional long short-term memory with conditional random fields framework was introduced for opinion mining. A comment frequency-invert group frequency indicator was proposed to quantify all user groups' positive and negative opinions for various specifications of different product functions. A case study of smartphone design analysis is presented with data from a large Chinese online community called Baidu Tieba. Eleven layers of social relationships were snowball sampled, with 14,018 users and 30,803 comments. The proposed method produced a more reasonable user group clustering result than the conventional method. With our approach, user groups' dominating likes and dislikes for specifications could be immediately identified, and the similar and different preferences of product features by different user groups were instantly revealed. Managerial and engineering insights were also discussed.

Linear theory of micropolar media with internal nonlocal potential interactions

AbstractThis paper proposes a mathematical model that can be used to quantify the effects of a polarized electric field on the mechanical properties of a polar dielectric in the framework of mechanics of deformable solids. The physical essence of the phenomenon is known. However, its direct use in practical calculations may cause difficulties due to the complexity of the composition and structure of materials used in the design and manufacture of specific products whose operation regimes are based on polarization effects. A continuum description of the polarization phenomenon makes it possible to circumvent these difficulties.The basis of the generalized model is a micropolar linearly elastic medium. The generalization consists in taking into account the initial stress state of the material, as well as cross effects under the mutual influence of translational and rotational deformations, the possibility to calculate the characteristics of micropolar material properties based on a special nonlocal model of micropolar media with internal nonlocal potential interactions. It takes into account translational and rotational potential interactions of particles of a continuous medium at finite distances. The kinematic characteristics of the material are the same as those used by the traditional model of a micropolar elastic medium ‐ the gradients of translational displacements of the medium's particles, their rotations independent of the medium's rotation and rotations of the particles relative to the medium. Generalized forces performing work on these generalized displacements are volumetrically and surface‐distributed forces and moments. To determine the values of the parameters of the interparticle potentials of the nonlocal model, a method is proposed using data from experiments to determine the material constants of isotropic linearly elastic materials and the dispersion law for plane acoustic waves of high frequency. The paper considers and quantifies the effects of anisotropy in an initially isotropic material, as well as anharmonic effects that cause dielectric heating by a periodically changing polarizing field. The results are compared qualitatively and quantitatively with known experimental data and physical notions of the phenomena in question.

Development of vocabulary card in learning english vocabulary for 7th grade students at MTs Ma’arif Gandusari

English has an important role in the international world. Vocabulary is the key of the four English skills. Need mastery the vocabulary to facilitate the delivery of the material. This research was conducted to develop subject matter in the form of vocabulary cards as learning media in class VII. The object of this research is 24 students of MTs Ma'arif NU Gandusari for the academic year 2020/2021. This research is a research and development model by (Borg & Gall : 2003) modified by researcher based on the needs and context of the research. There are eight steps in this development: (1) conducting needs analysis, (2) determine the specific material, (3) product design, (4) design validation, (5) design revision, (6) product testing, (7) usage testing, (8) dissemination and implementation. Questionnaire was applied to get the data. The results of media expert validation showed that the illustration got a score of 83% and the student response was 95%. The results of the validation of the material, media, and student responses can be said that this Vocabulary card has a “valid” level of validity to be used. Therefore, this learning media deserves to be an effective learning media for students.

Materials Selection of Thermoplastic Matrices of Natural Fibre Composites for Cyclist Helmet Using an Integration of DMAIC Approach in Six Sigma Method Together with Grey Relational Analysis Approach

Natural fibre reinforced polymer composite (NFRPC) materials are gaining popularity in the modern world due to their eco-friendliness, lightweight nature, life-cycle superiority, biodegradability, low cost, and noble mechanical properties. Due to the wide variety of materials available that have comparable attributes and satisfy the requirements of the product design specification, material selection has become a crucial component of design for engineers. This paper discusses the study’s findings in choosing the suitable thermoplastic matrices of Natural Fibre Composites for Cyclist Helmet utilising the DMAIC, and GRA approaches. The results are based on integrating two decision methods implemented utilising two distinct decision-making approaches: qualitative and quantitative. This study suggested thermoplastic polyethylene as a particularly ideal matrix in composite cyclist helmets during the selection process for the best thermoplastic matrices material using the 6σ technique, with the decision based on the highest performance, the lightest weight, and the most environmentally friendly criteria. The DMAIC and GRA approach significantly influenced the material selection process by offering different tools for each phase. In the future study, selection technique may have been more exhaustive if more information from other factors had been added.

A Multiscale Overview of Modelling Rolling Cyclic Fatigue in Bearing Elements.

During service, bearing components experience rolling cyclic fatigue (RCF), resulting in subsurface plasticity and decay of the parent microstructure. The accumulation of micro strains spans billions of rolling cycles, resulting in the continuous evolution of the bearing steel microstructure. The bearing steel composition, non-metallic inclusions, continuously evolving residual stresses, and substantial work hardening, followed by subsurface softening, create further complications in modelling bearing steel at different length scales. The current study presents a multiscale overview of modelling RCF in terms of plastic deformation and the corresponding microstructural alterations. This article investigates previous models to predict microstructural alterations and material hardening approaches widely adopted to mimic the cyclic hardening response of the evolved bearing steel microstructure. This review presents state-of-the-art, relevant reviews in terms of this subject and provides a robust academic critique to enhance the understanding of the elastoplastic response of bearing steel under non-proportional loadings, damage evolution, and the formation mechanics of microstructural alterations, leading to the increased fatigue life of bearing components. It is suggested that a multidisciplinary approach at various length scales is required to fully understand the micromechanical and metallurgical response of bearing steels widely used in industry. This review will make significant contributions to novel design methodologies and improved product design specifications to deliver the durability and reliability of bearing elements.

Material selection and conceptual design in natural fibre composites

Abstract Material selection is the process of determining which material is best suited to meet the needs of a specific application. Mechanical characteristics, chemical properties, physical properties, electrical properties, and cost are all aspects that define the selection requirements. During the material selection process, these must be weighed. Materials selection is a process used by design engineers to choose the best materials for a specific component. To find the best composite materials, a materials selection system is used to find candidate materials from various composite materials that meet all of the material selection criteria, such as strength, stiffness, cost, and aesthetics. Similarly, a materials selection system will require candidate materials to contain several forms of NFC to identify the best appropriate NFC for a specific product. Materials selection for NFC goods is a relatively recent field of study. Because of the vast number of individual constituent materials in NFC, the work of selecting the best NFC for a specific product is regarded as challenging and time-intensive (Marques T, Esteves JL, Viana J, Loureiro N, Arteiro A. Design for sustainability with composite systems. In: 15th international conference on experimental mechanics (ICEM15); 2012:1–2 pp). Whereas conceptual design is a crucial activity in the design process in modern design, it is continually highlighted that improper conceptual design can lead to extensive rework and problems after the product is produced. According to (Pugh S. Total design: integrated methods for successful product engineering. Wokingham, England: Addison-Wesley Publishing; 1991), conceptual design activity is creating and assessing design solutions to meet the PDS. Because many design features are distinct in composites, and the tailor-made nature of composites has caused the design approach to be different, conceptual design with NFC is typically different from metals. Designing with NFC is similar to designing with a traditional composite product in terms of concept. This activity entails numerous processes, including creating a design brief, information collecting, market research, and product design specifications (PDS).

PRACTICE-LED: DESIGN FACTOR ANALYSIS IN DEVELOPING NEW MOUNTAIN BIKE (MTB) PEDAL

This paper has investigated a practice-led design method for product designers in designing a new mountain bike (MTB) pedal. According to the World Bank, it is estimated, there are already more than two billion bikes in use around the world in 2017 and the number increasing every year. The main objective of the study is to understand the cause of an accident and to provide design factors for a designer in developing a new MTB pedal. Fieldwork done in Malaysia from 2018 to 2020 revealed that, 85.2% of mountain bike riders involved in an accident (physical injuries) during bike event that course by the mishandling of bike pedal. Direct observation and action design research was adopted as the main research method where the author involved actively participating in MTB event to gain the main data. Product design specifications were listed that could help in reducing physical injuries among mountain bike riders (MBR). Eight design factors were listed as the main design priority in the product design specification. The product design specifications (PDS) were used as design guidance for designer in developing a new MTB pedal that could meet the requirement and the preferences of the mountain bike riders.

Total Design in the Design and Development Process of a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) with Particular Consideration of Sensorization

This paper provides a methodological proposal for the design and development process of a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). The design core and product design specifications (PDS) of Pugh’s Total Design model are considered, with a focus on the early stages of the product design and development process. A modularization of the functional groups of an ROV is proposed, focusing attention on the sensor system. The main concepts regarding ROVs are presented, Pugh’s Total Design model is explained, justifying the application interest in technological projects, a methodological proposal adapted to ROV projects is provided, based on Pugh’s Total Design model, with special interest in the early stages of the new product development process (NPD), the suitability of applying our own model of industrial design engineering in an ROV system is analyzed, and the contribution of this study is evaluated, proposing future work and lines of research.

Information mining of customers preferences for product specifications determination using big sales data

Product competitiveness is highly influenced by its related design specifications. Information retrieval of customers preferences for the specification determination is essential to product design and development. Big sales data is an emerging resource for mining customers preferences on product specifications. In this work, information entropy is used for customers preferences information quantification on product specifications firstly. Then, a method of information mining for customers preferences estimation is developed by using big sales data. On this basis, a density-based clustering analysis is carried out on customers preferences as a decision support tool for the determination and selection of product design specifications. A case study related to electric bicycle specifications determination using big sales data is reported to illustrate and validate the proposed method.

STRUCTURAL-PARAMETRIC MODEL OF SECOND-ORDER SURFACES

One of the modern directions for the further development of the applied geometry scientific school of the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute is the structural-parametric shaping of various technical objects. Currently, the general theoretical foundations of this methodology and specialized means of its practical implementation are being developed. The results obtained in the design, manufacture and operation of specific industrial products largely depend on their efficiency.
 The created mathematical models serve as the basis for software modules, which become components of the applied computer information systems. In these conditions, the issues of developing the necessary methodological support are also important. From the side of the theory of structural-parametric shaping, requirements are imposed on new geometric means in accordance with the principles of universality and unification, variability, openness and development, a system approach, etc.
 As can be seen from the title of the publication, in our case we are talking about second-order surfaces, which, due to their useful properties, are quite common in many technical objects. Note that the plane is considered a simplified version of these figures. The indicated universality and unification consist in solving a wide range of problems using the same type of methods, techniques, algorithms, etc. Variability is the need to implement for the geometric model of its flexible and productive use, the openness and the development – of easy updating, expansion and improvement its components. The systems approach requires considering the created mean not only as interconnected elements, but also as a part of systems of a higher hierarchical level. The submitted second-order surface model satisfies the rules described above. Its main peculiarity lies in the combination of the vector definition of these items with the structural-parametric methodology. The developed techniques of shaping are suitable for wide practical use during the automated design of various technical objects, the processes of their production and operation.

Conceptual Design of Glass/Renewable Natural Fibre-Reinforced Polymer Hybrid Composite Motorcycle Side Cover

This paper presents the development process relating to the conceptual design of glass/renewable natural fibrereinforced polymer hybrid composite motorcycle side cover. Motorcycle side cover is a component frequently made from plastic or steel that functions on covering the motorcycle parts, components and systems such as frame, battery, electrical systems and mechanical systems. Function Analysis Systems Techniques (FAST) is used to identify the functions of motorcycle side cover. The right-side cover of motorcycle model SYM E-Bonus 110 has been physically studied to identify the competitive benchmarking criteria. The functions and competitive benchmarking criteria are then compiled and integrated with the environmental requirements to identify the Product Design Specifications (PDS). The coir fibre has been selected from six identified dominant renewable natural fibre used for automotive component through integration of Ranking Method and Quality Based Selection (QBS). Then the polypropylene matrix is selected after shortlisting the existing thermoplastic that is used with coir fibre and has high suitability for injection moulding manufacturing. The polypropylene matrix is then evaluated using Weighted Evaluation Matrix (WEM) by comparing to benchmark material which is Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS). After that, the conceptual design development of glass/renewable coir fibre-reinforced polypropylene motorcycle side cover is carried out using an integrated Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) and Morphological Chart, followed by final conceptual design selection using integration of Pugh Scoring Method and QBS. The conceptual design development intended on improving the biodegradability to reduce pollution to the environment. However, the usage of glass/coir fibre-reinforced polypropylene hybrid composite may increase the weight due to higher density. Four innovative design concepts have been developed and the selected final concept design has the most minimum number of ribs and minimum thickness with the same ratio of glass fibre and natural fibre composition.

A design navigator to guide the transition towards environmentally benign product/service systems based on LCA results

With rising societal demands for a transition towards a circular economy and intensifying market competition, manufacturing companies are increasingly seeking alternative ways to design and develop their industrial offerings with reduced environmental impacts and increased value. A possible solution lies in designing environmentally benign product/service systems (PSSs), which often requires the redesign of existing offerings in industrial practice.This article presents a design navigator named lifecycle-oriented function deployment (LFD), which builds on the widely utilized life cycle assessment (LCA) and quality function deployment (QFD) to support the redesign of existing industrial offerings towards PSSs with reduced environmental impacts. LFD includes a novel procedure to derive environmental requirements using LCA and to prioritize them along with customer requirements. It introduces a list of generic service design characteristics to support service design. It also contains a QFD-based procedure to identify design parameters (characteristics and components for both products and services) that have a relatively strong influence on the prioritized requirements. Further, a novel way is proposed to capture specific product and service design characteristics that are feasible to integrate and potentially have a rather strong influence on the requirements when combined.LFD is subsequently applied in a case study to conceptually redesign an existing offering in a manufacturing company. The application is then assessed using an LCA and a semi-structured interview with the users of LFD. The LCA results indicate significant reductions in environmental impacts of the redesigned concepts, and the interview revealed benefits for the practitioners who used LFD.

Monitoring and alleviating the effects of pressure related injuries for spinal surgery–a need for improvement?

The development of pressure injuries (PIs) is a common complication arising during surgery. Monitoring and alleviating PIs is currently not possible during lengthy spinal and orthopaedic surgeries, especially if a patient requires x-rays. We interviewed surgical staff to gain an understanding of attitudes regarding current methods and approaches for the management of PIs to allow the development of new devices based on staff feedback. Interviewees provided insights regarding the possible design of a new device used to monitor and alleviate pressure injuries in a surgical environment. From the interviews we derived key themes, including current devices/systems, current risk assessment/scales, and design considerations. As a result, we identified critical design requirements and an appropriate product design specification. Background: Complications can arise when perioperative staff are monitoring a patient’s health status during surgery, including the development of pressure injuries (PIs). It is important to reduce the incidence rates of developing PIs intraoperatively, and thereby mitigate both increased costs and negative impacts to patients and care providers. Current pressure relief supports offer limited monitoring abilities throughout the perioperative environment. Aim: The aim of this study is to establish clear design requirements and a product design specification that enables a new closed-loop product solution to be developed with real-time pressure monitoring during surgery. Method: We conducted semi-structured interviews with nine different clinical staff members involved in the perioperative environment. We conducted the interviews over a two-week period with two major teaching hospitals within the East Midlands, UK. Questions focused on healthcare professionals’ perceptions of current methods and their approaches to managing PIs. We recorded and transcribed participants’ data using NVivo software. Conclusion: The interview data identified a need for an improved method to manage and monitor PIs. We established that the incorporation of live feedback to reduce the prevalence of PIs is a critical design priority. Based on the interviews, we developed design criteria and a product design specification (PDS). Interview transcripts suggest a new device design should focus on a novel radiolucent pressure redistribution solution capable of reducing PIs intraoperatively while incorporating live feedback.

Application of life-cycle assessment to the eco-design of LED lighting products

An approach for integrating life-cycle assessment (LCA) into the eco-design of lighting products was developed, and LCAs of five lighting products that are currently on the market were then carried out using this approach. Based on the results of these LCAs, the sustainability requests for lighting products were derived and embedded into the product design specification (PDS), thus ensuring that any product developed according to the PDS would have the desired eco-design features. A new sustainable lighting product was then designed according to the PDS and manufactured, after which the new product underwent LCA. Upon comparing the results of the LCA of the new product with the LCA results for the existing lighting products, the newly designed product was found to provide better environmental performance than the existing products (a 27–58% reduction in environmental impact).

Simulation Based Optimization of Thin Wall Injection Molding Parameter Using Response Surface Methodology

.Improper mold design or processing parameter setting could make a bad impact on the appearance of molded part. It becomes more challenging if the ratio of the part size compared with its wall thickness is greater. Process parameters such as mold and melt temperature, injection temperature including the cavity layout directly affect product quality and cost. It is a complex and difficult task to improve these multi parameters. The objective of this research is to determine optimum settings for processing parameters for a thin walled product by using Response Surface Methodology. Melting temperature, mold temperature, injection pressure and cavity layout are selected as processing parameters and Polyurethane material is selected for this research. Volumetric shrinkage and warpage are selected as the main quality criteria to be controlled respected with the product design specifications. As the result, optimum process parameter settings were mold temperature of 29.89°C, melting temperature of 220°C, and 181.30MPa injection pressure with ‘H’ branching cavity layout. With small differences error value between solution and simulation, 0.31% for volumetric shrinkage and 0.126% for warpage, the result was acceptable.

Configuration-Based Smart Customization Service: A Multitask Learning Approach

Smart customization service is an important element for smart manufacturing. The success of smart customization requires that designers, manufacturers, and customers with differences in context, semantics, and other cognitive aspects be engaged in a collaborative process. With product configurators reported to have positive impacts on product quality to meet customers' needs, this article attempts to explore an approach for smart customization service based on configurators. To better address the semantic gap between customers and designers/manufacturers, a new configuration mechanism is proposed that takes into consideration customer needs using natural language as the input and maps them to product specifications in the design stage. We collected a massive amount of review text from e-commerce websites and used ELMo, a contextualized word representation based on a deep bidirectional language model, to encode the text. A multitask learning-based neural network was adopted to build the mapping from layman customer needs to product specifications. Our experiments show that this approach can achieve a promising performance for the configuration task and, thereby, facilitate smart customization services. Note to Practitioners-Smart customization has been adopted by various industries to tailor companies' business streams and customize solutions for customers. It is a complicated service process involving cross-functional teams for identifying customer needs and establishing product design and manufacturing specifications. However, communication in the collaborative process may be challenging. Customers may express their needs using layman's terms. The expressed needs can even be ambiguous and imprecise. Miscommunication hinders the efficiency of smart customization services. This article uses natural language processing and machine learning techniques to map product review text, which is crawled from e-commerce websites to the corresponding product specifications. Given a new customer's needs in free-form text, the mapping can automatically identify the satisfactory product configurations. This has the potential to improve the efficiency of product customization and shield customers and companies from the back-and-forth communication procedure in the customization service.

Design structure network (DSN): a method to make explicit the product design specification process for mass customization

The process of product design specification is subjective in nature and this motivates the application of approaches and methods to make it explicit. Among the available approaches, the systematization of the development of a single product, modular products, family of products and products for mass customization stands out. Among the methods, the design structure matrix (DSM) is highlighted, as well as the use of networks to represent the variables and their interdependence relations. Representation is very important to increase the cognitive capacity of those involved in the design and to facilitate communication between specialists and non-specialists. The clarification of the knowledge and reasoning of the design increases the complexity of the specification, which needs to be managed. In this work, the method called design structure network (DSN) is proposed, allowing the visualization of the design variables as nodes of a network and the relations of interdependence as links and the specification reasoning can be represented as a path that connects the nodes in a network. For the management of network complexity, ten principles based on cognitive processes are implemented. The DSN method was applied in the geometric specification of surfboard, and the results obtained show the potential of graphical representation of the specification reasoning, as well as the ability to reduce the complexity of the network.

Conceptual design of multi-operation outdoor flexural creep test rig using hybrid concurrent engineering approach

The hybridisation of conceptual design methods is presented in the development of multi-operations creep flexural test rig. The paper explains the integration of theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ), Morphological chart, and Analytic Network Process (ANP) method to ensure the quality function is fulfilled with the essential requirements. The objective of this project is to produce and choose the best design concept for the product development depending on the product design specifications (PDS). In the early stage of product development, the TRIZ contradiction principles and 40 TRIZ inventive solutions were applied as the guidance tools. To refine the specification of the product design, the principle solution parameters were detailed systematically with the aid of morphological chart. In this article, four innovative conceptual designs of the multi-operations creep flexural test rig were produced and the selection process was conducted using ANP method to perform the multi-criteria decision making process in selecting the best concept design.