A WEB BASED MANUFACTURING SERVICE SYSTEM FOR RAPID PRODUCT DEVELOPEMENT

Thallapaka Mahendra ReddyThallapaka Mahendra Reddy

contents

• Introduction• Architecture of the integrated system of rapid product

development• Reverse Engineering• The Work flow and function design • Case study• Conclusion • References

Introduction

• Today manufacturing industries are evolving towards digitalization, network and globalization.

• It is fact that the use of computers in design and manufacturing constitutes the most significant part in productivity gain in industry.

• In order to meet the demand of rapid product development, various new technologies such as reverse engineering (RE), rapid prototyping (RP), and rapid tooling (RT) have developed and are regarded as tools with abilities to shorten the product development and manufacturing time.

• However, these equipments are too expensive for the small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), and many techniques such as 3D CAD solid modelling, RP process planning, free-form surfaces reconstruction, etc., require the high skilled personnel to complete.

• Therefore, it is difficult for the SMEs to take full advantage of these technologies in the product development process. In order to offer the support of rapid product development for numerous SMEs, many RP service bureaus (SBs) which manufacture physical prototype and rapid tooling have been established.

Architecture of the integrated system of rapid product development• The development process from initial

conceptual design to commercial product is an iterative process which includes: product design; analysis of performance, safety and reliability; product prototyping for experimental evaluation; and design modification.

• The integrated system of rapid product development is composed of three modules: digital prototype, physical prototype and rapid tooling and functional part manufacturing system.

• The product development starts from the creation of a 3D model using a 3D CAD software package. The product and its components are directly designed on a 3D CAD system (e.g. Pro/Engineer, Unigraphics, CATIA,IDEAS, etc.) during the creative design process. If a physical part is available, the model can be constructed by the reverse engineering (RE) technique.

Reverse Engineering:

• The three primary steps in RE process are part digitization,features extraction, and 3D CAD modelling. Part digitization is accomplished by a variety of contact or non-contact digitizers. There are various commercial systems available for part digitization. These systems range from coordinate measuring machine (CMM), laser scanners to ultrasonic digitizers.

• Laser triangulation scanner (LTS),magnetic resonance images (MRI), and computer tomography (CT) are commonly used non-contact devices. Contact digitizers mainly have CMM and cross-sectional imaging measurement (CIM). Feature extraction is normally achieved by segmenting the digitized data and capturing surface features such as edges. Part modelling is fulfilled through fitting a variety of surface to the segmented data points.

• The CAD model can be directly converted to the physical prototype using a RP technique. RP is a new forming process which fabricates physical parts layer by layer under computer control directly from 3D CAD models in a very short time. In contrast to traditional machining methods, the majority of rapid prototyping systems tend to fabricate parts based on additive manufacturing process, rather than subtraction or removal of material.

• The RP methods commercially available include Stereolithgraphy (SL), Selective Laser Sintering(SLS), Fused Deposition Manufacturing (FDM),Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM), Ballistic Particle Manufacturing (BMP), and Three Dimensional Printing (3D printing).

• RT is a technique that transforms the RP patterns into functional parts, especially metal parts.

• The RT methods can generally be divided into direct and indirect tooling categories, and also soft (firm) and hard tooling subgroups.

The workflow and function design

• The first step is to log in to the website of SB. Users have to enter their names and passwords. Those without registration or authorization can also enter into the system, but they are limited to viewing the information that is open to the public such as typical cases in this system.

• According to authentication for the system, all users are to be divided into four categories: general users (without registration), potential clients, real clients, and system administrator. Received job requests from clients, the SB will perform firstly process planning which fulfills the task decomposition and selects the most suitable process methods.

• The SB will negotiate further with users by Video-conferencing system. Once the deal is over, a contract is to be confirmed, and the user becomes a real client. However, if the SB has no such manufacturing capabilities or can not accomplish then in time, it is an effective way that the SB takes full advantage of external sources to carry out the remaining tasks.

Function modules of networked service system

The service system consists of nine functional modules: the technique research, typical cases, information consultation, ASP (application service provider) tool set, client management, Electronic commerce, manufacturing service ,collaborative tools and system navigation. Its detailed structure is shown in Fig.

These nine components work together to achieve the common objectives, i.e. to provide an effective and prompt service platform to support the rapid product development of SMEs.

Case study• To illustrate exactly how the service system works and the

benefits it can bring to the users and service bureaus, an actual example is now presented.

• Let us assume that a company was working on a new design of the curing coryza apparatus for which a number of physical models would be required.

• The task requirement and relevant resources were submitted to SB by the job management module of the service system.

• After receiving the job requirement, the system would firstly perform the process planning by which the job was to be decomposed into the 3D CAD modelling and making prototype.

3D CAD models submitted by Shaanxi Productivity Promotion Center

Mock-ups fabricated by Chongqi Productivity Promotion Center.

• It is observed that, it can cut the new product costs by up to 50% and the time to- market by 75%. Consequently, the costs and lead times are substantially reduced using this service system to develop new products.

Conclusions

• In order to meet the current demand of rapid product development, a novel integrated system of rapid product development based on rapid prototyping is proposed, and a networked service system which offers better support for the rapid product development of small and medium sized enterprises is established.

• It has been shown from a case study that the system has a high potential to speed up the new product development.

References• A web-based manufacturing service system for rapid product

development by Hongbo Lana, Yucheng Dinga,*, Jun Honga, Hailiang Huangb, Bingheng Lua

a State Key Lab for Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, PR China

b Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, PR China Received 12 March 2003; accepted 23 July 2003

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_prototyping• http://www.efunda.com/processes/rapid_prototyping/rt.cfm