Deyi Xue

Review: Recent development in CNC machining of freeform surfaces: A state-of-the-art review

Freeform surfaces, also called sculptured surfaces, have been widely used in various engineering applications. Freeform surfaces are primarily manufactured by CNC machining, especially 5-axis CNC machining. Various methodologies and computer tools have been developed in the past to improve efficiency and quality of freeform surface machining. This paper aims at providing a state-of-the-art review on recent research development in CNC machining of freeform surfaces. This review primarily focuses on three aspects in freeform surface machining: tool path generation, tool orientation identification, and tool geometry selection. For each aspect, first concepts, requirements and fundamental research methods are briefly introduced. The major research methodologies developed in the past decade in each aspect are presented with details. Problems and future research directions are also discussed.

Recent research on developing Web-based manufacturing systems: a review

A comprehensive review is given of recent research on developing Web-based manufacturing systems. First, the key issues in developing Web-based manufacturing systems, including collaboration among product development partners, data modelling, system architecture design, and security management, and researches to address these key issues are presented. Then various approaches of developing Web-based manufacturing systems are introduced to show how these approaches can improve the efficiency and quality in product design, production, life-cycle integration, enterprise management and customer service. Problems of the currently developed Web-based manufacturing systems and future work for developing the next-generation Web-based manufacturing systems are subsequently discussed.

Design candidate identification using neural network-based fuzzy reasoning

Abstract Conceptual design has profound impact on success of a product design. Identification of the best conceptual design candidate is a crucial step as design information is not complete and design knowledge is minimal at conceptual design stage. This paper presents a method for design candidate evaluation and identification using neural network-based fuzzy reasoning. The method consists of the following steps: (1) acquisition of customer needs and ranking of their importance, (2) establishment of measurable metrics and their relations with customer needs, (3) development of design specifications and initial evaluation of design candidates, and (4) evaluation and identification of design candidates based on design specifications and customer needs using neural network-based fuzzy reasoning. A case study is given to show the effectiveness of the proposed method and associated algorithms.

A dynamic reactive scheduling mechanism for responding to changes of production orders and manufacturing resources

Abstract This research introduces a dynamic reactive production scheduling mechanism for modifying the originally created schedules when these schedules cannot be completed due to changes of production orders and manufacturing resources. Production order changes include removal of an order that is canceled by a customer and insertion of an order that has to be completed within a short period of time. Manufacturing resource changes include breakdowns of machines and sudden sickness of workers. Match-up and agent-based collaboration approaches are employed to modify only part of the originally created schedules for improving the reactive scheduling efficiency, while maintaining the scheduling quality. The dynamic reactive production scheduling system was implemented using Smalltalk, an object oriented programming language.

Optimal fuel cell system design considering functional performance and production costs

In this work the optimization-based, integrated concurrent design method is applied to the modelling, analysis, and design of a transportation fuel cell system. A general optimal design model considering both functional performance and production costs is first introduced. Using the Ballard Mark V Transit Bus fuel cell system as an example, the study explores the intrinsic relations among various fuel cell system performance and cost aspects to provide insights for new cost-effective designs. A joint performance and cost optimization is carried out to demonstrate this new approach. This approach breaks the traditional barrier between design (concerning functional performance) and manufacturing (concerning production costs), allowing both functional performance and production costs to be fed into design phase and to be jointly optimized.

Knowledge base and database representation for intelligent concurrent design

This article presents methods for modeling knowledge base and database for intelligent concurrent design, including mathematical formulation and system development. Four issues are addressed in this research: (1) modeling product life-cycle aspects using aspect primitives called features, (2) generating product life-cycle aspects using a knowledge-based system, (3) maintaining consistency of product life-cycle aspects using the relations among these aspects, and (4) identifying the optimal design considering relevant product life-cycle aspects. A case study example is given in the end to demonstrate the effectiveness of the introduced methods.

Design for Product Adaptability

Adaptable design is a new design paradigm to create designs and products that can be easily changed to satisfy different requirements. Adaptable design aims at identifying the designs and products considering functionality, manufacturing efforts, customization, and environment friendliness. This research focuses on adaptable design considering product adaptability. In this work, product adaptability is evaluated by three measures including extendibility of functions, upgradeability of modules, and customizability of components. Various design candidates created in adaptable design are evaluated by different life-cycle evaluation measures including product adaptability of design, part and assembly costs of manufacturing, and operationability of customers. Since different evaluation measures are modeled in different units, the grey relational analysis method is employed to integrate these measures for prioritizing different design candidates. A case study is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the int...Adaptable design is a new design paradigm to create designs and products that can be easily changed to satisfy different requirements. Adaptable design aims at identifying the designs and products considering functionality, manufacturing efforts, customization, and environment friendliness. This research focuses on adaptable design considering product adaptability. In this work, product adaptability is evaluated by three measures including extendibility of functions, upgradeability of modules, and customizability of components. Various design candidates created in adaptable design are evaluated by different life-cycle evaluation measures including product adaptability of design, part and assembly costs of manufacturing, and operationability of customers. Since different evaluation measures are modeled in different units, the grey relational analysis method is employed to integrate these measures for prioritizing different design candidates. A case study is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the introduced adaptable design approach.

Distributed database and knowledge base modeling for concurrent design

This research introduces a new distributed database and knowledge base modeling approach for concurrent design. The descriptions of product life-cycle aspects are modeled by primitives called features. The knowledge for developing products is described by collections of rules called rule-bases. Databases and knowledge bases at different locations for modeling different life-cycle aspects of the same product are associated by Internet. In addition, mechanisms for maintaining dependency relations of the product descriptions at different locations and reasoning using the knowledge at different locations are also developed. The system was implemented using Smalltalk, an object oriented programming language. A case study example of concurrent design is given at the end of this paper.

Identification of the optimal product configuration and parameters based on individual customer requirements on performance and costs in one-of-a-kind production

One-of-a-kind production (OKP) aims at manufacturing products based on the requirements from individual customers while maintaining the high quality and efficiency of mass production. This research addresses the issues in identifying the optimal product configuration and its parameters based on individual customer requirements on performance and costs of products. In this work, variations of product configurations and parameters in an OKP product family are modeled by an AND-OR tree and parameters of the nodes in this tree. Different product configurations with different parameters are evaluated by performance and cost measures. These evaluation measures are converted into comparable customer satisfaction indices using the non-linear relations between the evaluation measures and the customer satisfaction indices. The optimal product configuration and its parameters with the maximum overall customer satisfaction index are identified by genetic programming and constrained optimization. A case study to identify the optimal configuration and its parameters of window products in an industrial company is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the introduced approach.

Adaptable design: Concepts, methods, and applications

Abstract Increasing competition in the global marketplace demands products with better functionality, higher quality, lower cost, shorter delivery lead time, and increased environmental friendliness. Although advanced manufacturing technologies can partially address these challenges, advanced design technologies are considered critical, since most design and manufacturing properties of a product are influenced by the design decisions made in the early design stages. This paper provides a comprehensive review on a new design paradigm — adaptable design — that aims at developing adaptable products to satisfy the various requirements of customers. The topics discussed in this review include the fundamental concepts, objectives, methodologies, and applications. The paper also presents the differences between adaptable design and other design methods, such as modular design, platform design, and product customization. The focus is on mechanical product design; however, potential applications of adaptable design in other disciplines are also briefly mentioned.