Computer Aided Prototyping

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This Institutional Infrastructure award is to support research in the general area of Computer Aided Manufacturing Engineering. The approach taken by the Utah group is computer aided prototyping of objects to be manufactured. The process is broken down into three separate areas of research: design, prototyping, and validation. The design aspect of the research involves enhancing the Alpha 1 computer aided geometric design system. This system is able to mathematically describe objects to be manufactured. It is enhanced by incorporating some commonly occurring manufacturing steps into the model as special elements (e.g., this hole is to be counterbored). The proto-typing aspect is to take the mathematical description of the object (say a gear) and generate the NC codes and the tooling sequences necessary to actually produce the item on a machine center. The University of Utah already possesses a five axis machine center, a CNC turning center, 3-D polymer equipment, and robotics equipment and so can experimentally validate their research. A long term goal is to optimize the tooling sequences and other necessary manufacturing activities in order to have the factory operate without human supervision. This prototyping facility would also be used in collaborative work with Dr. Jacobsen's Center for Engineering Design. This center designs and manufactures many prototype items. The use of computers to aid and guide manufacturing is more common in Japan and the European countries than in the United States. This Institutional Infrastructure award is for the support of an automated manufacturing laboratory that will allow the quick design and prototyping of manufactured items. Once the prototype is deemed acceptable, methods of improving the manufacturing of the item, particularly in small batch numbers, can be explored. The University of Utah has a long history of successful industrial collaborations and it is expected that the results of this research will be widely disseminated to the United States manufacturing industry.