SBIR Phase II: Rapid Application Development Architecture for Product, Process, and Cost Configuration Across Manufacturing Verticals

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目将开发工程咨询系统的原型架构并验证其应用。虽然产品设计的成本可能只占产品总成本的5%左右，但在设计阶段做出的决策可能会对最终产品成本做出高达70%-80%的贡献。在没有足够的制造知识或信息的情况下做出不恰当的设计决策，会增加产品开发生命周期中的迭代次数，给原始设备制造商(OEM)和较低级别的制造商带来巨大成本。普渡大学的一项调查显示，90%的工程师/设计师对工艺知识知之甚少，这表明存在严重的设计-制造知识差距。第二阶段项目的目标和责任是通过开发用于早期设计的工程咨询系统来弥合设计和制造知识的差距。该系统将类似于拼写检查工具，就可制造性和成本向工程师/设计师提供建议。该系统将执行动态可制造性设计(DFM)分析，评估零件几何以提供零件制造方面的建议，特别是零件设计中与工具和工艺相关的参数，通过将零件的几何和非几何参数映射到基于成本的制造过程模型来帮助估计零件的相对制造成本，集成3D形状搜索引擎(从普渡大学授权)与零件/工具/成本顾问和AMP；知识重用代理，使用复杂的几何推理算法和混合B-rep-voxel方法与商业计算机辅助设计(CAD)系统无缝集成，并提取基于制造特征的几何信息。如果成功，该产品将使工程师/设计师能够在产品设计早期就工艺和零件/模具的可制造性做出明智的决策，同时作为工程师/设计师的按需制造假设教育工具。它将减少非附加值的设计功能，从而可以考虑最佳和经济的工艺，从而降低模具成本，同时将原始设备制造商和模具公司报价过程中的风险降至最低。这项研究的结果通过向学生介绍制造过程和为可制造性而设计的概念，对工程学校的教育产生了影响。该公司将向大学提供工程咨询系统，供其在工程课程中使用。拟议的研究成果可以通过工程咨询系统在早期设计阶段直接将当地供应商联系起来，从而改进产品设计、降低成本并对当地经济产生积极影响。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop prototype architecture of an engineering advisory system and validate its application. Although the cost of product design could be only about 5% of the total product cost, decisions made during the design stage can contribute as much as 70-80% to the final product cost. Inappropriate design decisions made without sufficient manufacturing knowledge, or information, increases iterations in the product development lifecycle, causing significant costs to both the original equipment manufactures (OEMs) and the lower tier manufacturers. A survey by Purdue University indicated that 90% of the engineers/designers had very little process knowledge, thus indicating that there is a serious design-manufacturing knowledge gap. The aims and responsibilities of the Phase II project are to bridge the design-manufacturing knowledge gap through the development of an engineering advisory system to be used in early design. The system would be analogous to a spell-checking tool, advising engineers/designers on manufacturability and cost. The system will perform Dynamic Design for Manufacturability (DFM) analysis, evaluate part geometry in order to provide advice on the manufacturing aspects of the part, especially tooling and process related parameters in part design, help in estimating relative manufacturing costs for a part by mapping the geometric and non-geometric parameters of the part to a cost-based manufacturing process model, integrate 3D Shape Search Engine (licensed from Purdue University) with Part/Tooling/Cost Advisor & Knowledge Reuse Agent, seamlessly integrate with commercial Computer-Aided-Design (CAD) system using sophisticated geometric reasoning algorithms and a hybrid B-rep-voxel approach, and extract manufacturing feature-based geometric information.If successful this product will enable engineers/designers make informed decisions early in product design about processes and part/tooling for manufacturability while serving as an on-demand manufacturing "what-if" educational tool for engineers/designers. It will reduce non-value added design features so optimal and economical processes can be considered, thus lowering tooling costs while minimizing the risk in the quotation process for both OEMs and tooling firms. The outcome of this research also have an educational impact in engineering schools by introducing students to manufacturing processes and design for manufacturability concepts. The company will provide the engineering advisory system to universities to use in their engineering curriculum. The outcome of the proposed research can improve product design, lower cost and positively impact the local economy by linking local suppliers in early design directly through an engineering advisory system.