SBIR Phase II: Made in USA-Profitably: An Integrated Design Tool for Eliminating Assembly

SBIR 第二阶段：美国制造 - 有利可图：消除组装的集成设计工具

• 批准号: 1456303
• 负责人: Kerr-Jia Lu
• 金额: $ 74.99万
• 依托单位: FlexSys Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-04-15 至 2017-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1456303&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Made; USA

The broader impact/ commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is in revolutionizing the current mechanical system design practice across multiple industry sectors. Rather than using multiple rigid parts to create a mechanical system, our compliant design method, inspired by designs in nature, exploits material elasticity to create one-piece compliant systems or joint-less mechanisms. Our compliant design software will provide designers with a powerful tool to create products with dramatic reductions in part count, thereby reducing manufacturing cost ( at times eliminating assembly operations altogether), enhancing reliability and precision in ways that could not be achieved through conventional design methods. By replacing assembly-intensive products with compliant designs that have substantially lower assembly burden, manufacturing in the U.S. could be more competitive. For example, our compliant wiper has 75% fewer parts, weighs 50% less, and costs 60% less to manufacture in Detroit compared to conventional multi-piece wiper that is made in China. Thus, technically skilled machine operators producing one-piece designs would create value locally, without the burden of shipping costs and delays, to tip business equation away from offshoring. Thus, broad adoption of compliant design as enabled by our software will lead to more "Made-in-USA" products.This project seeks to develop a framework for Integrated Computer Aided Engineering software for compliant designs. While commercially available design software can assist users in evaluating conventional mechanisms with rigid links and joints, there is no readily available software tool on the market to create (synthesize) and optimize the design of compliant mechanical solutions. Compliant design synthesis algorithms seen in existing research literature often require specialized knowledge that "non-­expert" users might not have, and the algorithms are often not robust enough to consistently create feasible designs. In Phase I, we laid the theoretical and the computational foundation needed to develop a unified compliant design framework. Starting with functional design specifications such as desired motion output(s), and input actuator(s), the algorithms will (a) determine an optimum topology (i.e., how material should be distributed within a prescribed 2D or 3D space), and (b) optimize the size, shape and geometry to meet performance requirements such as fatigue life (stress constraints), manufacturing constraints and dynamic response. In the proposed Phase II effort, we will refine the user-­interface and extend the functionalities to integrate all key elements into a field-­ready commercial package that enables both expert and non-­expert designers to create compliant design solutions.

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是在多个行业领域彻底改变当前的机械系统设计实践。我们的顺应性设计方法不是使用多个刚性部件来创建机械系统，而是受到自然界设计的启发，利用材料弹性来创建单件顺应性系统或无接头机构。我们的合规设计软件将为设计人员提供一个强大的工具，以创建零件数量大幅减少的产品，从而降低制造成本（有时完全消除装配操作），提高可靠性和精度，这是通过传统设计方法无法实现的。通过将装配密集型产品替换为装配负担大大降低的合规设计，美国的制造业可能更具竞争力。例如，与中国制造的传统多件式雨刷相比，我们的合规雨刷在底特律制造的零件减少了75%，重量减轻了50%，成本降低了60%。因此，技术熟练的机器操作员生产一体式设计将在当地创造价值，而没有运输成本和延误的负担，从而使商业平衡远离离岸外包。因此，广泛采用我们的软件所实现的顺应性设计将导致更多的“美国制造”的产品。本项目旨在开发一个框架，为集成计算机辅助工程软件的顺应性设计。虽然商业上可获得的设计软件可以帮助用户评估具有刚性连杆和接头的传统机构，但市场上没有现成的软件工具来创建（合成）和优化顺应性机械解决方案的设计。在现有的研究文献中看到的顺应性设计综合算法通常需要“非设计专家”用户可能不具有的专业知识，并且算法通常不够稳健以一致地创建可行的设计。在第一阶段，我们奠定了理论和计算基础，需要开发一个统一的兼容设计框架。从功能设计规范开始，例如期望的运动输出和输入致动器，算法将（a）确定最佳拓扑（即，材料应如何分布在规定的2D或3D空间内），以及（B）优化尺寸、形状和几何形状以满足性能要求，例如疲劳寿命（应力约束）、制造约束和动态响应。在拟议的第二阶段工作中，我们将改进用户界面，并扩展功能，将所有关键元素集成到一个现场可扩展的商业软件包中，使专家和非专家设计师能够创建兼容的设计解决方案。