A CONCURRENT MANUFACTURING STRATEGY FOR ONE-OF-A-KIND PRODUCTS WITH COMPLICATED SCULPTURED SURFACES

In this paper, we propose a computer-aided system for concurrently des igning and manufacturing a customised or One-of-Kind Production (OKP) mould or die which has complicated sculptured surfaces. Considering th e OKP production characteristics of high customisation and concurrent product development and production, we believe that the concurrent con sideration of both the design and the manufacturability of a mould or a die would be necessary. This concurrence can be realised by providin g timely manufacturability information feedback after a design is comp leted or a feature is modified or added in the design. The other probl em is that the sculptured surface geometry model of a mould or a die d oes not contain any machining information. Hence we developed an inter mediate data model for capturing manufacturing features when we are mo delling the geometric form of a mould or a die. The system is based on CADDS5 which is a commercial CAD/CAM system. Two modules for data ext raction, coverting and modelling as well as for manufacturability anal ysis have been developed and added to CADDS5. Using this computer-aide d system; a designer can interrogate geometry and machining constraint information through a user friendly interface to avoid defects and in efficiency resulting from an earlier design, and can finalise the desi gn by making quick incremental adjustments. The system has been implem ented in a mould and die manufacturing company in China. This implemen tation leads to less rework and shorter lead time.