Concurrent product and process design in hot forging

The long and costly lead times necessary in developing new forged products motivate the application of concurrent engineering principles and knowledge -based computer software systems in hot forging. Design engineers can benef it significantly from such systems, particularly if they incorporate both p roduct and manufacturability knowledge. An Automated Concurrent Engineering Software (ACES) for part design and manufacturing has been developed at th e Design and Manufacturing Institute (DMI) at Stevens Institute of Technolo gy. This system combines deterministic and empirical knowledge about a vari ety of aspects of product design and manufacturing, and thus, it provides p otent reasoning and decision-making power that enables the engineer to redu ce drastically the time between product conception and final production. Th is paper reports on the development of the prototype of a knowledge-based m odule for hot forging processes.