Andrew Yeh Ching Nee

Efficient management of product information is vital for manufacturing enterprises in this information age. Considering the proliferation of product information, tight production schedules, and intense market competition, human intelligence alone cannot meet the requirements of efficient product development. Technologies and tools that support information management are urgently needed. This volume presents the design reuse methodology to support product development. Significant efforts have been made to create an intelligent and optimal design environment by incorporating the contemporary technologies in product family design, artificial intelligence, neural networks, information theories, etc. This volume covers both theoretical topics and implementation strategies, with detailed case studies to help readers gain an insight in areas such as product information modeling, information analysis, engineering optimization, production cost estimation, and product performance evaluation.

With the rapid advances in computing and Internet technologies, an integrated and collaborative environment, which is based on the complementary functions of concurrent engineering and Internet-based collaborative engineering, is imperative for companies to facilitate and expedite the product realization processes. Topics such as concurrent and collaborative engineering, feature-based design and manufacturing, evolutionary computational techniques such as Tabu Search, Simulated Annealing, Genetic Algorithms features, intelligent and computer-aided process planning are important strategies and enabling technologies for developing an integrative environment, facilitating modern product design and development. This book covers the state-of-the-art research and development status of these strategies and technologies. Implementation strategies and case studies are provided with an emphasis on technical details to help readers understand the underlying algorithms and infrastructures.

Fixtures are an essential part of manufacturing production. This book covers computer-aided fixture design, fixture clamping synthesis and optimisation, workpiece-fixture interaction, intelligent fixture designed to integrate with processing equipment or machine tools so as to improve productivity and product quality, Internet-enabled fixture design and modular fixture database management. These are the emerging issues central to the development of computer-integrated manufacturing. Covering the established knowledge of fixture design automation and the niche areas of fixture system integration and Internet-enabled design, the book would be a prevalent reference for academics, manufacturing & industrial engineers, and a valuable text for engineering graduate students.