ABSTRACT
Manufacturing companies are under increased pressure to shorten the time to market in the most cost effective way. Rapid manufacturing (RM) is an evolving technology that has shown positive results in supporting the rapid product development [1,2]. RM is the use of computer-automated additive manufacturing processes to construct fully functional end-use products or components from solid objects by the sequential delivery of energy and/or material to specified points in space. There are several factors effecting the production of a quality product using the RM technology. These factors are related to several elements such as material, machine, process, working environment and operational parameters. The current industrial applications of the technology is based on ad-hoc approach and restricted with the recommendation of the machine manufacturers. The authors believe there is a need for a study to assess the capabilities of RM technology in its current state as well as its potential ability to directly produce functional products with the required specifications being geometrical, physical and/or mechanical properties. This paper presents an approach for developing a knowledge-based environment for RM technology, based on layer-by-layer additive processes, and its engineering applications. The approach takes into consideration the critical criteria related to materials, manufacturing resources and processes of the technology as well as product geometry and properties under development. The ultimate objective of this study is to aid the user in an interactive manner to make an optimum decision in selecting the elements of RM technology capable of
3 PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE OF RM
RM technology is changing the key activities of product life cycle because there is no limitation in the complexity of the product geometry, no constraints of design for manufacture, reduction of process planning & assembly activities and elimination of tooling. As such the product life cycle for RM would include customer/market need, product specifications definition, product engineering for RM, rapid manufacturing planning (selection of RM machine/process/operation parameters/post-processing), physical manufacturing of the component and final assembly of the product if required, quality control, packaging, sale, use, maintenance and disposal. The product engineering for RM encompasses materials selection, CAD, Design for RM (DfRM), CAE and FMEA (failure mode effective analysis) and finally design release.
