ABSTRACT
With the growing importance of the use of computer assistance in every aspect of design and fabrication of plastics products, it is natural to expect efforts directed toward the use of computers in resin selection. A number of computer-assisted materials selection databases have been created with the idea of providing quick access to current, comprehensive, and accurate characteristics of the widest choice of candidate materials. The knowledge base, which holds the knowledge about domain, is developed through the use of one or more of the standard representation techniques, namely, production rules, semantic networks, frames, or formal logic. Step-by-step procedures for developing expert systems are available and should be referred to before undertaking the task. In order to build the production rules, any of the commercially available expert system development environments can be used. The inference engine is the reasoning capability of the expert system.
