Carbon nanotube buckypaper attracts great research interests in green manufacturing because of its superior material properties. This study proposed a statistical framework for characterizing the resistivity of buckypapers produced by the manufacturing process based on filtering and suspension. A screening procedure was applied to identify significant process parameters. A linear regression model was constructed to characterize the relationship between those parameters and the resistivity. Tradeoff curves were used to determine the optimal parameter settings. Validation tests show the effectiveness of the proposed framework. It provides a systematic method for improving the manufacture of nanotube products.

Distributed design in collaborative product development involves interorganizational teams of different disciplines, often geographically separated, that work jointly for the interest of an overall goal. The teams must agree on the product design without fully disclosing individual design information. Price-based negotiation is an effective design methodology under such circumstances. This work improves the negotiation mechanism based on the price schedules decomposition algorithm (PSDA), which only allows bi-level negotiation with a single design target, in two regards. The augmented price schedules decomposition algorithm (APSDA) is proposed to simultaneously consider multiple design targets in negotiation. Decision models and negotiation protocols are developed for complex design tasks decomposed in a hierarchy. The resultant APSDA-based negotiation mechanism enables multi-target hierarchical distributed design. A test scenario implemented with multiagent technologies validates the effectiveness of this mechanism. This study solves automating engineering collaborations with secure information sharing.

This paper studies distribution of product model via peer-to-peer 3D CAD streaming in networked collaborative design. An essential operation of data transfer during the streaming process is that a participant incrementally receives a product model in some level of detail (LOD) from multiple collaborators. This operation requires an effective plan of data relay routing and sequencing. An optimization scheme combining the Dijkstra's algorithm and heuristic rules is proposed to minimize the data transfer time consumed by the operation. The implementation results show that such optimization functionality can significantly improve the efficiency of design information sharing via the 3D CAD streaming.

This paper presents a computational framework for reducing environmental impact of product development in consideration of product design, manufacturing, and the supply chain concurrently. This framework incorporates a number of factors that ecologically influence the product lifecycle activities into product architecture design. They allow a systematic variation of manufacturing bill of materials. CAD-based functions are developed to ensure that the variation results satisfy product functional requirements and are interference-free during assembly. A cradle-to-gate lifecycle assessment is conducted on the bill of materials. Optimization schemes are integrated with the variation process to search for optimal results. This work realizes sustainable product development by offering a tool of ecological decision making in the system design stage.

This paper presents a new method, one-step QFD (3*HOQ), to overcome the complexity of QFD practices in new product development. In the method, marketing people, design engineers, and manufacturing staff concurrently work together on finding customer requirements and transforming to product functions, product specifications, and functional modules, thus reducing misalignment between the cascade process between HOQ's and lowering the complexity of implementing traditional QFD.

Abstract In this paper, a novel concept, Affective Modelling, is introduced to encapsulate the idea of creating 3D models based on the emotional responses that they may invoke. Research on perceptually‐related issues in Computer Graphics focuses mostly on the rendering aspect. Low‐level perceptual criteria taken from established Psychology theories or identified by purposefully‐designed experiments are utilised to reduce rendering effort or derive quality evaluation schemes. For modelling, similar ideas have been applied to optimise the level of geometrical details. High‐level cognitive responses such as emotions/feelings are less addressed in graphics literatures. This paper investigates the possibility of incorporating emotional/affective factors for 3D model creations. Using a glasses frame model as our test case, we demonstrate a methodological framework to build the links between human emotional responses and geometrical features. We design and carry out a factorial experiment to systematically analyse how certain shape factors individually and interactively influence the viewer's impression of the shape of glasses frames. The findings serve as a basis for establishing computational models that facilitate emotionally‐guided 3D modelling.

T his paper concerns product model distribution in network-based collaborative design based on a peer-to-peer 3D streaming method. CAD meshes are transmitted incrementally from a coarse representation to a finer one in a sequence of LODs (Levels of Detail) defined by form features. A scenario of online design collaboration demonstrates how the streaming method facilitates CAD data sharing in real time. In this scenario, one peer is requesting a LOD model concurrently from multiple peers who own the model in different LODs. An optimization scheme combining Dijkstra’s Algorithm with simple heuristics helps determine how the requested model is aggregated from the ones possessed by the others and the transmission routes of individual LOD data. The objective is to minimize the total transfer time, considering the role of each peer in the collaboration and network throughputs. A prototyping system is implemented to verify the streaming method. The implementation result shows that it improves the efficiency and practicality of sharing CAD data of large size in networked engineering collaboration.

This paper presents a novel approach that generates tool path for five-axis flank milling. Two geometric algorithms are proposed for approximating a ruled surface with a series of developable patches. First, develop ability is obtained in certain regions through re-parameterization of the directrices of the ruled surface. The second algorithm places the control points of a Bezier developable patch using the five DOF's for the patch design. Consecutive patches with geometric continuity are thus generated for the regions not covered in the first approximation. Due to the develop ability property, a tapered tool can move along the rulings of those patches without local tool interference. The machining deviation is determined by the surface approximation error. Thus this work transforms tool path planning in five-axis flank milling into a geometric modeling problem. It also demonstrates an effective application of developable surfaces in machining.