Information supported design for manufacture of injection-moulded rotational products

Whilst the concurrent engineering philosophy has been embraced by a wide range of engineering companies as a means to remaining competitive, the design software tools which are commercially available are limited in their ability to offer concurrent support. This paper describes research which has investigated how design for manufacture information can be provided back to designers as concurrently as possible. The paper, using injection moulding as its focus, illustrates how a design for manufacture environment can be structured to utilize company product and manufacturing information. In particular, the need for appropriate information translation mechanisms and design support strategies is described. An example, highlighting the potential of the approach and utilizing an experimental object-oriented system, is discussed.