Analysis of assembly through product configuration

Abstract Configuration management in a product data management system (PDMS) can provide designers with related components through a product’s configuration. The selected components are connected and used for checking for assemblability before they are physically assembled. The assembly rules and constraints are used to help accomplish this task. In this research, we discuss issues in collecting assembly rules and constraints through the product’s assembly relations, then integrate them in an assembly model. This model can be used to represent the general design of a product. We also propose a set of modeling procedures to build up the assembly model so that a user can use it to analyze assembly relationships and to check the product’s assemblability. Finally, the configuration of a personal computer is used as an example to show how this procedure works and how the assembly rules and constraints for computer assembly are derived.

[1]  Robert E. Young,et al.  Configuring computer systems through constraint-based modeling and interactive constraint satisfaction , 1995 .

[2]  Randall H. Wilson.  Minimizing user queries in interactive assembly planning , 1995, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[3]  Joshua U. Turner,et al.  Towards modelling of assemblies for product design , 1994, Comput. Aided Des..

[4]  Kunwoo Lee,et al.  An assembly modelling system for dynamic and kinematic analysis , 1989 .

[5]  G. Boothroyd,et al.  Assembly Automation and Product Design , 1991 .

[6]  Geoffrey Boothroyd,et al.  Product design for manufacture and assembly , 1994, Comput. Aided Des..

[7]  Shimon Y. Nof,et al.  Minimal precedence constraints for integrated assembly and execution planning , 1996, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[8]  David N. Rocheleau,et al.  System for interactive assembly modelling , 1987 .

[9]  Jan Wolter,et al.  A structure-oriented approach to assembly sequence planning , 1997, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[10]  Ann Patricia Fothergill,et al.  Inferring the Positions of Bodies from Specified Spatial Relationships , 1974, Artif. Intell..

[11]  Joshua U. Turner.  Relative positioning of parts in assemblies using mathematical programming , 1990, Comput. Aided Des..

[12]  Reijo Sulonen,et al.  Process-based view of product data management , 1996 .

[13]  Andrew Kusiak,et al.  Development of modular products , 1996 .

[14]  K. J. MacCallum,et al.  Product structuring in a small manufacturing enterprise , 1996 .

[15]  J.U. Turner,et al.  Constraint representation and reduction in assembly modeling and analysis , 1992, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[16]  P. van den Hamer,et al.  Managing design data: the five dimensions of CAD frameworks, configuration management, and product data management , 1996 .

[17]  Virginia E. Barker,et al.  Expert systems for configuration at Digital: XCON and beyond , 1989, Commun. ACM.