Manufacturing network for rapid tool/die making

Abstract

This paper presents a manufacturing network, which has been developed on the Internet, for rapid tool/die making. This manufacturing network functions like an e-technical-broker which is able to automatically fill the gap between tool/die users and tool/die makers. This e-manufacturing network is supported by four basic novel computer-aided engineering and Internet communication-management technologies: an Intelligent Searching Agent, a customer interface, an Internet-based and Computer-Aided Design Model, and a global production planning and reasoning platform. Since the customer interface and global production planning and reasoning platform were presented in our previous papers. This paper focuses its discussions on the Intelligent Searching Agent and Internet-based and Computer-aided Design Model. A new agent search method is proposed here. This agent allows users to submit queries through a user interface and provide users with a manufacturing scheme, which includes manufacturability, competitiveness and a CAD drawing of a similar tool/die made in the past by a tool/die-making company. A novel Internet-based and computer-aided design method is suggested to support the adaptive and concurrent tool/die making process.

Keywords:

• Composite design
• Intelligent agent
• Knowledge Base Inquiry Model (KBIM)
• Rapid tool/die making
• Web-based product-development system