Research And Development Of Feature Based Product Life Cycle Design System

The theory and methodology of product life cycle design (LCD), originated from the idea of concurrent engineering (CE), can fulfilled the products design considering all related issues of every phases of product whole life cycle in early design process. By using the LCD methods,the products can be of good manufacturability, assemblablity, recycleability, serviceability, economic and environment-friendliness, et al. Nowadays, the product life cycle design methodology has become one of the most important techniques to reasonably utilize the natural resources and carry out mankind's sustainable development strategic objective.Based on summarizing and analysis for the achievement in the research area of LCD and existing products life cycle design models, some problems in this domain are pointed out, and the developing trend of LCD research is discussed. The general framework of feature based life cycle design system is put forward, the key technologies to realize the system are analyzed and the structure and functional modules of the system are also provided. Through the component object model technology, the feature based product life cycle design system (FBLCD) is developed in the SolidWorks environment by utilizing the Object-Oriented language Visual C++ and Visual Basic. The methods to realize the system are presented:1. The concept of products life prediction in the product life cycle design process is proposed. Grey prediction model is set up and the software for predicting the product life utilizing grey system theory is developed. According to the prediction results, the recycling strategy of product life cycle design can be established.2. The feature based modeling technology is found a new way to realize the integration of CAD system and life cycle design system. On the view of integration and on the basis of analysis of feature definition and categories, the life cycle information model based on feature is proposed, and the product information database is set up and developed. 3. Parameterized design technology and feature based modeling technology are the key technologies for the modern CAD systems. To combine these two kinds oftechnology, the parameterized feature modeling module has been developed. The part feature library is built and the parameterized feature based design for parts and products has been achieved in this module.4. The life cycle design guidelines are summarized which can provide some help for the designers and can be used as basis for making the design evaluation criterion too. The architecture of evaluation index is put forward. The assemblability of part and product has been analyzed with the information which relate to product assembly. 5. Finally, some examples are used to testify whole design of the prototype system.