| Competition in mechanical engineering today demands ever-faster product development, hence ever-shorter design cycles, which may be achieved by efficiently rearranging design and manufacturing processes. The necessity of such management depends on adjusting design process to accommodate constraints and frequently updating them to make full use of the new design tools and methodologies. Meanwhile, it is also a trend that design and manufacturing processes or activities are modularized and integrated in a geographically distributed environment.; In response to the growing demand for a robust infrastructure that coordinates design and manufacturing activities, this thesis presents a web-based engineering framework, which coordinates various CAD/CAM and FEM systems, provides product data relationships, and integrates with manufacturing processes. In this thesis, the current capabilities of the framework are demonstrated in conjunction with benchmark studies on functionally gradient materials (FGMs) design, and the design and manufacturing of a gearbox. In FGMs design, a design approach is represented using the framework to obtain the distribution of the reinforcing phase that minimizes the stresses in axisymmetric bodies subjected to temperature gradients and pressure differentials. In the design and manufacturing process of a gearbox, the framework autonomously performs a series of stress and fatigue analyses and searches for a set of parts that satisfy various requirements. It is also verified that the framework is capable of integrating seamlessly the design results with manufacturing operations by selecting cutting tools, machining conditions, and sequence of operations. The framework enables users to check the results ranging from graphical display of the design to the CNC code generated to machine the designed shafts. |
