• the rapid and efficient product realisation in heterogeneous, distributed environments by the use, integration and combination of digital techniques like CAD, FEM, Virtual Reality with physical product realisation techniques like Rapid Prototyping, Rapid Tooling. • the set up, management and collaboration support of project specific product development environments, called Virtual Enterprises...

Since its appearance, rapid prototyping technology has been of interest to various industries that are looking for a process to produce/build a part directly from a CAD model in a short time. Among them, the direct metal deposition process is the only process which directly manufactures a fully dense metal part without intermediate steps. However, challenges of the direct metal deposition proce...

A unique technique for the rapid fabrication of thermoplastic microfluidic chips is described. The method enables the realization of fully-sealed microchannels in around one hour while requiring only minimal infrastructure by taking advantage of a solvent swelling mechanism that allows raised features to be patterned on the surface of homogeneous thermoplastic materials. Patterning is achieved ...

We present an approach for automatically generating complete process plans, including xturing and CNC code, from high level shape feature part descriptions. The demonstration system is targeted at a broadly useful class of machined prismatic parts which includes sculpted exterior pro les and features requiring four and ve axis indexing for manufacture. The approach introduces a set of process p...

This article describes the development of a component-based technology robot workcell that can be rapidly con"gured to perform a speci"c manufacturing task. The workcell is conceived with standard and inter-operable components including actuator modules, rigid link connectors and tools that can be assembled into robots with arbitrary geometry and degrees of freedom. The recon"gurable `plug-and-...

The efficiency and agility of its supply chain is vital to the commercial success of any product. Sharing strategic and tactical information effectively within the supply chain is often a key factor in achieving this goal. This paper proposes a framework to identify strategic, tactical decisions and information. The framework is used to conduct a sector based analysis of the Rapid Manufacturing...

In the automotive industry SME suppliers are forced to keep the innovative pace with OEMs, resulting in the key requirement for economic production of small lot-sizes. State of the art technology in manufacturing systems is inadequate to meet this requirement. Current production equipment is either tailored towards a specific product or is flexible, but at the expense of expensive machinery; pr...

This paper presents the research and development of a hybrid rapid manufacturing process being developed at the University of Missouri-Rolla. This process includes a laser deposition and a 5axis CNC milling system. By combining laser deposition and machining processes, the resulting hybrid process can provide greater build capability and better accuracy and surface finish. The hybrid process ca...

The paper presents integrative model-based approach in application of virtual engineering technologies in rapid product and process design and manufacturing. This has resulted in integration of so called CAtechnologies and Virtual Reality in product design and FE numerical simulations and optimization of production processes, as digital prototyping of product and processes, from one side, and r...