Application of the CMII model to an integrated engineering and manufacturing development environment

In all product development cycles, the change process is one of the most critical elements which must be well controlled. This change process, which is comprised within the configuration management methodology, must be one of the key processes supported by an integrated product development environment which supports the concurrent development of design and manufacturing. The CMII business process model proposed by the Institute of Configuration Management is very well documented and has become a reference for modelling the change process within an enterprise. It was thus proposed to evaluate how this model can be implemented within a virtual product development laboratory at école Polytechnique de Montréal which integrates CAD, PDM and MPM technologies. MPM technologies support manufacturing engineers and process planners for the development and analysis of all manufacturing process information. The study has shown that the CMII business model is totally compatible with the methodologies and technologies supported in the laboratory, but that the existing technologies have to support more sophisticated workflow capabilities to support the CMII model. Moreover, the model was found to foster a highly collaborative product and manufacturing process development environment where both engineering and manufacturing information structures are kept synchronized in real time.     

Design of a process for interactive product in ubiquitous space

The purpose of the present paper is to show the interactive design process for the ubiquitous middleware platform on the personal area network (PAN). The middleware platform is composed of a distributed system that supports sensors and actuators on PAN. Generally, in the case of middleware for ubiquitous computing, the structure is formulated by a simple design pattern in a shared program language. On the other hand, new media art or commercial game contents have specified methodologies such as extreme programming for these developments, and so it is difficult to share information among these products. In the present paper, we propose a new design process for the ubiquitous environment on the PAN to adapt different software methodologies and construct an interactive product of new media art using the proposed method. The design process consists of the artist's proposal for media artwork, the engineer's analysis, simulation, and testing. Each cycle is considered as an individual project, and interactive products such as middleware services are provided to the artist after the project is finished. We implemented interactive audio-visual prototype by the design process.     

Design of a process for localization system in ubiquitous space

The purpose of the present paper is to show the interactive design process for the ubiquitous middleware platform on the Personal Area Network (PAN). The middleware platform is composed of a distributed system that supports sensors and actuators on PAN. Generally, in the case of middleware for ubiquitous computing, the structure is formulated by a simple design pattern in a shared program language. On the other hand, new media art or commercial game contents have specified methodologies such as extreme programming for these developments, and so it is difficult to share information among these products. In the present paper, we propose a new design process for the ubiquitous environment on the PAN to adapt different software methodologies and construct an interactive product of new media art using the proposed method. The design process consists of the artist’s proposal for media artwork, the engineer’s analysis, simulation, and testing. Each cycle is considered as an individual project, and interactive products such as middleware services are provided to the artist after the project is finished. We implemented interactive audio-visual prototype by the design process.     

Information exchange standards for design,tolerancing and Additive Manufacturing: a research review

Nowadays, the implementation of digital thread for Additive Manufacturing (AM) and product data management system strongly depends on specified file formats and used interoperability standards in order to integrate geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) information directly in the 3D CAD model. The consideration of geometric deviations and variations is a key issue for design and tolerancing, inspection and management of manufacturing part information in AM through product and manufacturing information (PMI). PMI has been used to describe GD&T and non-geometric data, such as surface texture, surface finishing requirements, material specifications, process data, and other annotations, based on ISO standards. Standards play an important role in enabling the interoperability and efficiency of AM systems through the development of AM standard formats. This paper reviews current challenges of geometric and tolerancing model and formats for AM processes, which largely impede the advancement of AM technologies. Two criteria to enhance AM geometric and tolerancing model and standards are presented in this paper: GD&T management and compliance with PMI. STL, AMF and STEP formats are discussed on their characteristics of product definition and manufacturing specification for AM. The review presented here highlights that STEP standard can be a good basis for future research work to integrate and standardise material information, geometric and tolerancing model, and process planning for AM. Finally, new specifications of STEP-AM format are proposed in this work.     

A preliminary design innovation aid methodology based on energy analysis and TRIZ tools exploitation

One of the most important aspects of a product design project is innovation and creativity. Therefore the future designer’s ability to be creative and produce innovative and original ideas is inevitable. Training programs are the principle element to help improving ideation spirit in the product design activity. In this issue the paper proposes a design methodology supported by selected innovation tools of the TRIZ theory (an abbreviation of a Russian acronym “Teoriya Resheniya Izobretatelskikh Zadatch” meaning theory of inventive problem solving), subsequently aiming to the development of an interactive design approach. In this work innovation aspect emphasize the preliminary design phase supporting its conceptual design stage with scientific effects to generate ideas in the concept research activity, then the embodiment design stage with TRIZ physical and technical contradictions to resolve an innovative design problem. The proposed methodology adopts an energy vision mainly based on the TRIZ law of completeness of system parts. Results of the proposed methodology exploitation by engineering students in a didactical context are presented in two different case studies for the two preliminary design phases.     

Potential of Rapid Tooling in Rapid Heat Cycle Molding: A Review

Rapid tooling (RT) and additive manufacturing (AM) are currently being used in several parts of industry, particularly in the development of new products. The demand for timely deliveries of low-cost products in a variety of geometrical patterns is continuing to increase year by year. Increased demand for low-cost materials and tooling, including RT, is driving the demand for plastic and rubber products, along with engineering and product manufacturers. The development of AM and RT technologies has led to significant improvements in the technologies, especially in testing performance for newly developed products prior to the fabrication of hard tooling and low-volume production. On the other hand, the rapid heating cycle molding (RHCM) injection method can be implemented to overcome product surface defects generated by conventional injection molding (CIM), since the surface gloss of the parts is significantly improved, and surface marks such as flow marks and weld marks are eliminated. The most important RHCM technique is rapid heating and cooling of the cavity surface, which somewhat improves part quality while also maximizing production efficiencies. RT is not just about making molds quickly; it also improves molding productivity. Therefore, as RT can also be used to produce products with low-volume production, there is a good potential to explore RHCM in RT. This paper reviews the implementation of RHCM in the molding industry, which has been well established and undergone improvement on the basis of different heating technologies. Lastly, this review also introduces future research opportunities regarding the potential of RT in the RHCM technique.     

VirDe: a new virtual reality design approach

Virtual reality (VR), even if it does not represent any more a novel technology, is one of the most powerful tool to help designers during the development of new projects. This is proved by very numerous research activities related to this field. In this research, we have studied a new way to approach the development of a product. We present the ongoing development of a system, called VirDe, acronym of virtual design, which can allow the designers to perform the whole design process, from the modelling phase to the finite element method (FEM) simulation analysis, in a virtual reality environment. This new method allows remarkable time and money saving in the overall product design process, but the most important contribution of VirDe is that, as far as we concerned, there is no known similar approach which has been studying the simultaneous combination of CAD, FEM and virtual environment (VE).     

心脏重塑与代谢的双向调控

随着多组学检测技术的发展,研究者们对于心脏重塑过程中代谢变化的认识更加多维度和立体。一方面,心脏重塑过程中不仅仅涉及脂肪酸、糖与氨基酸三大物质代谢,越来越多新的代谢物质受到人们的关注;另一方面,机体不同脏器与心脏之间的交互作用成为人们关注的热点。本文将从心脏重塑与代谢的交互作用进行阐述。     

Optimization of product configuration assisted by fuzzy agents

Configurable product design is a collaborative and distributed process. Supporting collaborative and distributed design for configuration with computer technology is a strategy to enhance the ability of actors to interact with each other and with computational resources. Therefore, from process and product point of views, configurable product design can be assisted by multiagent system. This paper proposes fuzzy agents to assist collaborative and distributed design for optimal configuration. The motivation of this research is that more effective design decisions can be made by fuzzy agents when fuzzy design information is considered in a fuzzy interaction based process and heterogeneous, dynamic adaptive and fuzzy evolving systems. A fuzzy optimal product configuration mathematical formulation is proposed. The modelling and the implementation of an agent-based system complies with this formal basis. In the proposed agent-based system, there are four communities of agents: specification community, function community, physical solution community and production constraint community. During design process, the interactions between agents permit to emerge, first, the consensual physical solutions to configure a product, and secondly, the optimal configuration. The proposed optimization algorithm is inspired from adaptive and distributed routing algorithms used in computer networks. The algorithm allows optimization of product configuration by exchange of the optimal solution agent network information between the neighbour solution agents. A case study is presented to demonstrate the potential of this approach.     

Status and perspectives of medical technique

If we issue from the basic aspects of medical activity so it is shown that his sensory, actory and cognitive possibilities are highly developed on the one hand, on the other hand, however, limited by nature. The enlargement of these possibilities is due to the rapidly developing high technologies. In the field of the diagnostics for example new sensors, automatized biomeasuring systems and above all image-producing and image-processing systems characterize the trend. The therapeutic possibilities are enhanced by the comprehensive use of all forms of physical energy and also by automatized therapy systems. Controlled and above all regulated therapeutic techniques are brought into the purview. A further focal point of the international development are systems for the replacement of functions and organs, in which case new biomaterials considerably enlarge the volume of thinkable implantable solutions. The development mentioned causes a wide field of problems. To these problems belong economical ones, for the technology permanently becomes more complicated and thus the financial requirements of the public health institutions. Considerable engineer-technical capacities are necessary for the running and maintenance. The physician is responsible for the secure use of the modern technology according to indication; consequently the problem of the necessary training is internationally under discussion.     

An Empirical Approach for the Development of Process Parameters for Laser Powder Bed Fusion

For certain additive manufacturing technologies the choice of available materials is currently limited. The development of process parameters is especially elaborate for powder bed technologies. Currently, there is no common approach concerning the procedure and documentation. This work proposes a methodology for the initial development of process parameters for new L-PBF (laser powder bed fusion) alloys. Key elements are the examination of the laser–powder-bed interaction by single laser track experiments and an iterative design of experiment (DoE) approach for the development of volumetric parameters. Two types of single laser track experiments are presented and provide information regarding the laser track width and depth as well as the resulting surface roughness and melt pool classification. Based on the information gained, suitable process windows for a DoE study can be defined by avoiding parameter settings unsuitable for production or measurement. Gradually, input variables are identified and iterative steps reduce the process window in order to optimize the desired target values. Near-surface exposure parameters are developed by a one-dimensional parameter variation and metallographic investigations. The approach is primarily designed for the initial development of process parameters for new L-PBF alloys. However, the information gained can also be used to optimize established parameter sets regarding new target values (productivity, mechanical properties), optimize process parameters for specific components or for a microstructural design.     

Selection of needlestick prevention devices: A conceptual framework for approaching product evaluation

Needlestick injuries have been associated with blood-borne disease transmission to health care workers. A demand for a safer work environment has contributed to a proliferation of “safety” products. The selection and evaluation of these devices differs from traditional product evaluation in that it considers not only effectiveness in patient care but also health care worker safety and cost-effectiveness in terms of prevention gained. In addition, multiple devices associated with injuries and choices between passive, active, and accessory safety options require that institutions establish priorities for focusing intervention efforts. Selection of products must involve the primary users. Unless new devices are found acceptable for patient care, health care workers are likely to reject them, despite any apparent safety advantages. Five project steps help define a systematic approach for this process: (1) creation of a multidisciplinary team, (2) defining prevention priorities on the basis of collection and analysis of an institution's injury data, (3) development of design and performance criteria for product selection according to needs for patient care and health care worker safety, (4) planning and implementing an evaluation of products in clinical settings, and (5) analyzing product performance and cost-effectiveness to choose the product. Several methodologic issues raise questions for future research in the area of product evaluation, including the selection of study populations, methods of product distribution and data collection, and influence of institutional culture. In addition, there is a need to develop product-specific design and performance criteria by which 'evaluation teams can measure various technologies under consideration. Standardization of the product evaluation process for needlestick prevention technology should lead to the collection of information that can be compared across institutions. Infection control professionals have an important opportunity to assume a leadership role in this process.     

Advances in gastrointestinal endoscopy

Gastrointestinal endoscopy has undergone a remarkable expansion in its capabilities as a result of sophisticated technological advances in recent years. New imaging technologies, novel ablation and resection techniques, cutting-edge endoscope development and creative extraluminal applications have taken gastrointestinal endoscopy to an exciting new level. An update on some of these advances is presented for the physician audience.     

细胞自噬与心血管疾病中炎症反应的相关性

细胞自噬既是保守的细胞防御机制,也是程序性细胞死亡(即调亡)机制,其可维持细胞自身内环境的稳态。心血管疾病多伴有炎症反应并与细胞自噬密切相关。新近研究表明:一方面,自噬可以通过清除堆积蛋白和保持线粒体稳态对抗心血管疾病的炎症反应,此效应可能与抑制炎症小体以及钙蛋白酶依赖的白介素-1α的活性有关;另一方面,自噬在某些情况下也可促进炎症反应,自噬相关蛋白和高尔基体重组-堆叠蛋白参与了自噬的促炎效应。以本文简要综述细胞自噬在心血管疾病炎症反应中的作用,探讨自噬与炎症反应的相关分子机制,为心血管疾病中炎症反应的治疗提供新的思路。     

Integration of experimental and computational analysis in the product development and proposals for the sharing of technical knowledge

The automotive industry with both vehicle manufactures and suppliers is a highly competitive branch. The rising customers’ demand for new models with lower prices and higher performances reinforces the pressure on the research and development departments. Design processes of highly complex and customer adjusted products is challenging and requires a high quantity of analysis. Designers’ proposals need to be optimised and verified. In general, several loops are necessary to fulfil all customers’ requests. One possibility to reduce the number of loops is the integration of a product or/and system orientated knowledge management system. In this work, an approach of a structured product/system-based knowledge identification and storage is presented. The first uses of the support highlight its interest and it can be shown how it acts as a boundary object. Different actors are enabled to discuss and share their opinion of expected or observed product/system behaviours. The present article is based on our work in the R and D department of an automotive supplier. The company develops and manufactures chains and timing chain drives for combustion engines. In these systems rotational vibrations emerge. In relation with the hydraulic or mechanic tensioning elements they create linear vibrations as well, and lead to highly complex non-linear systems. The knowledge necessary to design and optimise a chain drive is hence comprehensive and cannot be acquired easily.     

Methodology to develop a geometric modeling process according to collaborative constraints

A product design goes through a Digital Mock-Up which is based on the product geometric model. This latter has an important role in the design project whose exploitation mainly depends on how it has been established (DELPHI Automotive Systems, Delphi met á plat ses arborescences, CADReport no. 192, février, 2004). Furthermore, the growing competitive context hardly encourages firms to implement new working methods like collaborative engineering. However, its implementation in combination with product geometric data generates many problems in terms of project and data management. For this purpose, this article proposes a methodological solution to the problem at hand. Moreover the problem gets complicated as the project progresses. As a result, the detailed design phase becomes critical particularly in the face of this problem. Therefore, the current article focuses on this phase of the product design process through an example.     

Toward an Agent-Based Patient–Physician Model for the Adoption of Continuous Glucose Monitoring Technology

Health care is a major component of the U.S. economy, and tremendous research and development efforts are directed toward new technologies in this arena. Unfortunately few tools exist for predicting outcomes associated with new medical products, including whether new technologies will find widespread use within the target population. Questions of technology adoption are rife within the diabetes technology community, and we particularly consider the long-term prognosis for continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) technology.We present an approach to the design and analysis of an agent model that describes the process of CGM adoption among patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), their physicians, and related stakeholders. We particularly focus on patient–physician interactions, with patients discovering CGM technology through word-of-mouth communication and through advertising, applying pressure to their physicians in the context of CGM device adoption, and physicians, concerned about liability, looking to peers for a general level of acceptance of the technology before recommending CGM to their patients.Repeated simulation trials of the agent-based model show that the adoption process reflects the heterogeneity of the adopting community. We also find that the effect of the interaction between patients and physicians is agents. Each physician, say colored by the nature of the environment as defined by the model parameters.We find that, by being able to represent the diverse perspectives of different types of stakeholders, agent-based models can offer useful insights into the adoption process. Models of this sort may eventually prove to be useful in helping physicians, other health care providers, patient advocacy groups, third party payers, and device manufacturers understand the impact of their decisions about new technologies.     

Development and Processing of Continuous Flax and Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Thermoplastic Composites by a Modified Material Extrusion Process

Additive manufacturing, especially material extrusion (MEX), has received a lot of attention recently. The reasons for this are the numerous advantages compared to conventional manufacturing processes, which result in various new possibilities for product development and -design. By applying material layer by layer, parts with complex, load-path optimized geometries can be manufactured at neutral costs. To expand the application fields of MEX, high-strength and simultaneously lightweight materials are required which fulfill the requirements of highly resilient technical parts. For instance, the embedding of continuous carbon and flax fibers in a polymer matrix offers great potential for this. To achieve the highest possible variability with regard to the material combinations while ensuring simple and economical production, the fiber–matrix bonding should be carried out in one process step together with the actual parts manufacture. This paper deals with the adaptation and improvement of the 3D printer on the one hand and the characterization of 3D printed test specimens based on carbon and flax fibers on the other hand. For this purpose, the print head development for in-situ processing of contin uous fiber-reinforced parts with improved mechanical properties is described. It was determined that compared to neat polylactic acid (PLA), the continuous fiber-reinforced test specimens achieve up to 430% higher tensile strength and 890% higher tensile modulus for the carbon fiber reinforcement and an increase of up to 325% in tensile strength and 570% in tensile modulus for the flax fibers. Similar improvements in performance were achieved in the bending tests.     

Taguchi S/N and TOPSIS Based Optimization of Fused Deposition Modelling and Vapor Finishing Process for Manufacturing of ABS Plastic Parts

Despite several additive manufacturing techniques are commercially available in market, Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) is increasingly used by researchers and engineers for new product development. FDM is an established process with a plethora of advantages, but the visible surface roughness (SR), being an intrinsic limitation, is major barrier against utilization of fabricated parts for practical applications. In the present study, the chemical finishing method, using vapour of acetone mixed with heated air, is being used. The combined impact of orientation angle, finishing temperature and finishing time has been studied using Taguchi and ANOVA, whereas multi-criteria optimization is performed using the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). The surface finish was highly responsive to increase in temperature while orientation angle of 0° yielded maximum strength; increase in finishing time led to weight gain of FDM parts. As the temperature increases, the percentage change in surface roughness increases as higher temperature assists the melt down process. On the other hand, anisotropic behaviour plays a major role during tensile testing. The Signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio plots, and ANOVA results indicated that surface finish is directly proportionate to finishing time because a longer exposure results in complete layer reflowing and settlement.     

Planning for effective interaction with FDA

Manufacturers of diabetes devices can facilitate the formal regulatory approval process through early interaction with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Effective planning can help manage commonly perceived risks of interaction with the Agency, introduce new technologies to regulatory reviewers, and inform the manufacturer's product development strategy. This article reviews key aspects of the FDA evaluation process and suggests strategies that may facilitate effective communication with the Agency. Integrating early communication with FDA into broader product commercialization planning can streamline regulatory review and lead to early product launch into reimbursed markets.