Title: On rapid prototyping of assembly systems - a modular approach

Authors: Zhiqin Qian; Tan Zhang; Mengya Cai; Wenjun Lin; Wenjun Zhang

Addresses: Complex and Intelligent Systems Research Center (CISRC), School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, China ' Autonomous Systems and Biomechatronics Laboratory (ASB Lab), Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3G, Canada ' Complex and Intelligent Systems Research Center (CISRC), School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, China ' Advanced Engineering Design Laboratory, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7N 5A9, Canada ' Complex and Intelligent Systems Research Center (CISRC), School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, China; Advanced Engineering Design Laboratory, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7N 5A9, Canada

Abstract: This paper proposes a new product and manufacturing technology for rapid prototyping of product systems (RPPSs). It is noted that a system in this paper is defined as a physical assembly that can be decomposed into components. The rapid prototyping is achieved by a novel modular concept, that is, the base materials to build a component as well as an assembly is highly modularised (the interface between any two modules are identical) and building a system is simply by assembling the modules. The rapid prototyping in this paper differs significantly from the rapid prototyping in literature in that the latter builds a system layer by layer and further primarily builds a component instead of assembly (building of an assembly is actually very limited with the latter, though possible). This paper explains the RPPS approach and presents a feasibility study on the RPPS technology. It has been shown that the RPPS technology is promising.

Keywords: rapid prototyping of assembly; evolutionary algorithm; modular plastic module; MPM.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMPT.2018.090816

International Journal of Materials and Product Technology, 2018 Vol.56 No.3, pp.220 - 233

Accepted: 08 Nov 2016
Published online: 28 Mar 2018 *

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