BYU’s
Advanced Product Development Laboratory
The Advanced Product Development Laboratory at
The objective of the advanced product development laboratory is to develop strategies and methods for improving product development. There are three main thrusts in the research of the lab: Bio-mechanical design methods for mass-customization, Design strategies for heterogeneous materials, and Automation techniques for product development.
Bio-mechanical Design
Methods for Mass-customization
The objective of this research is to develop design strategies to improve the design of bio-mechanical devices. Bio-mechanical devices are any mechanism that interfaces with the human body or the bio-surfaces of any animal. Techniques involve laser scanning and shadow moiré scanning of bio-surfaces using a Cyberware scanner and an Inspeck scanner respectively (as shown in figure 1).
Figure 1. Laser scanning and Shadow Moire scanning used in the APDL
Scanned data is then prepared and articulated with anatomically correct datum references based on Grey’s Anatomy and other specifications (as shown in figure 2). The references are prepared so that they can be used in commercial CAD systems to support traditional mechanical design.
Figure 2. Anatomical reference datums
Parametric modeling techniques are also incorporated into the bio-geometric models so that mass-customization methods can be applied. Once the parametric relations are incorporated into the models, custom scan data can be used as input into the mechanism design module and custom fit bio-mechanisms designed (as shown in figure 3).
Figure 3. Mass-customization methods for bio-mechanical design
Design strategies for
Heterogeneous Materials
Collaborative work is being done between the APDL and Dr. Brent L. Adams in heterogeneous design. Designers have for some time had powerful tools that allow optimization of geometric design using, for example, parametric design techniques. However, these optimization strategies utilize an incomplete model in the design process. An assumption often made throughout the design process is that the material properties are homogeneous. However, it is recognized that engineered materials may have significant non-homogeneity, which often manifests itself in an undesirable manner (e.g. in the heat affected zone). In an ideal world, the non-homogeneity could be used to improve a design. A designer would have full control over the heterogeneous design of a product, being enabled to optimize both the material properties and geometry concurrently.
Recent developments in microstructure sensitive design (MSD) have now made the problem of optimizing over both geometry and material structure accessible. The inverse problem of designing material to achieve desired properties is being tackled. The latest techniques allow a designer to search the property closures of materials for the optimum theoretical microstructures. Furthermore, work has started in terms of linking the space of theoretical microstructures with manufacturing techniques that are currently available for manipulation of the microstructure of polycrystalline materials.
The work of this lab is to develop design techniques and tools to take advantage of micro-sensitive design within the traditional design process. A critical element involves the mappings between the underlying design spaces and the practicalities in terms of bridging the gap between theoretical microstructures and available materials.
Figure 4. Changing microstructures in a heterogeneous design of a shaft
Automation Techniques for Product Development
Automation techniques focus on development of decomposition methods and schematic representations for product development processes. Also, automation strategies such as the product design generator which bundles the new product development process into a web-based automated process module.
A graduate course, ME 576 has been taught since the
mid-1990’s to introduce students to the automation techniques. The course also
prepares these students for the growing need for engineers that can develop
parametric models and methods for automated design systems. The course grew out
of consulting and research being sponsored by a variety of companies at
ME 576 – Product Development, focuses on the theory and methods for developing automated design systems. It is a three credit hour course that begins with students learning basic set-theory applied to engineering processes. The students then learn how to diagram full processes and how to deterministically map a given process so that parametric methods can be applied to it. Principles of parametric design are taught and the students develop a fully parametric design system for a simple mechanism. The second half of the course is devoted to application of the principles to a real industrial project or projects provided by industrial sponsors. These projects are often proof-of-concept projects, continuations from earlier projects or the beginning of a new automated process project for the company. Students are often invited to continue working on the projects through special projects courses and then invited to participate in summer internship opportunities to continue the work.
After a decade of offering this course and successful placement of many of the students in industry in job positions associated with parametrics and automated design systems, the course is considered to be very successful. Continued emphasis is on obtaining real-world industrial problems, sponsored by interested companies. Application of these principles to real-world problems provides the necessary context for maintaining practical solutions instead of “ivory-tower” postulates.
Summary of course enrollment and
sponsored projects.
|
ME 576 |
Projects |
|
Fall 1997 – 15 students |
AlliedSignal Projects |
|
Fall 1998 – 7 students |
AlliedSignal Projects |
|
Fall 1999 – 11 students |
UTRC Projects |
|
Fall 2000 – 21 students |
Elevator systems for Otis |
|
Fall 2001 – 18 students |
UTRC/AlliedSignal Projects |
|
Fall 2002 – 21 students |
CCI/AlliedSignal/P&W Projects |
|
Fall 2003 – 29 students |
Honeywell/P&W Projects |
|
Fall 2004 – 17 students |
Honeywell/P&W Projects |
|
|
P&W Projects |
Brief Summary of Projects:
AlliedSignal Projects 1997-1998
Four turbine system components were selected for case studies and automation. The front frame, an impellor, a turbine blade and the combustor section were selected for sponsored projects. These projects were proof-of-concept projects for the development of parametric models in CATIA. CATIA V4 did not provide parametric capabilities and therefore the ME578 class developed software add-ons through the API to allow parametric capabilities in the models.
UTRC Projects 1999-2000
Several projects were identified including an Otis elevator project and International Fuel cells project. The overall international design system for Otis elevators was mapped out and rapid design system artifact generation was demonstrated. Instantiation of two different designs was demonstrated along with the production of all associated design artifacts. Full instantiation occurred within 15 minutes.
AlliedSignal Pneumatic systems project 2000-2001
An air turbine starter project was pursued to develop a framework for workflow that could be implemented through WEB technologies. Fluid power sponsored a project to demonstrate proof-of-concept of WEB-frameworks to provide workflow control and management. The resulting workflow model provided a complete design system framework for development of an air turbine starter. A full set of parametric models were developed for all components in the air turbine starter.
Hard Disk Drive Connector project 2001- 2002
The process was mapped out and all the parametric models developed to implement a fully parametric and automated design system for hard drive connectors. The PDG was implemented in Microsoft Office with visual basic code providing the backbone.
Honeywell Projects 2002-2003
Four components were selected for automation. A cone-disk spinner assembly, a fan blade, a fan nozzle and a turbine nozzle were used to develop parametric models and methods. Proof-of-concept PDG’s were developed by each group and demonstrated to Honeywell. Each PDG included parametric models for CATIA, ANSYS-flow and stress.
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Control Components Projects 2004
Atmospheric resistors and control valves have provided several projects for ME576. These projects have been coupled with summer internships for several students. PDG’s were developed for the company for an atmospheric resistor and two different valve families.
Honeywell Projects 2003-2004
The Turbine disk project was used to kick off the development of the Turbine disk PDG at Honeywell. This project began as a class project and then lead to an internship and finally to the existing turbine disk PDG at Honeywell.
Micro Air Vehicle Project
This project was sponsored by BYU and was used to develop an automated design system for micro air vehicles.
Honeywell Project 2004
A turbine design system preliminary study was split into four parts; blade, attachment, shank and platform. This project focused on developing parametric turbine models in CATIA and in developing a design system for turbine airfoils.
