Virtual Assembly Analysis Tool and Architecture for e-Design and Realization Environment

Many customers are no longer satisfied with mass-produced goods. They are demanding customization and rapid delivery of innovative products. Many companies are now realizing that the best way to reduce life cycle costs is to evolve a more effective product development paradigm using Internet and web based technologies. Yet there remains a gap between current market demands and product development paradigms. The existing CAD systems require that product developers possess all the design analysis tools in-house making it impractical to employ all the needed and newest tools. Hence, this paper addresses how assembly operation analysis can be embedded transparently and remotely into a service-oriented collaborative assembly design environment. A new assembly operation analysis framework is introduced and a relevant architecture and tools are developed to realize the framework. Instead of the current sequential process for verifying and validating an assembly design, a new Virtual Assembly Analysis (VAA) method is introduced in the paper to predict the various effects of joining during actual collaborative design. As a case study, arc welding and riveting processes are investigated. New service-oriented VAA architecture and its VAA components are proposed and implemented on prototype mechanical assemblies.