Organization of Engineering Knowledge for Product Modelling in Computer Integrated Manufacturing

Design and manufacturing-preparation activities can be regarded as information processing activities that, starting from the original concept of the product and the use of product models, generate detailed manufacturing control information and the framework which describes all the necessary information about the product and its processing. In order to achieve a higher level of automation for design and manufacturing processes, it is essential to analyse engineering information as transferred to and manipulated among related activities. It is also vitally important to prepare the framework which is to capture the information systematically; this is known as the engineering knowledge. It includes basic information such as dimensions, tolerances, assembling, mechanics, etc., and also expert knowledge which strongly depends on the respective engineering and product domains. This book examines the methods used in the representation and manipulation of this engineering knowledge, as well as in the generation and manipulation of product models.