Integration of Feature Templates in Product Structures Improves Knowledge Reuse

Abstract

In today's product development, the use of templates to reuse knowledge and existing design solutions is well-established. Most CAD systems offer functions for defining and storing design knowledge, but user-friendly classification and structuring is still a matter of research. As a consequence, the retrieval of existing templates is challenging and instead of reusing design knowledge in successive development projects, new design solutions have to be created. In this paper an approach to structure Feature Templates is introduced. The approach is based on the generic product structure, which provides extensive contextual information about possible applications of templates. By integrating structural information about Feature Templates into the product structure, reuse of existing design knowledge can be improved. The approach is exemplarily applied to the assembly of a planetary gear and an elastomer coupling. In this paper a methodical approach to support the structuring process of FT is introduced. The approach combines the product structure, hierarchically representing assemblies and parts of a product or a product family, with the FT library structure as it exists in modern CAD systems. The main goal of the approach is to provide a structuring guideline for FT, which enables linking FT and product structure and which can be comprehended equally well by designers defining FT and designers using them. The usage of FT is most promising in adaptive design, where mainly geometrical details or shape-defining parameters are varied, while the product structure remains basically unchanged. This invariance of the product structure and its comprehensibility for all involved designers supports the integration of FT. Both elements together, the product structure and the FT library structure, define a matrix that allows representing a) relations between different parts of the product structure,

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