Domain independent shell for DfM and its application to sheet metal forming and injection molding

The objective for this research is to streamline design for manufacturing (DfM) analysis across all manufacturing domains and to provide transparency for DfM measures and evaluation process used. Generic steps are identified for performing manufacturability analysis and the design of a customizable manufacturability evaluation shell is presented. The shell covers several stages of manufacturability analysis (technical, economic) and can perform analyses at different levels of abstraction (qualitative, quantitative). The shell provides feedback to the designer at each level during the design process. By separating domain-specific knowledge from domain independent knowledge and creating an open architecture, the shell can be customized and expanded by the knowledge engineer and the user. The architecture of the shell is presented and its applications to manufacturability analysis for two domains, sheet metal and injection molding, are illustrated.