Modern PLM Integrated Design Tools that Meet the of Principles of Concurrent Engineering

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1 Modern PLM Integrated Design Tools that Meet the of Principles of Concurrent Engineering GOANTA ADRIAN MIHAI, DASCHIEVICI LUIZA, GHELASE DANIELA, Engineering Faculty of Braila Dunarea de Jos University of Galati Calea Calarasilor, no. 29, , Braila Romania Abstract: This paper is a comparative study of three platforms of integrated design that ends with conclusions about the trends of adapting to the areas of design and manufacturing based on business factors. The study aimed to meet the concept of PLM - Product Lifecycle Management complying with concurrent engineering principles. This study could be done under a project with European funding - PLM Adaptor, which allowed the purchase of educational software licenses that have been tested in laboratories. Key-Words: - CAD, CAE, CAM, EDM, PDM, PLM Concurrent engineering - general Initially, IT systems were designed to increase technical efficiency by automating the process of drawing. Later, with the development of hardware platforms (which enabled an increasing number of mathematical operations per time unit, while decreasing the cost price accordingly ), the application programs have grown in complexity in two distinct directions: building complex three dimensional geometry, which can be transferred to NC machining centers (CAD / CAM) or process simulator software (Computer Aided Engineering for Processes); developing programs for approx. Numerical solving of mathematical equations that describe the mechanical systems (CAE - Computer Aided Engineering) [6]. The development of these two directions has led to providing users with powerful new working facilities which ultimately changed the working at department level in defining products, by introducing the concept of concurrent engineering. Fig. 1 Product design stages For an accurate understanding of this concept, in Fig. 1 there are the main steps taken to define and design a new or redesigned product. Classically, these steps are based on building geometry, to verify whether the strengths conditions for operation are met, the definition of construction preparation, physical manufacturing of prototypes, and conduction of tests for this prototype Upon completion of a stage it is possible to run a feed back cycle assessing the product obtained under this theme. The main feature of this cycle is that any of the above stages can begin only after completion of the previous stage. Compared with conventional methods, the concurrent engineering system brings two major changes [8]: repositioning of the working stages and simultaneous performance of the activity for one or more stages of the cycle. Naturally arises at this stage the business efficiency. The solution is provided by a fully computer -aided engineering, which enables the parallel development of the steps described above. As shown in scheme Fig. 2 specific to computer-aided design, it becomes apparent the grouping trend of design stages in the virtual numerical space, allowing both the parallel deployment of several stages, and reduce overall costs and working time required. In terms of concurrent (parallel) opportunities for ongoing sequencing of work, it is started from the existence of a uniform database throughout the technical department. This database should primarily meet the following requirements: ISSN: X 143 ISBN:

2 Possibility of bidirectional transfer between different software applications; Provide a coherent framework, as required by ISO-type standards; Managing all geometric and non-geometric data related to projects (quality reports, materials required. Fig. 2 Computer aided design stages for a product By transfer between applications it is possible, for example, to taking over geometry of an object, without details, and makes a calculation on its strength in operation. Similarly, one can download data from the calculation of the mechanical system operation (displacements, forces, accelerations) or casting (hydrostatic pressure, temperature of casting) and enter these data as inputs for finite element analysis and one can retrieve form geometries and information about casting requirements to determine by the specialized software the possible casting defects can occur during the casting process. Repositioning the working stages refers to the possibility of verifying virtually (digitally) the manufacturing processes by CAEP (Computer Aided Engineering for Processes). Using dedicated software one can analyze in detail the main manufacturing processes including casting. Furthermore, using simulation software package of products, classified in Computer Aided Engineering, the solutions adopted can be tested in terms of specific working conditions. In conclusion it appears that concurrent engineering has become possible with the development of simulation software products and industrial processes that allow repositioning the working stages and transferring them from physical space into the cyberspace. The results that can be obtained by implementing the concurrent engineering system are extremely spectacular in terms of increased product quality, reduced manufacturing costs, and reduced design cycle by easier product definition, through rapid changes in all phases of design especially in the advanced ones, by capturing and reusing knowledge and experience of previous projects [10]. 2 Description of the PLM concept With the development of computing equipment, there was a series of dedicated software applications that considerable shortened the design and manufacture time required for these operations. But it was not enough, in addition to direct activities related to product design and development, there are many other activities that relate to the production process (planning, quality management, etc.) which required concepts and software tools. Thus arose the concept of PLM - Product Lifecycle Management, which includes all information and elements involved in the development of a product. There are several definitions about PLM, but the most widespread and accepted by all users is: Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is an integrated business approach, based on information made up of people, processes / practices and technology that covers all aspects of the life of a product, from design to production, use and maintenance, culminating with the decommissioning and recycling in order to increase the company efficiency and productivity. Simplifying, PLM can be conceived as the sum of certain components [5]: * Computer Aided Design (CAD) refers to the design and graphical representation of physical objects with a computer in a virtual environment. As showed earlier, the graphical representation of information in the past was achieved on paper, thus being very difficult to handle and change. Technological development has enabled the emergence of 2D and 3D graphical representation of information in a virtual environment. This software application (such as AutoCAD, Solid Edge, NX, etc...) refers to the first stage of the life cycle of a product, namely the conception and design. The advantage of these applications is that design information is contained in a 3D virtual environment (virtual prototype) and can optimize the product in terms of design before is done physically. Basically, we will know beforehand whether the product still in the planning phase will satisfy the conditions imposed (eg we can check whether an assembly is assembled correctly or move properly, etc.) Another advantage is that information can be transmitted easily both within and outside the company. Having an optimized 3D virtual prototype one can be subsequently generate 2D drawings, much easier than CAD applications which only allow 2D. ISSN: X 144 ISBN:

3 *Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM). This concept is based on the assumption that information can and should be shared between the departments of an enterprise. Specifically, product information from the department of design (CAD) may be transferred and used by the department of production (manufacturing) in electronic format. This extends the term CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) which is how to make NC programs based on a CAD model. While the term CAM refers to a single product, CIM refers to the organization of the entire production and use of company resources. CAM applications must be scalable to allow transfer of product information from CAD department, and be managed using a DPM application as well. *Computer Aided Engineering (CAE). With the development of systems to virtually generate physical objects (3D CAD modeling) and translate them into a virtual enterprise, the need to test and analyze the virtual prototype has arised. This analysis takes into account the digital simulation of products behavior when subjected to various stresses during their life cycle in the stage of compliance validation with the design specification. In other words, after the design stage there is a stage of the product life cycle, before being manufactured, when it is tested in a virtual environment using a specialized CAE application. Thus it is analyzed, optimized and improved the product quality, the costs of physical prototypes and the time to market and launch the products are much reduced while allowing the company to develop new products with innovative content. Digital simulation of product behavior occurs in a controlled environment and uses a finite element analysis, which involves dividing the product into a number of finite elements that can be analyzed in the context. Am analysis may be carried out to see the behavior to various stresses, such as: static, dynamic, vibration, nonlinear analysis, high-speed impact, thermal stresses, fluid flows. * Engineering Data Management (EDM). While CAD has long been considered the core of PLM, there are also other key points and product information at least as important. CAD applications, as we know, describe a product based on geometric information, but fail to describe it fully. The graphic representation must be accompanied by other information, called feature which accompanies geometry. The features are those information that describe the product: tolerance, weight restrictions, material, etc.. These features should be associated with geometric representation. An effective way to capture this type of information has been the use of a widespread applications in all companies and easily customizable, ie Microsoft Excel. This application has enabled custom types of information associated with a CAD model: the list of materials and component characteristics. There is however a big disadvantage in terms of implementing this type of information in PLM, namely the inability to work within the organization on the same list of materials and features. This mode allows only individual work, each user being able to create his own list. *Product Data Management (PDM). PDM applications have developed a new method of organizing information in different formats, CAD and EDM in a single database. DPM has proposed a new way to organize different types of CAD formats that an organization produces a relatively short time. In a first phase of development, DPM has enabled companies to capture CAD data produced by users and transform them into intellectual capital of the company. This was possible by adding the old database records created before implementation of PDM. While some PDM systems began to incorporate certain processes as workflow (information flows), other PDM systems managed product information only. A first step along with the implementation of PDM in a company was to replace the old archive of paper with an electronic one. With the development of PDM systems, it was necessary to configure these systems so as to allow implementation in companies of different industries, but also to enable implementation of processes and practices within the company The first category includes programs such as Solid Edge, Inventor, and Solid Works, programs which are considered middle class, with an average integration of specialized modules and focused more on the design of the 3D model. The software of the second class integrate within the same interface several areas of product life cycle (design, manufacturing, simulation), they have also advanced surface modeling functions and good integration in PLM applications. Basically, we can use them in any field of industry, regardless of the complexity of the products designed. There are three integrated software programs: NX (formerly Unigraphics) CATIA and Pro / ENGINEER. 3. Comparative study of software packages For better information management, application designs have reached a certain level of complexity that allows them to track the product throughout product life which further allows us to say that some of these applications comply with the concept of PLM - Product Lifecycle Management. In this ISSN: X 145 ISBN:

4 intense competition among software companies some of them were able to cover a multitude of stages in the evolution of a product, beginning with geometric modeling, simulation of continuous processing on machines with numerical control type CNC and ends with the management of the documentation over the whole product life. As a result, at this moment there are three integrated design solutions throughout the product life who have succeeded in breaking almost all sectors of industrial design that is Pro / Engineer from PTC Corporate, CATIA from Dassault Systemes, and the NX platform from Siemens. It should be noted that the dispute over the occupation of these places is constant but does not lead to changes in ranking. Pro / Engineer is a highly efficient modular structure in which the most important modules are [1]: Pro/ENGINEER Advanced Assembly Extension enhances the productivity of distributed teams with capabilities for design criteria management, top-down assembly design, and assembly process planning. Benefits include: more flexible designs, improved technical documentation, and accurate fabrication instructions. Pro/ENGINEER Advanced Mechanica - Strengthen the verification and validation processes with a complete set of advanced capabilities. Pro/ENGINEER Advanced Mechanica enables engineers to fully evaluate and optimize their designs, improving product quality while reducing physical prototyping expense. Pro/ENGINEER Complete Machining - offers a full solution for the creation of all types of programs for CNC machines used in production environments. This solution enables to directly machine simple or complex product geometries with NC toolpaths optimized for manufacturing lines. It includes the capabilities of Pro/ENGINEER Production Machining, extended to multi-axis machining, full NC programming capabilities and tool libraries. Pro/ENGINEER Complete Machining improves tooling design and manufacture processes. Pro/ENGINEER Complete Mold Design - Professional mold designers now have everything they need to completely design an entire mold assembly core, cavity and moldbase in one package. Pro/ENGINEER Complete Mold Design combines all the features of Tool Design and Expert Moldbase, offering a powerful combination of capabilities for specialized mold assembly creation. Pro/ENGINEER Computer-Aided Verification - Ensuring that proper manufacturing processes are conducted is an essential, but potentially expensive proposition. Pro/ENGINEER Computer-Aided Verification delivers a straightforward, economical answer. It allows digital inspections of machined parts and assemblies for quality assurance purposes and supports both CMM machines and laser scanners. Pro/ENGINEER Mechanism Dynamics - Engineers need not wait for physical prototypes to test a product s dynamic behavior. With Pro/ENGINEER Mechanism Dynamics, it can virtually simulate the forces and accelerations in systems with moving components. And, it can adjust product performance by incorporating dynamic influences such as springs, motors, friction, and gravity. Pro/ENGINEER Production Machining - CAM, if treated secondarily to CAD, can yield opportunities for costly delays and production mistakes. Pro/ENGINEER Production Machining provides manufacturing engineers with robust NC programming capabilities for directly cutting and shaping product parts using milling, turning, and wire EDM. And, since it enjoys seamless compatibility with the design, changes are automatically incorporated. The result: improved time to production and customer responsiveness. To a certain extent, CATIA also has a modular structure which provides greater versatility, and allows transition from one mode to another quickly and with the possibility of editing the entity still in progress, without loss of information and without requiring explicit user s conversion of the file format specific to each module. Although the number of modules designed by CATIA is very big, important ones are listed below [2], [3]: Catia Sketcher which is a two-dimensional drafting module underlying the threedimensional object modeling Catia Part Design is hierarchically superior to the above and can achieve parameterized 3D models; Catia Assembly Design Is a module for obtaining parametric assemblies by inserting the 3D geometric constraints of parts designed in the previous module Catia Drafting - is a module for obtaining drawings and assembly views, which can be updated based on changes in the 3D model Catia Knowledge Advisor - is a utility module that contains specific tools such as formulas, parameters, etc.. SmarTeam - software solution that enables flexible management of product and process ISSN: X 146 ISBN:

5 databases to increase product knowledge and facilitate better collaboration within the organization. SmarTeamt is, in fact, a flexible PLM solution based on Microsoft Windows and the Web, being able to be implemented quickly, with high usage and configuration. Delmia package solutions, ENOVIA and Catia integrated, used to simulate three-dimensional manufacturing processes, enabling the definition, planning, creation, monitoring and control of virtual manufacturing processes within an enterprise Simulia Abaqus software suite is supplied with a range of complex and flexible solutions to simulate the detailed behavior of a complex assembly subject to certain mechanical loads. It can thus create, edit, modify and diagnose advanced finite element analysis. The interface is based on objects and supports parametric modeling, finite elements generation, etc. The number of NX solutions offers the possibility to transform the whole process of product development - while maximizing the efficiency of individual steps that make up this process. Among such solutions, the NX offers the best functionality for CAD, CAM, CAE, PDM systems, for all lines of product development. The most important modules which make up the NX suite are [4]: NX Modeling - Allows the designer to create parametric solid, totally, partially or non parametric models using 2D geometry, 3D NX created directly or imported from other CAD systems and / or predefined operations (holes, pockets, channels, bosses, ribs, etc.) giving a high degree of design automation and rapid adjustment of the model. NX Assembly Design - Allows the design of assemblies with thousands of components in several ways: separate design components and then bring them together, designing components in the assembly, designing parts separately and others together NX Sheet Metal - Allows easy and accurate design of stamped, pressed, folded parts and manufacturing cycle with the possibility of using standards and / or experience acquired in determining the parameters used to create these pieces. NX Routed System Design - Allows quick and easy design and modification of electrical layouts (circuits) and piping by using standardized components and full associative with the assembly they belong to. NX Drafting - Allows for easy overall design and / or their implementation and change automatically when changing the model behind the design due to full associativity with the model. NX Design Simulation - An application integrated into CAD environment, easy to use, which allows the designer to evaluate the structural strength, vibration and thermal behavior of the components and assemblies designed. NX Motion Simulation Allows the user to predict the complex motion of assemblies and products according to their functional role. Contains a wide range of dynamic and static simulation tools. NX CAM Turning - Allows a wide and flexible turning and drilling operations on lathes with one or more axes, using 2D or 3D model solid geometry NX CAM Milling - Allows for various drilling and milling operations in 2-5 axis using 2D geometry or solid models NX CAM Machining Simulation -. Allows for verification and simulation of the tool path, including session work, without needing transfer to another external verification program. NX Mold Design - Optimizes the design of injection molds or castings, surpassing the traditional CAD software. Is based on experience in mold design, automating various specific procedures and using a comprehensive library of standard elements Fig. 3 NX suite interface unit The NX suite essential peculiarity is that it can generate a single file with the extension *. prt which contains all the information from geometry, followed by the results of finite element analysis up to simulation of the processing on numerical machines., as shown in Fig. 3. ISSN: X 147 ISBN:

6 The strong element of NX suite is supported by the CAM capabilities as shown in Fig. 4. Fig. 4 Suite capabilities of NX CAM type 4. Conclusions The business factors, such as the changing product requirements, increasing competition from rivals represented small and quicker competitors and fewer resources require companies to continuously adapt their business strategies. In the past, companies focused primarily on product innovation, but in today environment of global competition, with unprecedented pressure in terms of cost, successful manufacturers use digital manufacturing technologies to optimize their manufacturing operations in terms of time, cost and quality. Companies, who can innovation processes throughout the life cycle, achieve bidirectional gain as they strive to build the appropriate product and build the product properly. These manufacturers increase productivity, optimize production strategies and operate more efficiently through capital investment by: Increasing visibility of their process innovation. Increasing speed of launching on the market by exploiting the technical assets in synchronization with the deliverable products of the manufacturing process Exploiting opportunities in emerging markets with demonstrated production flexibility. Obtaining long- term profitability through a continuous recovery of manufacturing resources and capital investments. Reducing the cost and potential risk of noncompliance. Major manufacturing companies optimize digital lifecycle of their products because they know that economic success of innovative products is based on the performance of manufacturing operations. Acknowledgement The author thanks the project owner ADA Computer for his supports in the partnership and also for financial support in the project PLM Adaptor, POSDRU/60/2.1/S/ References: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] A.Balakrishna, R.S. Babu, Dr.D.N. Rao, Dr.D.R. Raju and Mr. S. Kolli, - Integration of CAD/CAM/CAE in Product Development System Using STEP/XML published in International Journal on Concurrent Engineering: Research and Application, Volume 14, Number 2, page No.121 to 128 June [7]Nadjib Bouikni, Louis Rivest and Alain Desrochers, A Multiple Views Management System for Concurrent Engineering and PLM, Concurrent Engineering, Vol. 16, No. 1, 73-87, [8]Prasad, B., Concurrent Engineering fundamentals. Volume 1: Integrated product and process organization. Prentice Hall, New Jersey [9]Mike Philpotts, An Introduction to the Concepts, Benefits and Terminology of Product Data Management,Industrial Management and Data Systems, 4:11 17, [10]P.G. Ranky, Concurrent/simultaneous engineering (methods, tools and case studies), CIMware Guildford, England, ISSN: X 148 ISBN: