Generalized Modular Rapid Design Technology Of Hydraulic Press Machines For Product Families

Modular design is one of the key techniques to implement rapid design(RD). Since traditional modular design shows applicability only in productswhich structure can be hierarchically decomposed and structurallystandardized, it is difficult to implement structural design for products whichare not standardized such as hydraulic press machines. Therefore, thefollowing research is done to solve the problem.According to the theory of Generalized Modular Design (GMD), productfamilies of hydraulic press machines are established based on flexible modulesand virtual flexible modules aiming at the structural characteristics ofassembled-frame and framed hydraulic press machines so as to implement therapid design of hydraulic press machines. The main contents of the paper areas following:1.The research situation of rapid design, modular design and finiteanalysis is summarized, the background an importance of the research work inthis paper are stated.2.The concept of GMD is proposed aiming at the structural characteristicsof mechanical products;the basic theory and method are systematicallystudied, including the technologies as following: division and planning of theGeneral Modules (GM), parametric structural modeling, variational design &optimization and design based on Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE) etc,and the system framework of GMD based on KBE is established.3.The planning matrix of GMD product is proposed according to thetheory of GMD, Products families, flexible module families, virtual flexiblemodule families are planned in detail aiming at the structural characteristics ofthe assembled-frame and framed hydraulic press machines.4.The method and technology are presented to create, derive and assembleflexible modules, taking assembled-frame hydraulic press machines as anexample. The product family of assembled-frame hydraulic press machines isdesigned.5.The method and technology are proposed to create, derive and composeflexible modules, taking frame hydraulic press machines as an example. Theproduct family of frame hydraulic press machines is designed. Hybridmodeling method is adopted to recognize the virtual flexible module whichproperties are weak in framed hydraulic press machines so as to optimize thestructure of it. Module coding system of hydraulic press machines for productfamily is established to manage modules of RD.6.A GMD rapid design system for families of hydraulic press machines isdeveloped to examine the theory and method of GMD, its construction andfunction are introduced, and examples of designing hydraulic press machinesare given.Finally, a summary of the work in this paper is given, some conclusionsand assumptions for further research are involved.