Adaptable Product Platform Development Method And Its Application In Design Of Cylindrical Gear Machine Tools

With rapid development of market economy, the competition has beenbecoming severe. To meet customers’ needs, manufacturing enterprises have todevelop a variety of products with lower cost, better quality and more environmentfriendly. This dissertation investigates the adaptable product platform developmentmethod (APPDM) based on adaptable design methodologies. A new adaptableproduct platform design method has been developed and has been applied to thedesign of a cylindrical gear manufacturing machine tools platform for customizationof cylindrical gear machine tools. The details of the APPDM and its application aregiven in the dissertation.Following the Introduction of Chapter one, Chapter two provides the methodsfor analyzing diverse user demands. The products are classified into different groupsthrough gray clustering according to concepts of quantitative indexes. In thequalitative aspects, the user demands are converted into quality characteristicthrough the modified House of Quality.Chapter three reports a new evaluation method of product adaptability basedon the value engineering. With the guide of adaptable design, the shared function ofgear machine tools are acquired, which is the first step for the development ofadaptable product platform of cylindrical gear machine tools. Two new types gearmachine tools platforms have been formed, one is suitable for the high efficient gearmanufacturing process; the others can literally machine almost all types of gears.Chapter four discusses the concepts, elements, and process and realizationstrategy of the APPDM method. The associated techniques of adaptable productplatform design are developed using the quality function deployment. Thespecification variants, upgrade of modules and products derivative based onadaptable products platform are discussed. Finally, the overall solutions of theadaptable product platform for cylindrical gear machine tools are determined.Chapter five presents the adaptable modules creation techniques with an aimof maximizing the shared benefit and performances of modules. First, the optimization model of design parameters for shared benefit, manufacturability andperformance of modules is established. Then, the shared and customized designparameters are determined based on the multi-objective optimization strategy. Withthe guide of the developed methods, the column and bed of machine tools aredesigned.Chapter six demonstrates the detailed implementation of adaptable productplatform for cylindrical gear machine tools. The structure and specifications of themain modules of the machine tools are designed and developed. The configuration ofdifferent gear machine tools for a line of customizable machines is determined.Finally, the application effect of adaptable product platform is showed through thedevelopment case study of cylindrical gear milling machines.The developed APPDM method has also been employed to the design of a lineof heavy-duty gear milling machines. Although the proposed APPDM method wasdeveloped and applied to design of the cylindrical gear machine tools, the basicprinciples of the design method is generally applicable to the other mechanicalproducts and systems.