| Abstract | This paper describes a web-based process/material advisorysystem that can be used during conceptual design. Given a set of
design requirements for a part during conceptual design stage, our
system produces process sequences that can meet the design
requirements. Quite often during conceptual design stage, design
requirements are not precisely defined. Therefore, we allow users to
describe design requirements in terms of parameter ranges. Parameter
ranges are used to capture uncertainties in design requirements. Our
system accounts for uncertainties in design requirements in generating
and evaluating process/material combinations. Our system uses a two
step algorithm. During the first step, we generate a material/process
option tree. This tree represents various process/material options that
can be used to meet the given set of design requirements. During the
second step, we evaluate various alternative process/material options
using a depth first branch and bound algorithm to identify and
recommend the least expensive process/material combination to the
designer. Our system can be accessed on the World Wide Web using a
standard browser. Our system allows designs to consider a wide
variety of process/material options during the conceptual design stage
and allows them to find the most cost-effective combination. By
selecting the process/material combination during the early design
stages, designers can ensure that the detailed design is compatible with
all of the process constraints for the selected process.
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