机械专业外文文献翻译-外文翻译--虚拟制造技术.doc

Virtual ManufacturingWhat is Virtual ManufacturringVirtual manufacturing(VM) is an integrated, synthetic manufacturing environment exercised to enhance all leveles of decision and control in a manufaceturing enterprise. VM can be described as a simulated model of the actual manufacturing setup which may or may not exist. It holds all the information relating to the process , the process control and management and product specific data. It is also possible to have part of the manufacturing plant be real and the other part virtual . Virtual manufacturing is the use of computer models and simulations of manufacturing process to aid in design and production of manufactured products.Lawrence Associate[1996], have identified three different types of Virtual Manufacturing paradigms that use Virtual Reality technology to provide the integrated environment.(1)Design-centered VM: provides designers with the tools to design products that meet design criteria such as design for X(2)Production-centered VM: provides the means develop and analyse alternative production the process plans;(3)Control-centered VM: allows the evaluation of product design, production plans, and control strategy and a means to iteratively to improve all of them through the simulation of the control process.What is the Significance of VMVM aims at providing an integrated environment for a number of isolated manufacturing technologies such as Computer Aided Design , Computer Aided Manufacturing, and Computer Aided Process Planning, thus allowing multiple users to concurrently carry out all or some of these functions without the need for being physically close to each other. For example, a process planning engineer and a manufacturing engineer can evaluate and provide feedback to a product designer, who may be physically located in another state or country, at the same time as the design is being conceived.Another important contribution of VM is Virtual Engerprise(VE). Lin et al[1995] defined a Virtual Enterprise as “rapidly configured multi-disciplinary network of small, process specific firms configured to meet a window of opportunity to design and produce a specific product.” Using this techonology, a group of people , or corporations can pool their expertise and resources and capitalize a market opportunity, by sharing informatiion in a VM environment. The principal advantage of this technology is its ability to provide a multi-media envirnoment , enhancing communication at all levels in a product’s life cycle.Application of VMApplication of VM encompass the entire life cycle of a product. Reported developments include a virtual space decision support system by Imamura and Nomural[1994] at the Matsushita company in Japan. This system applied towards the marketing and sales of kitchen furniture, allows customers to experience a kitchen environment and evaluate alternatives and select the best combination according to preferences. Their preferences are stored as drawings and subsequently transferred to the company’s production facilities.Owen[1994] presented the work implemented at John Deere Company’s production facility, that used Virtual Manufacturing for the installation of an arc welding production system. The project involved using a Virtual 3-D environment for design, evaluation, and testing of the robotic production system. Part of the work was carried out at John Deere facility’s while part of it was done by Genesis System and Technomatrix Technologies. The VM approach helped shorten the design-to-manufacturing cycle-time.DuPont[1994] presented an overview of Virtual Reality applications, and reported about Virtual prototyping being carried out at the Coventty School of Art and Design. These virtual prototypes are constructed in a computer at the beginning of the design process and allow the designer to perform tests on the virtual prototype such as a car beforehand, by walking around or through the design, examine its performance on a virtual road , sit in the driver’s seat , and check view lines, etc. Also reported were VM applications such as the virtual concurrent design and assembly of a landing gear, and simulation of side-impact collision to test vehicle safety.Kim et al.[1994] also reported VR applications including the use of VM by designers at Boeing Aircraft Company for the ergonomic evaluation of their airplane designs for operation as well as maintenance. Another study used a VM environment to train robots. An operator’s movements were recognized, interpreted and stored in the form of robotic movement command. Shenai described the Virtual Wafer Fabrication(VWF) infratructure which provided an framework for the optimization of the key process and design variables in the development of application specific semi-conductor devices. Other application areas discussed in Larijani[1994] include machine-vision applications for diagnosis, fault detection , inspection and preventive maintenance, safety an。