Today's manufacturing enterprises struggle to adopt cost-effective manufacturing systems. Overview of the recent manufacturing enterprises shows that successful global manufacturing enterprises have distributed their manufacturing capabilities over the globe. The successes of global manufacturing enterprises depend upon the entire worldwide integration of their product development processes and manufacturing operations that are distributed over the globe. Distributed manufacturing agents' collaboration and manufacturing data integrity play a major role in global manufacturing enterprises' success. There are number of works, conducted to enable the distributed manufacturing agents to collaborate with each other. To achieve the manufacturing data integrity through manufacturing processes, numbers of solutions have been proposed which one of the successful solutions is to use ISO 10303 (STEP) standard. However, adopting this standard one can recognize antonym effects of integration and collaboration approaches that weaken both integration and collaboration capabilities of manufacturing agents. In our latest work, we had developed an integrated and collaborative manufacturing platform named LAYMOD. Albeit the platform in question was through enough to be applied in various collaborative and integrated CAx systems, its embedded structure hampers its application for collaboration in distributed manufacturing systems. To achieve an integrated and collaborative platform for distributed manufacturing agents, this paper proposes a service-oriented approach. This approach is originated from cloud computing paradigm known as one of the technologies which enables a major transformation in manufacturing industry. Also, to maintain the product data integration based on the STEP standard, a new service-oriented approach is proposed. This approach is in parallel to the new capability of the STEP standard for supporting XML data structures. The result is a new platform named XMLAYMOD. XMLAYMOD is able to support distributed manufacturing collaboration and data integration based on the STEP standard. The different aspects of this platform to fulfill the requirements of distributed collaboration and also to overcome the lacks of the STEP standard are discussed through a brief case study. HighlightsÂ? Today's manufacturing enterprises struggle to adopt cost-effective manufacturing systems. Â? Distributed manufacturing collaboration and data integrity are essential in global manufacturing success. Â? One of the successful solutions for manufacturing data integrity is to use ISO 10303 (STEP) standard. Â? Adopting STEP standard, there are antonym effects of integration and collaboration capabilities. Â? This paper proposes an integrated and collaborative platform called XMLAYMOD for distributed manufacturing agents based on cloud computing paradigm.

A collaborative and integrated platform to support distributed manufacturing system using a service-oriented approach based on cloud computing paradigm

Grid technology has been recognised as a promising paradigm for the next generation manufacturing systems. Researchers have attempted to apply grid technology to product design, manufacturing resource integration and sharing, enterprise management, enterprise collaboration, resource optimal allocation and scheduling, and to enable the digitalisation of enterprise information as an implementation methodology. It has been already close to a decade since the first appearance of the concept of manufacturing grid (MGrid). Many projects on the application of grid technologies in manufacturing have been carried out, and a large number of research papers on MGrid have been published. In order for MGrid to be better known and accepted by researchers in the manufacturing community, this study aims to describe the connotation of MGrid through investigating existing research studies on MGrid. The contributions of this study are: (1) highlighting the motivations and driving forces of MGrid; (2) detailed description of...

A review of the application of grid technology in manufacturing

For virtual enterprises to realize efficient operation in the 21st century, it is necessary to develop an environment that can support collaborative work of multi-disciplinary groups distributed in different places. CAD/CAM integrated system is an important subsystem in this environment. In this paper, the structure of CAD/CAM integrated system is presented, then, key technologies related to realize CAD/CAM integration are discussed in detail and finally main functions and an application case of CAD/CAM integrated system is introduced.

CAD/CAM integrated system in collaborative development environment

A method and system of determining the physical dimensions and configuration of a structure and/or system as a precursor to the design of modifications of the structure and/or system by analyzing hidden objects within the structure and/or system is provided. The method includes accessing the structure and/or system prior to the modification for preparation of the modification; scanning the structure and/or system with an x-ray backscatter unit; collecting data from the x-ray backscatter unit and combining and reconstructing the data into a 2-D, 2-D panoramic and/or 3-D data set; producing surfaces and structures of the hidden objects from the data set; and tying the surfaces and structures of the hidden objects into a pre-existing coordinate system of the structure and/or system creating a 3-D model.

System and method for determining dimensions of structures/systems for designing modifications to the structures/systems

A system and methods for x-ray backscatter reverse engineering of structures. One embodiment includes a plurality of articulated arms attached to a movable base. Another embodiment includes a single counterweighted arm attached to a movable base. The arms include x-ray detectors. At least one x-ray source, which may be mounted on the arm(s), emits x-rays, which are backscattered off the surfaces and objects of interest and captured by the detectors to generate images of hidden objects. The present system provides improved speed and resolution over prior art systems. The system has a field-of-view and effective scanning range versatile enough to work in various orientations and in environments of various sizes. In certain embodiments the system is compact and lightweight so that it can be easily transported and used within confined spaces or in environments where weight is a consideration, such as inside or underneath aircraft. The system is also pointable and adaptable.

System and methods for x-ray backscatter reverse engineering of structures

Feature-based collaborative design

Directed against the characteristics of network cooperated technical design and combined with the independently deve-loped networked manufacturing platform eCWS a system frame of network cooperated technical design was put forward based on multiple Agent.In accordance with the requirements of cooperated technical design the classification was carried out on enterprise commu-nion resources and the resource object model was established.This model can be regrouped and enlarged in accordance with different cooperative process.The delaminated decision making mechanism that supports the cooperated technical design and data management model were studied and the cooperated technical designing system e-CAPP was developed.The living example showed that this system could enable the cooperative workers in different places to carrying out design,analysis and optimization cooperatively on the product technology through network.

Research and realization on network cooperated technical design system

Re-usable component design for supporting 3D modeling and simulation

The architecture of integrated management system of digitized manufacturing shop under the net-worked manufacturing environment was put forward.Then functions and implementation of subsystems of production management,cell control,distributed numerical control and measurement and control were introduced in detail.Finally an application case was given.

Zhang You-liang

Papers

Feature-based collaborative design

Research and realization on network cooperated technical design system

Re-usable component design for supporting 3D modeling and simulation

Design and implementation of integrated management system of digitized manufacturing shop

Project management system in collaborative product development environment