Engineering Design work typically consists of reusing, configuring, and assembling of existing components, solutions and knowledge. It has been suggested that more than 75% of design activity comprises reuse of previously existing knowledge. However in spite of the importance of design reuse activities researchers have estimated that 69% of companies have no systematic approaches to preventing the "reinvention of the wheel". The major issue for supporting design re-use is providing solutions that partially re-use previous designs to satisfy new requirements. Although 3D Search technologies that aim to create "a Google for 3D shapes" have been increasing in capability and speed for over a decade they have not found widespread application and have been referred to as "a solution looking for a problem"! This project is motivated by the belief that, with a new type of user interface, 3D search could be the solutions to the design reuse problem. The system this research is aiming to produce is analogous to the text message systems of mobile phones. On mobile phones 'Predictive text' systems complete words or phrases by matching fragments against dictionaries or phrases used in previous messages. Similarly a 'predictive CAD' system would complete 3D models using 'shape search' technology to interactively match partial CAD features against component databases. In this way the system would prompt the users with fragments of 3D components that complete, or extend, geometry added by the user. Such a system could potential increase design productivity by making the reuse of established designs an efficient part of engineering design. Although feature based retrieval of components from databases of 3D components has been demonstrated by many researchers so far the systems reported have been relatively slow and unable to be components of an interactive design system. However recent breakthroughs in sub-graph matching algorithms have enabled the emergence of a new generation of shape retrieval algorithms, which coupled with multi-core hardware, are now fast enough to support interactive, predictive design interfaces. This proposal aims to investigate the hypothesis that a "Predictive CAD" system would allow engineers to more effectively design new components that incorporate established, or standard, functional or manufacturing geometries. This would find commercial applications within large or distributed engineering organizations. This project is an example of how data mining could potentially be employed to increase design productivity because even small engineering companies will have many hundreds of megabytes of CAD data that a "Predictive CAD" system would effectively pattern match against.

The success of today's global supply networks depends on the efficient and effective communication of design descriptions (including design intent and shape definitions) that suit the requirements and capabilities of the wide range of engineering functions, processes and suppliers involved in the delivery of products to markets. Technical product data packages are used to provide these design descriptions. At a recent industry summit, a representative of Boeing noted that some 40% of the technical data needed to create a product resides outside the shape definitions in the technical product data package. The focus of this project is on the Bills of Materials (BoMs) that are integral parts of both shape definitions and the 40% of non-shape related product data. BoMs are fundamental because they act as integrators: adapting detailed design descriptions to suit the needs of particular engineering processes. The ability to reconfigure BoMs while maintaining internal consistency of the technical data package (where all BoM configurations are complete and compatible with each other) is a major challenge. This proposal builds on a feasibility study that explored the use of embedding* to associate multiple BoMs with a single design description. From an engineering design perspective, based on discussions with four local SMEs and work on a case study related to a Rolls-Royce combustion system, we uncovered an urgent industry need to be able to associate multiple BoMs with one or more design descriptions. This need has remained hidden because current design technologies tend to subsume BoMs in proprietary data representations. However, engineers use BoMs and other design structures to adapt design descriptions for specific purposes. For this reason, new design technologies are needed that make BoMs and other design structures available for engineers to work with directly. From a design technology perspective, we have demonstrated that hypercube lattices can act as computational spaces within which BoMs can be reconfigured. However, the generated lattices are vast and, although we made in excess of hundred-fold improvements in the speed of lattice generation after consultation with the Leeds Advanced Research Computing team, the problem remains exponential in nature. For this project, the lattices will remain in the background, as a part of the technical apparatus. From an organisational psychology perspective, the ability to reconfigure BoMs creates opportunities for new ways of managing engineering knowledge in product development systems that take account of human and organisational behaviours, and individual preferences. The goal of this project is to establish theoretical foundations, validated through a series of sharable software prototypes, to enable the reconfiguration of BoMs. The software prototypes will be designed for use by academic and industrial users to experiment with their own data and build understanding of the kinds of functionality required in such design tools. This will allow companies to better specify their long term information technology requirements for their IT system providers. A staged software engineering process will be used and a series of open source prototypes published at roughly six month intervals. This will create opportunities for meaningful interactions within the research team, and give industry partners early access to the research and opportunities to influence the research direction. In parallel, through the development of case studies in collaboration with industry partners and colleagues in other disciplines, we will build understanding of other types of design structure that occur in engineering design processes and develop cross-disciplinary learning opportunities. * Embedding is a mathematical mechanism that allows one instance of a construct to be superimposed on another.

3D printing, or, Additive Manufacturing (AM), has rapidly come to prominence as a valid and convenient alternative to other production techniques, this is thanks to a growing body of evidence that its advantages in terms of lead-time reduction; design flexibility and capability; and reduced manufacturing waste are not only potential, but very much real. Metal AM techniques can be categorised based upon the form of the material they use (powder or wire), the heat source (laser, electron beam, or electric arc), or the way the material is delivered (pre-placed bed, or direct feed). Each of the metal AM technologies, given its particular properties, is best suited for specific applications. For example, the selective laser-melting of a pre-placed powder bed yields precise, net-shape components that can be very complex in design. However, their size is limited, cost is high, and build rates are low. In contrast, the Directed Energy Deposition (DED) processes can build near-net-shape parts, at many kilograms per hour, and with potentially no limitation to a components' size. To date, most of the work in wire based DED has been carried out at Cranfield University, where a 6-m-long aluminium aero-structure was built in a few days. Research over the last 10 years has also proven the capability to make large titanium parts in a timely manner (weeks instead of months) and with much reduced cost (up to 70% cheaper than machining from solid), resulting in a tremendous industry pull. However, manufacturing such components is extremely challenging; so far, it has been based on engineering principles; a great deal of empirical know-how is required for every new application, leading to long lead times and high cost for new applications and materials. These are ever-varying and numerous, in light of the heterogeneity of the end-users mix. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop a science-based understanding of DED processing; this is key to exploit its full potential and enable the industrial pick-up it merits. Such potential could be increased by combining more than one process: E.g. an arc and a laser could be coupled into one symbiotic machine, generating a multiple energy source configuration. Our vision is to radically transform Large Area Metal Additive (LAMA) manufacturing, by pioneering: - new high build-rate wire based DED with greater precision of shape and microstructure - production of net-shape large-scale engineering structures, at low cost - guaranteed 'right-first-time' homogeneous or tailored high performance properties and structural integrity. Four universities (Cranfield U., U. of Manchester, Strathclyde U., and Coventry U.) have joined forces to deliver this ambitious research programme over five years with a budget of £7M. The LAMA programme is formed by four interconnected projects: 1. LAMA's engine room. New wire-based DED processes with two primary aims: simultaneous high build rate with precision net-shape deposition (no finishing process required); and independent thermal control from deposition shape, using active thermal profile management. 2. LAMA's design room: new wire compositions tailored to the newly available thermal process regimes, and capable of producing properties better than the equivalent forged alloys; it will also provide crucial information regarding the formation and criticality of defects. 3. LAMA's modelling room: key fundamental science and understanding, using advanced process and material modelling and state-of-the-art high efficiency techniques. Physics-based thermal and fluid-flow models, as well as microstructural and mechanical models will be developed and implemented. 4. LAMA's quality room: physics-based framework for guaranteed mechanical properties and structural integrity in as-built components; including the development of in-process non-destructive evaluation techniques. LAMA will build on and exploit the UK's substantial lead in wire-based DED technology.