This book is devoted to the optimization of product design and manufacturing. It contains selected and carefully composed articles based on presentations given at the IDMME conference held in Montreal, Canada, May 2000. The Authors are all involved in cutting-edge research in their respective fields of specialization. The integration of manufacturing constraints and their optimization in the design process is becoming more and more widespread in the development o mechanical products or systems. There is a clear industrial need for these kinds of methodologies. Important-but still unsolved-problems are related to the definition of design processes, the choice of optimal manufacturing processes and their integration through coherent methodologies in adapted environments. The main topics addressed in this book are: - design theory: process and modeling, - control, measurement and tolerancing, - manufacturing: modeling and planning, - optimal design of machines, structures and components. The book provides original information from authors who are involved in very recent research in the field.
Beyond the theoretical background, the main focus is the relation of the research to industrial applications fro most of the articles. The book is dedicated to engineers, researchers and Ph.D. students who are involved in the domain of the optimisation of the design and the manufacturing processes.