Development of efficient DIgital product FAMily design platform to increase cost efficiency - DIFAM
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | GKN Aerospace Sweden AB |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 4 070 250 |
| Project duration | October 2019 - September 2023 |
| Status | Completed |
| Venture | National Aeronautical Research Program 7 |
| Call | Research project in aviation technology - spring 2019 |
Purpose and goal
DIFAM has focused on developing methods for reusing data and experience from existing products, as well as enabling the construction and evaluation of alternative concepts in a product family. In DIFAM tools have been developed for modular generation of CAD geometries, visualization and analysis of multidisciplinary results for design space exploration. Alongside these tools, supporting methods have been developed to enable the use of data and experience from existing products. Results have been presented in three conference articles and one journal article.
Expected results and effects
The project has resulted in methodological support for comparisons of different design alternatives in terms of different requirements and needs, e.g. cost, weight, material, manufacturing method. The comparison can partly be made between different future concepts but also relatively earlier products that are already in production, this contribute with experience and data to better assess any risks linked to a new design. The project contributes to developing the digital experiment laboratory at Chalmers, SED Lab, to develop and test new methods in an industrial environment.
Planned approach and implementation
The Design Research Methodology (Blessing, 2009) was applied in this project and divided the research into four sections: Research clarification, Current situation description study, a prescriptive study that proposes and formulates alternative solutions, and then a second descriptive study. Empirical data on the industrial needs has been collected through interviews and workshops with the project partners. "As-is" and "To be" situations were defined with the industrial partners, and appropriate methods were developed in the digital experimental laboratory at Chalmers.