Computer designs ceramic industry
Product design involves careful research and development that incur both time and expenses. Technology that reduces either or both of these proves valuable when it brings a new product to market all that much sooner and increases the competitive edge. To see how advanced computer design technologies could benefit the ceramic industrial sector, an EC funded project was initiated to investigate those areas where advanced computer technology could provide not just the means to gain an economic edge over competitors but help maintain a global presence. To begin with, the project collaborators identified the software most pertinent to industrial ceramics design, As the project progressed the software was modified and adapted to produce a final package that is highly focused on the industry's needs, thus meeting with the project's primary goal. In some cases, it was even implemented into companies and proved to be more than capable of meeting with most of the design requirements asked of it. Another goal was to identify means by which product development lead times could be significantly reduced by integrating these technologies. In certain cases this was achievable with lead times being reduced up to 30%. Ultimately, in identifying the methodology best suited for the software's integration, the project met with mixed results, proving most advantageous in the tableware sector, where the production of tableware products was possible with rapid prototyping procedures. This lead directly to the possibility of creating tooling at the down stream processes. Ceramics in the sanitary sector had less significant results, as the study concluded that there was only limited scope or value since the costs of developing full scale prototypes was prohibitive. However, the methodology study did highlight critical areas where the ceramic areas would benefit from the integration of computer technologies such as Rapid Prototyping and Rapid Machining as well as computer aided design/manufacturing. The study is still inconclusive, as it is still in preliminary stages, but has already provided some promising results.
