The term “Brainstorming” is commonly understood as a process in which a group of problem solvers “kick around ideas.” The phrase “kick around ideas” is apropos because few people are schooled in methodology for conducting creative development meetings. Just as there are management consultants who train managers on how to optimize meeting agendas, there also are specialized consultants to train managers to effectively run creative ideation meetings. This article outlines some of the basic tools and sequences that a professional creative meeting facilitator might use to organize a group of talented people for problem solving.

The meeting must begin with a Client. The client is the representative who presents the problem to be solved. This is the person who is in a position to judge if progress is moving satisfactorily toward a solution. For example, suppose that the client works for a medical device company. Let’s suppose that they wish to develop a new product for which a pump is required that can be manufactured for a given price, within a given size and weight, have a delivery capacity, and be actuated by an operator in as specified manner. The group would then be charged to offer alternatives for how this might be achieved.

The meeting must have a facilitator who is leads the meeting. This person selects the participants who should cover a range of disciplines that relate to the various aspects of the client objective. The meeting begins with a statement from the client an the objective. That statement is recorded on some media such as white board or large pad of paper. The meeting requires a scribe who records the notes so that all can read them.

Conceptually, die casting is a manufacturing process and requires articulate calculations to create the required outputs. This process injects liquid material into different molds to solidify the mold. The amalgamation results in different fabricated parts The primal benefit of casting process allows manufactures to create specific parts that are not economically feasible to create on the general assembly line. Million of parts that are made via die casting process could not have been achieved otherwise since the cost of producing certain items are not economical or even production possible.

any form of casting is a labor intensive process that requires a specific skill set. all processes from temperature building, quantity and quality of the liquid to be injected, form and shape of the mold, to the coolness technique of the output products all require specific skill sets. Without an accomplished team, it become very difficult for die casting manufactures to delivery quality products.

Die casting is a similar process in which molten metal is put under high pressure into the cavities of steel molds. The molds are called dies. The dies also come in different shapes and varieties in properties. Die casting process is heavily used in the automotive industry to create different body parts.
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Great products don't happen purely by accident. There is a process by which products are developed that channels creativity with disciplined logical processes. There are clear phases during which a shifting mindset is applied that comprise a continuum that begins with dominant right-brain thinking and culminates in dominant left-brain thinking. Over this continuum ideas freely flow and expand at the initiation phase whereas technical factors and focus on detail are applied to complete precise specificity of product form for the conclusion of the program.

Ideation, commonly associated with the term "brainstorming" is the beginning phase of the product development process. The scope of ideation is related to some specified objective to develop a product that will serve some desired end use. That specified objective can be parameterized by numerous factors that characterize the overall goal. The goal can be driven by market opportunities relating to functionality, cost, size, appearance, features, or on some unique invention embodiments. The goal can be to discover some unique invention embodiment to meet a particular market or research goal. Regardless of the goal, the development process must progress though this continuum of phases to become viable. Ideation is a light hearted process wherein the mind is given liberty to freely express ideas that in turn stimulate other ideas that flow in a synergistic manner to surround the development goal.

In the modern world of product development, 3D CAD (computer-aided-design) and CAE (computer-aided-engineering) are the principle tools for developing products for manufacturing. http://www.cadmodels.biz/creativity_in_product_development.html

Summary

Rapid prototyping quickly verifies designs and reduces development time and cost. In today's rapidly changing marketplace, product development cycles have been compressed into weeks for what may have taken months or years in the past. Computer-Aided Design, or CAD, has revolutionized the way products are developed, and offers the designer a wide range of options to physically build parts and assemblies to validate form, fit and function. This article will discuss the use of CAD models in rapid prototyping to verify designs as it pertains to injection molding and die casting.

Summary

Since the 1940's, demand for high-volume, low-cost manufacturing has increased dramatically. One of the best ways to produce many parts that are dimensionally the same is through plastic injection-molding. And as advances in materials and mold making technology continue, injection molding will increasingly become the manufacturing choice. This article will discuss the application of injection molding for prototype validation and manufacturing.

Since the earliest days of rapid prototyping, experts have envisioned the application of the technology in the manufacturing process, and the focus of this vision has been on the initial cost and time savings that are realized when tooling is eliminated. However, the relative impact pales in comparison to the wide ranging advantages that exist when rapid manufacturing is implemented.

Rapid Manufacturing (RM) is the name given to the production of series or end-use component parts made using additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM) processes. ALM processes take three dimensional Computer aided Design (3D-CAD) data and directly print or grow parts in a variety of materials.

Although RM remains in its infancy, with up-take restricted almost exclusively to large scale OEM's and technology focused research firms, the technology has been cited as leading towards a second industrial revolution for the digital age, where it could have a significant impact on business, society, the economy and the environment.

Because RM has the potential to change the paradigm of global manufacturing, it is undoubtedly of increasing importance in both further and higher education. To-date however, RM focused learning tools have been restricted to printed materials, static web based resources and on-line multimedia content produced by technology vendors to stimulate sales.

The prime concerns of manufacturing engineers are productivity and quality. The daily challenge is to ensure maximum production quantity while adhering to the specified quality standards. Jigs & fixtures are essential tools to achieve these aims.

SLS, or "Selective Laser Sintering," is one of many additive fabrication techniques used in rapid prototyping today. SLS shows a lot of promise as it provides us with an opportunity to, not only, exceed in rapid prototyping, but also make advances in technology toward rapid manufacturing. The process uses a laser to fuse small particles into parts ideal for functional applications directly from 3D CAD data. The parts are created layer by layer using a wide scope of nylon, metal, and polymer powders. SLS shares many similarities with other additive technologies such as SLA, FDM and DMLS. The machine first reads the provided 3D CAD and then scans each cross-section before creating the first layer. After the first layer has been created, the tray, on which the parts are sintered, is lowered by one layer. The next layer of material is then added and the process is repeated layer by layer until the part is created.

FDM (Short for "Fused Deposition Modeling") is an additive fabrication process which creates very strong parts from 3D Cad data. The materials used in FDM include ABS plastic, Polycarbonate (PC), Polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) and Wax. FDM machines function very similarly to a glue gun in the sense that a nozzle is heated which ejects a stream of molten material. After heated to a semi-liquid state, this material is extruded from the nozzle to form layers. The layer is traced out then filled in with the material in both horizontal and vertical directions. The nozzle is both temperature-controlled and can turn on and off the flow. The material can either go in one end as small beads of thermoplastic material or thermoplastic material which is unwound from a coil. The material hardens immediately after the extrusion allowing a flow of material to gradually form layer after layer. The only downside of FDM is that it produces very grainy parts. The real advantage of this process is that these parts are very tough.

Stereolithography, or STL, is an additive technology which uses a UV laser to create parts from a UV curable liquid within an SLA, or Stereolithography Apparatus, system.

For a part to be created using STL, a 3D model of the desired part must first be created, after which the 3D data is seperated into a group of 2d layers of the entire part. These layers typically range from 0.10mm to 0.050mm in thickness (although a resolution of 0.050mm in thickness is usually used) and this group layers is called called "slice data." The slice data is then fed into the SLA system and the actual fabrication process begins. The platform is first lowered into the vat of clear, liquid plastic photopolymer. The polymer used is sensitive to ultraviolet light, allowing the polymer to solidify when it is exposed to the light provided by the UV laser and the materials used in this process range from soft durable plastic to hard plastics. The ultraviolet laser traces and selectively solidifies the first layer within the resin onto the platform, which is currently submerged one layer under the resin.

After the first layer has been created, the following layers are added to the first layer while adhering to the previous layer. A resin-filled "re-coater" blade is swept across the top the previous layer removing the uncured polymer while re-coating it with fresh material. The platform is then lowered gradually submerging the platform along with the base of the part (and the part itself, or rather the section of the part, which has been already created layer by layer) deeper under the resin. This process repeats itself until the last layer has been created and the part is completed. This is a relatively quick process. Up to about two minutes is needed for each layer to be created whereas an entire run might take six to 12 hours.

Three dimensional (3D) CAD (computer-aided-design) models have enabled major productivity gains in product design and engineering. Prior to the advent of economical desktop computers skilled draftsmen spent hours laboring with graphite lead pencils on velum and Mylar to achieve engineering quality documentation for fabrication and production manufacturing. The process required tedious checking to eliminate errors wherein modification required erasures and redrawing over and over on the same sheet. Large projects had many drawing documents linked to one another that required procedural revisions and archiving.

Two dimensional (2D) CAD (computer-aided-design) was a great step forward in moving from the drafting table to the desktop computer. The graphical display capabilities of the desktop computer enabled a user to graphically draft using mouse, keyboard strokes, text line commands, and tablet with stylus. Each CAD system had its own (UI) User Interface. While manual drafting may have actually been faster in the early years, two dimensional (2D) CAD (computer-aided-design) technologies allowed endless changes to be made with sharp clean printed copies printed without limitation. It was easy to export the CAD drawings in PDF format for viewing and printing on any non-licensed computer.