Virtual Manufacturing Concept
Virtual Manufacturing (VM) is the fundamental realization of the actual manufacturing process on a computer. It uses computer simulation and virtual reality technologies, supported by high-performance computers and high-speed networks. By employing collaborative group work, VM uses models to simulate and predict potential issues related to product functionality, performance, and manufacturability.
It incorporates the essential product manufacturing processes, including design, process planning, manufacturing, performance analysis, quality inspection, and process management and control, all aimed at enhancing decision-making and control capabilities at all levels of the process. of manufacturing.
Virtual Manufacturing Basics
The Virtual Manufacturing System (VMS) allows the integration of all aspects of product development and manufacturing processes. Based on the companies' manufacturing strategies and based on information and functional integration, it manages, controls and coordinates the entire product development process.
VMS ensures the organization and rational allocation of business resources, technology and personnel throughout the product life cycle. It integrates business strategies, enterprise management, engineering design and production activities.
It also facilitates parallel processing and collaborative work of multidisciplinary teams in a virtual environment, adapting to constantly changing market and user demands, and delivering high-quality, cost-effective products to the market and users at the fastest possible speed.
Using VMS, at all stages of product development, according to product requirements, the structure, functionality, performance, machining, assembly, manufacturing process and production process of the virtual product prototype can be simulated in a virtual environment . Based on the methods, standards and indicators of the product evaluation system, the product manufacturing process can be designed, modified and optimized.
This significantly reduces product development time and identifies potential issues in the early stages of product development and resolves them before actual manufacturing. As the development process accelerates, the design method transitions from a “design → evaluate → modify” cycle in a serial work mode to a holistic cycle based on a parallel work mode, thus facilitating comparison and optimal selection of multiple solutions.
Key Technologies in Virtual Manufacturing Systems Research
The theoretical basis and system of Virtual Manufacturing (VM) technology and Virtual Manufacturing Systems (VMS) are not yet fully formed and are currently in the research and exploration phase. Research work involves the intersection of several disciplines and the integration of multiple high-tech technologies, with many key technologies still requiring investigation and resolution. These include:
1) The theoretical system of VMS and research on the Open System Architecture (OSA) of VMS under a distributed parallel processing environment.
2) The technology of the master model in a virtual environment. The master model serves as the core, providing services for all aspects of design, manufacturing, and production management. It has a unified data structure and a distributed data management system.
The product model you establish is a virtual product model with all the properties and characteristics of the represented object. The virtual product exists before being put into production, with clear visibility. It can deal with various problems faced by various stages of production, such as design analysis, processing and manufacturing, production organization and scheduling, and can establish an information system between supply and demand.
3) Distributed intelligent cooperative solution technology and system for distributed parallel processing in a virtual environment, and the theory and technology of global optimal decision-making in a virtual environment.
4) Application of virtual reality technology to realize the human-computer cooperative solution model in the virtual environment and virtual manufacturing process.
5) The mapping between real manufacturing systems and VMS, the establishment of virtual devices, virtual sensors, virtual units, virtual production lines, virtual workshops and virtual factories (enterprises), and the technology of reusing and recombining multiple virtual devices.
6) The architecture of the VMS integrated development platform, component library and user development environment.
7) Organization, scheduling and control strategies and technologies for virtual companies.
8) Research and application of comprehensive visualization technologies (including computer visualization technology, virtual reality technology, multimedia technology and simulation technology). Currently, technical research can be carried out in realistic virtual product assembly simulation, manufacturing process simulation and production scheduling, numerical control processing process simulation and more.
