This paper on "Integrating Geometric Modelling, Simulation and Manufacture Through Collaborative Research" was presented at the NAFEMS World Congress on The Evolution of Product Simulation From Established Methods to Virtual Testing & Prototyping - 24-28 April 2001, The Grand Hotel, Lake Como, Italy.

Summary

Suppliers of complex shaped parts, often produced as mouldings, castings or forgings are typically small to medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in business process chains involving several firms. The highly competitive world market demands shorter lead times, improved performance and quality as well as reduced cost. This environment encourages these SMEs to search for computer-based tools to model and manufacture complex shapes and to predict and optimise the behaviour of production parts.
The same logic that leads to the use of specialist sub-contractors and a process chain spread across several expert companies applies to the software packages used by these firms. The emphasis has to be on using the best tools and people for the specialist job in order to tease out leading edge performance. The level of the integration between these tools is a concern for the SMEs and can be a significant obstacle to realising efficiencies.
This scenario makes for a fertile environment for collaborative research between the software houses originating the tools and the industrial practitioners wishing to use them. Both the software tools and the end-users can be in a process chain. In many cases both software houses and end users are SMEs.
EUREKA project EU776 Computer Aided Rapid Prototyping and EC Industrial and Material Technologies programme project BE96-2828 Products by Rapid Integrated Detailed Engineering are two examples of collaborative research projects that received public funding to catalyse the process of cross member state and cross company collaborative innovation. This paper outlines the projects, discusses their impact on the partners involved and comments on this experience of EC funded collaborative research.