Object-oriented models for aero-engine assembly

Computerised assembly technologies are increasingly used in product design evaluation, performance analysis and manufacturing simulations. Assembly modelling is of fundamental significance to digital assembly implementations, which captures, represents and manages connection-relevant data. On making a survey of previous product assembly modelling approaches, this paper concludes that object-oriented methods are most suitable for describing complex assemblies. Subsequently, this paper develops a meta-model of product assembly using the class diagram, where physical components are aggregated into classes of part and assembly, and their associations are specified by classes of connection, constraint, tolerance, etc. Finally, this paper converts the class-diagram based assembly model into an object model for aero-engine assembly through mappings between classes and objects. The assembly models built in this study are of high modularity and extensibility, and comprehensively specify all the information required for assembly planning, operations, simulations and evaluations. Copyright © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.