Product family modelling in conceptual design based on parallel configuration grammars

In this paper, a product family modelling in conceptual design approach based on configuration grammars is proposed and developed. Product modelling is essential during the conceptual design both it? the functional and the structural design spaces. However, there is no adapted formal representation to Support the modelling of configurable products. Grammars can be considered as formal powerful tools to represent the relationship inside the configurable products. Therefore, we propose a configuration grammar design approach which is based on two types of grammars: a functional grammar for configuration and a structural grammar for configuration. The two configuration grammars work simultaneously on different abstraction levels of the product family. Therefore, the evolution of the product model, from the stage of functional structure to the stage of physical structure, can be represented in an adapted way. The configuration grammars design approach constitutes an effective tool for the representation and the modelling of configurable product family The proposed design approach is validated by the application to a design case of industrial products - the design of an external gear pump family. The results of the application validate the pertinence of our approach. (c) 2008 Journal of Mechanical Engineering. All rights reserved.