How rapid prototyping process parameters could affect the product Design phase: a kbs approach

Considering the whole product life-cycle, product model is usually defined during the design phase, given a set of requirements and constraints belonging to the same domain. The use of different manufacturing and verification technologies may, however, profoundly affect the characteristics of the product, so that a re-design phase is often necessary. In previous work, a Knowledge Based System named Design GuideLines (DGLs) was developed, aiming to help the designers make the product model compatible with the requirements and constraints of the specific manufacturing and verification domains. During the DGLs development, the possibility emerged to exploit them in order to identify possible relations among product features. This aspect seems very important, further helping the designer to better understand the consequences of the modifications suggested by the DGLs and applied to the product model during the re-design phase. The present work aims to identify these relations among product features. The result of DGLs exploitation has been critically analyzed to highlight the link between manufacturing characteristics and product features, and, further, among features themselves. Unpredictable relations among the product features, given a particular Rapid Prototyping technology as manufacturing technology, have been discovered and exploited.