Research and development on constraint-based product family design and assembly simulation

The key technology of product family design and its integration to assembly simulation is discussed in this paper. Building blocks and constraints are the key content of the product family architecture (PFA). The classification and criteria of constraint creation are analyzed. The content of dynamic assembly process simulation is introduced. The distributed part family design had been presented. The constraint-based product family design and assembly simulation technology has great meaning to virtual product development and concurrent engineering. It can support distributed product design, lighten the workstation used load, benefit variant design and new product engineering analysis, and save new product storage space. A prototype system is introduced, detailed and verified with the example of a fuel-pump. Using Pro/Engineering and Deneb software, respectively, the static assembly and dynamic assembly process simulation are realized.