Parametric design methodologies for the feasibility study of internal grinding spindles

Nowadays design engineers need to apply, and to develop, innovative methodologies to achieve goals like superior product performances, cost containment, time-to-market reduction, satisfying also Mass Customization paradigms. Moreover, technical teams must focus on logic processes rationalization and information flow transparency, looking for cooperation with different company departments and aiming at best operating flexibility. A modern industrial project involves complex tasks connected to quick development, product management simplicity and adaptability to the changeable boundary conditions. Increasing software availability, together with calculation, graphic visualisation and modeling hardware devices escalation, is not enough to guarantee optimal results. In fact, these tools need to be integrated into a customized methodology process, defined according to a systematic approach. Moreover, different problems have to be faced up in a concurrent engineering logic, through an accurate parameterization of the main design aspects and a deep analysis of the characteristic variables. The present work deals with an accurate feasibility study concerning a grinding spindles family for internal gears. The problem, complex both from technical feasibility and industrial production side, involved the identification of creative and innovative design solutions. In particular, to achieve coherent results, it was necessary to develop accurate calculations, performed on a spreadsheet, later used to rule completely the CAD geometries. Then, the integrated adoption of three-dimensional CAD modeling and numerical tools have been permitted the design team to obtain all the data and informations necessary to evaluate the best design variants and to correctly design the product family, defining sizing and products configuration. The graphical design has been supported by the power of automated dimensioning, permitting the design engineers to focus on the product architecture. Thus, a product knowledge base has been easily realized, and used to rule model configuration and to optimize different design choices. Furthermore, such knowledge base may be used for future works, enabling a strong time compression of other projects. Finally, the spreadsheet linked to the CAD resulted a natural interface to other software tools, permitting to synchronize different design activities involved in the new product development process.