Ontology based knowledge modeling and reuse approach in product redesign

Redesigns of mechanical products depend much on reuse of existing design knowledge in an enterprise´s database. An ontology based knowledge modeling approach and reuse strategy towards redesign process was proposed in this paper. According to the nature of redesign process of mechanical products and the characteristics of knowledge reuse during it, the redesign activities are classified into two basic types in the approach: structure redesign and parametric redesign. The relations between the concept nodes (structure or parameters) and its linkage knowledge (design cases, design rules, design criteria, and handbooks) are represented in the ontology model. Through locating the linkage knowledge according to the current scenario of redesign iteration, irrelevant knowledge items would thus be avoided in knowledge retrieval and the effectiveness and efficiency of knowledge reuse could be improved. A case of the redesign of a thread rolling board illustrates the proposed approach via adopting the approach in different redesign situation including both parametric redesign and structure redesign.