Well known researchers in all areas related to featured based manufacturing have contributed chapters to this book. Some of the chapters are surveys, while others review a specific technique. All contributions, including those from the editors, were thoroughly refereed. The goal of the book is to provide a comprehensive picture of the present stage of development of Features Technology from the point of view of applications in manufacturing. The book is aimed at several audiences. Firstly, it provides the research community with an overview of the present state-of-the-art features in manufacturing, along with references in the literature. Secondly, the book will be useful as supporting material for a graduate-level course on product modeling and realization. Finally, the book will also be valuable to industrial companies who are assessing the significance of features for their business.

"This book presents basic principles of geometric modelling while featuring contemporary industrial case studies"--Provided by publisher.

The book is the complete introduction and applications guide to this new technology. This book introduces the reader to features and gives an overview of geometric modeling techniques, discusses the conceptual development of features as modeling entities, illustrates the use of features for a variety of engineering design applications, and develops a set of broad functional requirements and addresses high level design issues.

This book presents a selection of papers related to the fifth edition of book further to the International Conference on Integrated Design and Manufacturing in Mechanical Engineering. This Conference has been organized within the framework of the activities of the AIP-PRIMECA network whose main scientific field is Integrated Design applied to both Mechanical Engineering and Productics. This network isorganized along the lines of a joint project: the evolution, in the field of training of Integrated Design in Mechanics and Productics, in quite close connection with the ever changing industrial needs over the past 20 years. It is in charge of promoting both exchanges of experience and know-how capitalisation. It has a paramount mission to fulfil, be it in the field of initial and continuous education, technological transfer and knowledge dissemination through strong links with research labs. For the second time, in fact, the IDMME Conference has been held abroad and, after Canada in 2000, the United Kingdom, more particularly Bath University, has been retained under the responsibility of Professor Alan Bramley, the Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the conference. The Scientific Committee members have selected all the lectures from com mplete papers, which is the guarantee for the Conference of quite an outstanding scientific level. After that, a new selection hasbeen carried out to retain the best publications, which establish in a book, a state-of-the-art analysis as regards Integrated Design and Manufacturing in the discipline of Mechanical Engineering.

Design and manufacturing is the essential element in any product development lifecycle. Industry vendors and users have been seeking a common language to be used for the entire product development lifecycle that can describe design, manufacturing and other data pertaining to the product. Many solutions were proposed, the most successful being the Stadndard for Exchange of Product model (STEP). STEP provides a mechanism that is capable of describing product data, independent from any particular system. The nature of this description makes it suitable not only for neutral file exchange, but also as a basis for implementing, sharing and archiving product databases. ISO 10303-AP203 is the first and perhaps the most successful AP developed to exchange design data between different CAD systems. Going from geometric data (as in AP203) to features (as in AP224) represents an important step towards having the right type of data in a STEP-based CAD/CAM system. Of particular significance is the publication of STEP-NC, as an extension of STEP to NC, utilising feature-based concepts for CNC machining purposes. The aim of this book is to provide a snapshot of the recent research outcomes and implementation cases in the field of design and manufacturing where STEP is used as the primary data representation protocol. The 20 chapters are contributed by authors from most of the top research teams in the world. These research teams are based in national research institutes, industries as well as universities.

Presented in this book are some of the most relevant aspects of Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) in Japan. The volume compares the development of CIM in the context of Japan as well as that of Europe and the United States. It includes studies of the implemented CIM systems in many companies. In addition, the book contains a study concerning Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS), and the basis for preparation of the so-called Future Generation of Manufacturing Systems (FGMS). This volume gives a better understanding of Japanese competitiveness using advanced technology. People coming from the manufacturing industry, managers, engineers, officials and researchers will find in this book a rich source of material for understanding the crucial elements in technology development, and its actual and future implementation.

Modern factories are experiencing rapid digital transformation supported by emerging technologies, such as the Industrial Internet of things (IIOT), industrial big data and cloud technologies, deep learning and deep analytics, AI, intelligent robotics, cyber-physical systems and digital twins, complemented by visual computing (including new forms of artificial vision with machine learning, novel HMI, simulation, and visualization). This is evident in the global trend of Industry 4.0. The impact of these technologies is clear in the context of high-performance manufacturing. Important improvements can be achieved in productivity, systems reliability, quality verification, etc. Manufacturing processes, based on advanced mechanical principles, are enhanced by big data analytics on industrial sensor data. In current machine tools and systems, complex sensors gather useful data, which is captured, stored, and processed with edge, fog, or cloud computing. These processes improve with digital monitoring, visual data analytics, AI, and computer vision to achieve a more productive and reliable smart factory. New value chains are also emerging from these technological changes. This book addresses these topics, including contributions deployed in production, as well as general aspects of Industry 4.0.