51ST INDIAN FOUNDRY CONGRESS 2003

Casting Design Knowledge Management

Dr. B. Ravi Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department Indian Institute of Technology, Powai, Mumbai - 400 076 Phone (+91-22) 2576 7510 E-mail: bravi@me.iitb.ac.in

ABSTRACT India has a global competitive advantage in medium-volume engineering-intensive metal products, such as automobile castings. To maintain and enhance this advantage, foundries need to adopt a systematic approach to preserve and reuse their in-house knowledge accumulated through years of experience. In this paper, we present a casting knowledge management system that facilitates: (1) capturing and updating casting knowledge in the form of if-then-else rules, empirical equations and previous cases, and (2) applying them for product design checking, methoding and process planning. This enables predicting and preventing potential problems before freezing the product design, determining goodfirst methoding solutions to achieve high yield at the desired quality level, and evolving optimal process plans compatible with both product requirements and foundry capability. The principles of knowledge management and the implementation of our system are described with suitable examples. We hope this will motivate the casting community to adopt knowledge management practices, even with existing facilities, and gradually build intelligent organizations with world-class capability. Keywords: Casting Design, CAD/CAM, Knowledge Management.

INTRODUCTION Manufacturing is the crucial engine of economic development of a nation. It creates the products required to maintain and improve the standard of living, creates employment opportunities and generates the wealth necessary for future development. Indian manufacturing industry, boxed on all sides, deserves due recognition and immediate attention from all concerned. This is especially true for the casting sector, which is struggling to survive the pressures imposed by customers, competitors and regulatory bodies while operating in an inertia-laden system with poor infrastructure. Eventually, efficient finance, equipment, energy and transport infrastructure will become widely available in all countries, and trade barriers will be minimized. In such a scenario, the competitive advantage in manufacturing industry in general, and metal casting sector

Casting design knowledge management

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in particular, will be primarily driven by the local availability of raw materials and the core competence of qualified engineers. In line with this, one area where Indian manufacturing industry can claim a major share of the world market will be medium order size metal parts requiring a significant amount of engineering skills, best represented by automotive components, as briefly explained below. India has rich deposits of iron ore, bauxite, manganese, chromite, titanium, copper, nickel, zinc and coal (fourth-largest in the world). A large proportion of the ore is exported at present. For example, India has a 5% share of global export market for iron ore, but less than 1% share of market for iron and steel, though the export earning from the metals is more than twice that from the ore. However, a few companies (like TISCO and NALCO) have shown that it is possible to become the globally lowest cost producers of metals with innovative indigenous solutions and continuous improvement, and are now aggressively pursuing the export market for metals. Even better earnings would be achieved by further value addition: by converting the metals into semi-finished and finished products locally. With over 500 engineering colleges and 1000 polytechnics, India also has the largest pool of qualified engineers worldwide. At present there is a considerable brain-drain of these engineers to softer options such as information technology, management and service sectors owing to a lack of exciting and paying jobs in the manufacturing sector. The scenario is gradually changing with leading companies according higher importance to engineering and creating fast tracks for deserving engineers (instead of those with only management background). They are learning the importance of manufacturing-related knowledge as a strategic weapon and asset, to maintain and enhance the competitive advantage of their organizations. Knowledge can be defined as organized accumulation of information (which in turn is organized accumulation of data) obtained through experience, communication or inference. It can be explicit (documented) or tacit (understood). Knowledge can also be classified as declarative (know-what), procedural (know-how) and causal (know-why). It is regarded as intellectual capital and therefore valuable. Many leading firms worldwide have already put in place systems (information technology based) and procedures (administrative and legal) to fiercely protect their in-house knowledge from outsiders, while facilitating its use within. As far as casting in concerned, its science and technology awes the novice and humbles the experienced (beyond rocket science for rocket scientists). Indeed, an entire lifetime may be insufficient to completely master a single complex casting. Casting design and manufacture is therefore a knowledge-intensive activity requiring continuous accumulation of lessons learnt and best practices for each geometry-metal-process combination. Although a vast amount of information is continuously generated in every foundry in the course of different operations, it is not systematically captured and analyzed because of its sheer magnitude, lack of perception about its importance in knowledge creation and unavailability of appropriate tools. Thus much of casting knowledge is tacit and based on poorly documented information. It mainly resides in the memory of senior engineers, and is lost when they retire or leave the organization. The problem is aggravated by the

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difficulty in attracting and retaining young qualified engineers to learn from and take the place of experienced engineers. Information technology (that is, computers plus communication) enables systematic representation, inexpensive storage, fast retrieval, easy duplication and quick transmission of digital information. For example, a typical 40 GB hard disk in personal computers costs less than Rs.5000, and can store 20 million pages of plain text: a minute fraction of the cost of storing the same information on paper. Even better, it takes only minutes to automatically search for a particular page containing the desired key words. It is also extremely easy, fast and inexpensive to create digital copies and send them to others in real-time. A typical Internet modem can transmit about 30 KB (about 15 pages of plain text) per second to any part of the world at the cost of a local phone call. The speed of transmission within an organization equipped with a local area network can be one or two orders of magnitude more, leading to video conferencing, virtual reality and other such high-end applications at affordable cost. Thus information technology (IT) will open up entirely new ways for capturing and using casting related knowledge for competitive benefits. There is another strong reason why IT will play a critical role in the resurgence of the Indian foundry industry: our proven capability in developing, providing and using IT-based products and services. Indian software engineers have acquired global exposure, skills and confidence. Now, with a downturn in service-sector based IT business worldwide, many of them are exploring opportunities within the country, including the manufacturing sector. In short, Indian foundry industry can capture a significant share of global market for cast products, by taking advantage of the local availability of raw materials and qualified engineers. Information technology will play a critical role, by facilitating preservation of the knowledge of senior engineers and its reuse for competitive benefit. A new generation of engineers can be attracted to the sector by the opportunities and challenges involved. The following section delves deeper into knowledge management and its application to metal casting. This is followed by the research work carried out by us to develop a casting design knowledge management system. We will show how this can be applied to product design checking, methoding and process planning of cast products, with suitable examples. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT (KM) The route to knowledge management is through data and information management. This implies converting all useful data and information to digital form, storing it on a central server, and providing access to the server for searching and viewing the information. It can be achieved using inexpensive technology (and local expertise) available for creating a world-wide-web portal, except that the portal is situated on a local server and is accessible within an organization on a local area network of computers connected to the server. Useful documents that could be placed on this portal include information about the organization (products, services, key employees, etc.), detailed specifications (products, materials, processes, quality, etc.), current performance (order position, work in progress, rejections, etc.) and events (major deadlines, seminars, meetings, visits, etc.).

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The first major step towards knowledge management is to start putting the details of previous projects; frequently asked questions (FAQ) and their answers; useful tips, hints and suggestions; and best practices on the server (Figure 1). These need to be systematically classified and supplemented with a suitable search mechanism. The next step is to enable wider access: for employees from their homes or from different cities over the Internet; and to other partners in the supply chain (including customers and suppliers). This will require security and authentication procedures; including prevention of access to unauthorized information to different categories of persons.

Fig.1 Major elements of knowledge management

Thus knowledge management involves capturing, sharing and applying the collective knowledge within an organization to improve its performance [1]. The aim is to provide the right information to the right person at the right time for better and faster decision-making. This helps in terms of productivity (by minimizing wastage of time for finding a suitable solution), quality (avoiding past mistakes and using new methods) and learning (for novice engineers). Unlike Expert Systems, which are meant to solve problems themselves, knowledge management systems are meant to help people in solving problems quickly and effectively. While KM exists in some form in all organizations (senior engineers noting down their experience and making it available to others), it may not be recognized as a part of the job. Interest in KM is being driven by three relatively recent factors: (1) the increasing need for speed in product delivery and hence decision-making, (2) growing awareness about the importance of intellectual capital, and (3) easier availability and affordability of information technology, which is a crucial enabler for KM. The importance of KM grows with the size, core competence and product complexity of an organization. It is critical when the employees are located far apart (in different units) or traveling frequently. Knowledge management is also an effective insurance against losing experienced employees due to retirement, job-change or disability. While the primary purpose of KM is to leverage in-house knowledge as a competitive differentiator, eventually the knowledge can also be used to provide consulting services to other firms or even packaged and sold for revenue generation (through licensing, royalty, etc.) Casting design knowledge management 4

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The principles of knowledge management are fairly well established, and are being successfully applied in many sectors. For example, Schlumberger has a knowledge hub (web portal) of drilling best practices, which is both maintained and used by its drilling community of 1400 engineers worldwide [2]. Prof. Nagasaka, Prof. Ohnaka and others at Osaka University are working on an activity model for categorizing and storing the knowledge in a foundry [3]. A knowledge management facility is being developed for CMOLD software (for injection mold design and simulation) and linked to analysis programs, including a cost estimator [4]. Our work is motivated by the importance of knowledge management and the potential benefits for the foundry industry. The aim is to develop an easy-to-use and inexpensive KM system, and demonstrate its application for metal casting. KNOWLEDGE CAPTURE AND USE The first part of knowledge management includes knowledge capturing, storing and updating. The second part involves knowledge sharing and its application for competitive benefits. Let us look at these briefly with respect to the casting sector. Knowledge capture, storage and updating This implies recording the knowledge (a portion of which could be tacit or understood) in an explicit or documentable form. This requires: (1) a suitable representation scheme, and (2) a suitable storage mechanism. The representation scheme must allow breaking down the knowledge into smaller units or bits. There are many different ways of representing knowledge; deciding a suitable scheme for a particular domain is a difficult and challenging task [5]. For casting design, we will focus on knowledge bits of the following types: if-then-else rule (ex. type of gating system based on part size and shape) empirical equation (ex. feeder size calculation), case data (ex. detailed process plan for a specific casting) table (ex. shrinkage allowance for various metals), graph (ex. solidification time versus modulus), labeled diagram (ex. location of gating elements), anecdote (ex. a story of how a quality problem was solved).

The knowledge bits have to be stored in a standard format, using a language suitable for both computers as well as humans. Earlier languages used for this purpose included LISP and Prolog, preferred by researchers of artificial intelligence. At present, XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is gaining popularity owing to its self-describing ability and suitability for web-based exchange. Several researchers have already developed domain-specific XML formats, such as MathML for equations and MatML for material properties. For the casting domain, a casting data markup language (CDML) was developed by the authors team over the last few years [6]. A user-friendly program is necessary to convert the knowledge bits from human-readable form to computer-readable form and vice-versa. This interface enables updating the knowledge bits and adding new bits based on fresh experience, information and inference. Casting design knowledge management 5

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For example, the engineers in a particular foundry may want to tune the coefficients of an empirical equation or change the values in a table, as their experience grows with respect to a particular combination of casting geometry, metal and process. Knowledge sharing and application For sharing, the knowledge must be accessible to the users; they must be able to quickly search for the right knowledge; and finally, they must be able to use or apply it to the current context. For this purpose, the knowledge base can be placed on a central server, and made accessible to different team members within an organization, as well as supply chain partners through Internet. The knowledge base can be in the form of a portal or hub, with different categories of knowledge (organized by subject and type), and equipped with a search engine. The members log into the server (protected by a login name and password) and may view, edit or download a knowledge bit for immediate application. In the case of casting knowledge, the team-members and different programs will be able to use it for improved and/or faster product design, tooling design and process planning. At the product design stage, the knowledge is useful for castability assessment to identify potential casting problems. For example, an incorrect fillet radius that can create a local hot spot can be modified before freezing the product design. The methoding or tooling design knowledge is useful for designing and evaluating the design of parting, cores, feeding and gating. The process planning knowledge is useful for generating the correct steps and process parameters for molding, core-making, melting, pouring, fettling and other operations. The different aspects of knowledge management mentioned above require different types and levels of expertise, and a close cooperation between casting engineers and computer scientists. After developing the system for knowledge storage, viewing and updating, it can be used by senior practicing engineers (who can contribute to the knowledge base) after a short training programme. Once a critical mass of knowledge is captured in the system, it becomes useful for exchange and use by other engineers and software programs. It may be necessary to hook up existing software programs to the knowledge through intermediate databases and programs, for seamless integration. KM SYSTEM FOR CASTING Three components of the knowledge management system for metal casting have been developed by our team and are presented here (Figure 2). Each handles a specific type of knowledge bit, and is demonstrated on a different activity in casting development. The first component of the system captures if-then-else rules and demonstrates their application to evolve process-friendly cast products. The second one handles empirical equations and shows how they can be used to evolve good-first gating solutions. The third one handles casting cases (process plans) and shows how the case base can be used to quickly develop the process plans for new castings by matching with an earlier one. All these are being implemented in the Web-based Integrated Casting Engineering (WebICE) framework developed earlier, to ensure access to even small firms in remote areas. The entire KM system is based on a client-server architecture. This implies maintaining the knowledge repository and the relevant programs on a central server in an organization and accessing them through a standard browser (such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Casting design knowledge management 6

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Netscape Navigator) used by the clients (end-users). Any modification to the central repository is immediately reflected in all clients.

Fig.2 Architecture of casting knowledge management system

The three components of the KM system are described next, along with implementation details and some results for illustration. Product design checking It is well known that it is easy to modify the product design early, when it is still on paper, instead of waiting for problems to crop up at the tooling fabrication or even later at the trial production stage. Unfortunately, most designers of cast products have little knowledge about the process and cannot predict the influence of a particular design parameter on the casting quality or cost. One way to overcome this bottleneck is to provide them a systematic collection of design guidelines for castability assessment and improvement, in the form of if-then-else rules. Let us take a simple example of a cast product design rule related to bosses: IF ((the cast metal is prone to shrinkage porosity) AND (there is a large isolated boss in the casting) AND (boss height > thickness of connected wall)) THEN (make boss height = thickness of connected wall) ELSE (there will be shrinkage porosity defect in the boss). We can attach a weight to each rule, representing the quality of the knowledge bit. For example, a weight of 0.8 (on a 0-1 scale) may be associated with the above rule, implying a high confidence and importance. Each knowledge bit (such as the above if-then-else rule and its weight) is stored in a separate XML file in a standardized format. The file also contains the name and address of the author(s) and the dates of creation and last updation. Eventually, this will be useful

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in giving due credit (and economic incentives) to those willing to share their knowledge, depending on the value and extent of use of each bit. A Casting Knowledge Editor has been developed in our lab, which allows a user to organize, view, add and edit the knowledge bits (Figure 3). The knowledge bits are organized in a hierarchical tree structure that classifies the casting knowledge in terms of product design, methoding and process planning. The product design knowledge is again classified as base feature, holes, bosses, etc. The user can easily add a new category or knowledge bit or delete an existing one.

Fig.3 Casting Knowledge Editor showing an if-then-else rule

A preprocessor and a post-processor are being developed for the knowledge editor. The pre-processor will take casting knowledge in normal English (entered by the user or fed through a document), identify key words and then build up a database of weighted relationships between them. Later, the user can also enter a query in normal English and the preprocessor will be able to quickly identify the most appropriate knowledge bit based on the relation between the key words contained in the query. The post-processor will take a knowledge bit and apply it to a particular case. It will provide the bridge between the knowledge editor and a 3D CAD/CAM program. For example, if a given casting has an isolated boss, then the rule mentioned above will be automatically sent to a program to apply the same on the casting. If the rule is not satisfied, then a warning will be displayed to the user to take corrective action. Methoding calculations Methoding activities, mainly involving the design of parting, pattern, cores (and core box), feeding, gating and venting are the most important part of tooling development, and directly affect casting quality and yield. Methoding of an intricate casting is still considered an art and not very well documented in technical literature. While a few empirical equations are available, they cannot be hard-coded into a computer program

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since they have to be continuously tuned to specific combinations of casting geometry, metal and process based on new experience. Let us take the example of the empirical equations for optimal mold filling time. As we know, filling the mold cavity too fast or too slow leads to defects (ex. inclusions and cold shuts, respectively). Thus there is a range of optimal filling time (and rate) in which acceptable quality castings may be obtained. The empirical equations for this are typically written as functions of up to three parameters: casting weight, section thickness and fluidity (or pouring temperature), developed for a specific cast metal based on extensive experiments and observation. The number of parameters and the form of equation vary widely for different metals (there are several different empirical equations for the optimal filling time for iron castings alone), and the coefficients may vary depending on the casting weight and section thickness. This makes it difficult to evolve a standard approach for knowledge management related to gating design.

Fig.4 Modifying the pouring time equation for gating design

To overcome the above problem, we have developed a generalized equation for optimal filling time, applicable to all cast metals, as follows: t = K0 (KF LF ) ( KS + KT T ) ( KW W )P where t is the optimal filling time in seconds, W is the weight in kg, T is the section thickness in mm and LF is the fluidity length in mm. There are five coefficients: K0 is an overall coefficient, and KF , KS , KT , KW are the coefficients for fluidity, casting size, thickness and weight, respectively. The value of power P is less than 1, usually 0.25-0.50. The above equation is stored as a knowledge bit in an XML file on a server. The user can view the equation for a specific metal-process combination, along with all coefficients, by accessing the server through a standard web browser (Figure 4). The coefficients can be modified based on new experience. The modified equation can be used to complete the

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design of the gating system and sent to a 3D casting design system for modeling and mold filling analysis, described later. Process planning A casting case comprises complete information about the product, tooling and process. The process plan includes detailed information about various steps to produce a particular casting, including material composition, type of operations, machine settings and process parameters. The systematic collection of previous cases in a foundry enables quick process planning for a new casting by retrieving a similar previous case. The casting cases are stored using the XML-compatible Casting Data Markup Language (CDML) developed in a previous investigation. The CDML has been extended to handle the detailed information related to a casting process plan. For this purpose, the process is divided into different stages as follows: Pre-casting: core sand preparation, core making, mold sand preparation and molding Casting: melting, holding, pouring and cooling Post-casting: shakeout, cleaning and fettling Further processing: heat treatment, machining, painting, packing and transport.

A case based reasoning (CBR) approach has been developed to generate the process plans for new castings by matching with a previous case. This involves determining a weighted index for each case depending on a number of attributes related to casting material, geometry (casting length, weight, minimum and maximum section thickness, minimum and maximum core size, and shape complexity), quality (surface finish, tolerance and maximum void size) and production (order quantity, production rate, sample lead time and production lead time). This index is compared with that of previous cases stored in the case base to retrieve the closest neighbors, which are displayed to the user. The user can select one of these, copy its process plan for the new case and fine-tune the plan if necessary (Figure 5).

Fig.5 Retrieval of matching cases for casting process planning Casting design knowledge management 10

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Integrating with 3D casting design The final aim of a KM system being the application of the knowledge for tangible benefits, the casting design knowledge management system must be integrated with a 3D casting design software. This will allow the foundry to capture and protect its in-house knowledge about the methoding of specific castings, while employing CAD/CAM for utilizing such knowledge to develop, analyze and optimize the castings. The AutoCAST system, developed by Advanced Reasoning Technologies (www.adva-reason.com), was chosen to demonstrate the integration of KM and casting design systems. A tight integration requires the two systems to exchange all necessary data between them without any loss or errors creeping in. As described earlier, the KM system uses the CDML (casting data markup language) structure for storing casting related information. The casting design program AutoCAST stores casting project data (CPD) in a text file. While the structure is slightly different, there is a high degree of compatibility in content and format of the two databases. Both databases include detailed information about the cast product (requirements, features), tooling (pattern, core, gating, feeding, etc.), materials (casting, mold, core, etc.) and process (sand preparation, molding, melting, pouring, etc.). Both use a paired format (parameter name and value with units) for storing the detailed data. This helped in linking the two systems without much difficulty.

Fig.6 Integrating the KM system with a casting design software

For example, the pouring time equation was modified using the KM system and then imported into the casting design software for completing the gating design (Figure 6), followed by mold filling analysis to validate the design. CONCLUSION In summary, there is a need to store and reuse the vast amount of accumulated past experience in casting sector through a systematic approach to knowledge management.

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Our work demonstrates the application and potential of knowledge management for casting domain, and is perhaps the first one of its kind in the world. The direct benefits include avoiding repetitive mistakes and quickly optimizing the design of product, tooling and process, leading to higher yield and fewer rejections with minimal effort. Other benefits include an insurance against losing experienced engineers, faster training and higher productivity of engineers, and a better image projected to customers. The intellectual capital of a foundry can thus be encashed for competitive differentiation and advantage in a global manufacturing scenario. Our work also highlighted several challenges. One is convincing experienced engineers to share their knowledge, which is valuable to others but not available in technical literature. This can be overcome by establishing and respecting the intellectual property rights of knowledge providers, and evolving suitable financial incentives (including licensing and royalty). The second challenge is in developing and commercializing user-friendly knowledge management systems suited to the foundry industry. This will require a consortium of interested organizations foundries, original equipment manufacturers, suppliers to foundries and professional bodies supporting a dedicated team of casting experts and software engineers. The team will be responsible for developing the basic system and training the end-users, who will then use the system for in-house knowledge management without the fear of losing their intellectual capital to software vendors. To conclude, we need to progress further from just organizing data (to obtain information), and organizing information (to obtain knowledge). We need to develop the ability to organize the acquired knowledge, facilitate creation of new knowledge and use all such knowledge effectively, which is perhaps the definition of wisdom. This insight and ability will help us in fusing the distinction between the art and science of casting, leading to joy as well as perfection in this field. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The work presented in this paper was motivated and influenced by discussions with several researchers, practicing engineers (both foundry and OEM) and CAD/CAM experts over the last few years. Some of the results are based on the work of three Masters students in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Bombay: Manish Jalan (casting design knowledge representation and storage), Amit Upadhyay (knowledgebased product design checks for castability) and PNV Ajay Kumar (knowledge management for gating design). The contribution of two doctoral students, Rahul Chougule (virtual foundry for process planning) and Milind Akarte (framework for webbased integrated casting engineering) is also acknowledged. Finally, the author wishes to thank the 40 participants of the recent workshop on casting design and analysis at IIT Bombay, for their valuable feedback about our casting design and knowledge management systems. REFERENCES [1] Daniel L, Enterprise Knowledge Management, IEEE Computers Magazine, Vol.189162, p.54-61, 1998. [2] Smith RG and Farquhar A, The Road Ahead for Knowledge Management, Artificial Intelligence Magazine, Vol.21, No.4, pp.17-41, 2000.

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[3] Nagasaka Y, Ohnaka I, Kisanuki and Murakami T, Knowledge Management Tool for Casting Design Based on Activity Model, Proceedings of Casting and Solidification Processes IV, Seoul, Korea, pp.411-418, 1999. [4] Turng L-S and DeAugistine D, A Web-based Knowledge Management System for the Injection Molding Process, Plastics Engineering Magazine, pp.47-50, December 1999. [5] Zhuge H, A Knowledge Grid Model and Platform for Global Knowledge Sharing, Expert Systems with Applications, Vol.22, p.313-320, 2002. [6] Ravi B and Akarte MM, Casting Data Markup Language for Web-based Collaborative Engineering, AFS Transactions, Vol.112, 2002. List of Figures Fig.1 Major elements of knowledge management Fig.2 Architecture of casting knowledge management system Fig.3 Casting Knowledge Editor showing an if-then-else rule Fig.4 Modifying the pouring time equation for gating design Fig.5 Retrieval of matching cases for casting process planning Fig.6 Integrating the KM system with a casting design software

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