DEVELOPMENT OF MODULAR PRODUCTS UNDER CONSIDERATION OF LIGHTWEIGHT DESIGN
Year: 2011
Editor: Culley, S.J.; Hicks, B.J.; McAloone, T.C.; Howard, T.J. & Lindemann, U.
Author: Gumpinger, Thomas; Krause, Dieter
Series: ICED
Section: Product and Systems Design
Page(s): 175-184
Abstract
Whether it is the reduction of complexity during development or the individual configuration for the consumer, modular products do offer many benefits throughout their product lifecycle. Hence it is not surprising, that many products are based upon this principle. Along with this modularisation aspect the tendency to lighter, more efficient products gets substantial. Especially the lightweight design of moving masses, for example in the transportation sector, is crucial. But when these two principles come in conjunction the design conflicts between them are hardly to resolve. At last modularised products tend to be heavier than non-modular products. To overcome this conflict is an important step to serve the individual consumer and to comply with environmental responsibility of the society. In this paper the effects of modularisation on lightweight design are outlined. Subsequently a strategy is presented to handle the identified drawbacks of modularisation on lightweight design.
Keywords: MODULARISATION; LIGHTWEIGHT DESIGN; DESIGN STRUCTURE MATRIX