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Jones, Helene Victoria; Chatzimichali, Anna; Potter, Kevin; Ward, Carwyn

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This work is an initial attempt to explore how knowledge generated during the fabrication of advanced composite components is relevant to their design and production. Despite their high performance applications their manufacture often relies on a manual process. The aim is to suggest mechanisms to integrate this knowledge to facilitate industry growth. A case study approach was taken to map the learning cycle during product innovation processes. The assumption was that a complete learning cycle leads to production efficiency. Differences in this process for a high performance product in an industrial environment and sculptures in an art fabricators practice were investigated. It was found that the high performance composites industry has an incomplete learning cycle, with in-process knowledge not entering back into concept development. The art fabricators have a complete learning cycle; this has been attributed to their collaborative way of working and the knowledge generated by their material explorations. To complete the learning cycle in an industrial environment it has been suggested that tangible products are used to transfer knowledge about how the material is handled.

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Integrated Product Development, Knowledge Management, Inclusive Design, Composites, Tacit Knowledge