Delphi Technologies adds two patents
DECEMBER 14--Delphi Technologies (DTI; Troy, MI), a subsidiary of Delphi Corp., has announced the addition of two patents. Delphi's Design Methodologies (DDM) are used in CAD/CAM design to help reduce product and process design costs and increase productivity throughout the design-to-manufacturing cycle. DDM are a set of standardized methodologies. Using existing CAD software programs, designers can produce higher-quality 3-D CAD models that are easier to edit and change in design, engineering, and other downstream functions. Like Six Sigma and other popular standardized methodologies, the business benefits of DDM include reduced cycle times, faster change processing, reduced waste, greater efficiency, and faster time to market.
The two new patents, the horizontal structured manufacturing process model and the vertical-to-horizontal conversion process, increase the strength of the standardized methodologies developed by DTI by allowing more flexibility. "The first patent has a feature that allows for a 3-D in-process model element to link to its corresponding 3-D master model while being in a different file location," said Diane Landers, CAD coordinator at Delphi Steering and one of the inventors of the methods. "This allows complete machining sequences and operations to be performed without encountering file size limitations, providing greater business flexibility and efficiency in the process."
The second patented design, the vertical-to-horizontal conversion process, converts vertical models into a horizontal format. This helps minimize the amount of rework required to use legacy data and increases design reuse. "This process may allow engineers to salvage old data by reconstructing a portion of the feature structure of the data, thus making it useful to a new design," said Kevin Marseilles, advanced manufacturing designer at Delphi Steering, another inventor of the methods. "In turn, this prevents designers from reinventing the wheel, so to speak, by using successful work and building on it."
For more information about DDM, please visitwww.delphi.com/ddm.