Overview on Equipment Development Ontology

Within the development of products under PLM applications, ontology holds an important role. Ontology with its instances constitutes a knowledge base. In the development applications of the product, the ontology-based approaches for machine and equipment manufacturing are very few, predominant being the approaches in the field of IT. The experience of a designer in machine manufacturing can be structured in an ontology and its instances, becoming a knowledge base, which can be reused by another designer, who has never designed such a product. On the other hand, the design duration are part of the manufacturing cycle of the product. We propose that through ontology we should be able to specify the sub-assemblies in such a way that the duration of acquisition (contracting-manufacturing-delivery) overlaps the cycle of designing and manufacturing of the product which uses them. We’re trying to demonstrate that that the manufacturing cycle can be shortened and that a family of products can be developed based on this, by developing an ontological application, which combines ontologies in the field of engineering, all these by using Protege.