An Affordance-based Approach for The Design of Customized Product Non-standard Part

Abstract In this paper we develop an affordance-integrated approach to support design of the customized product non-standard part from conceptual period to detailed period. Firstly, the part affordances are identified by geometrical correlation analysis and shown by liaison graph. Secondly, a force transmission based method is developed to identify the main design parameters of a part, at the same time the design parameters and user requirements both can be mapped into the affordances. In turn, these affordances can be used as a bridge to construct the mapping relationship between the user requirements and the design parameters. In the end, both the force transmission method and the mapping relations are used to construct the detailed model of the non-standard part. A rear platen from the injection molding machine is employed to demonstrate the proposed approach and the result shows that this method can be feasible and useful in product design.