Development of an Industrial Design Workflow to Incorporate 3D Scanning for Manufacturing Tooling Processes

Today’s modern industries aim at supplying premium quality products that can offer added performance value, lower weight, less environmental impact, decreased manufacturing and maintenance costs, increased durability and safety, and eventually higher customer satisfaction and market competitiveness. To achieve these goals, new-engineered materials such as glass fiber reinforced polymers (GFRPs) are rapidly replacing traditional single materials such as steel and aluminum. The proposed MITACS research will develop best-practice engineering and management workflows to improve the efficiency, controllability and profitability of the polyester gelcoat and acrylic-coat glass-fibre reinforced polymer composite spray-up process, used in the manufacture of tub shower units at a leading composite manufacturer in B.C., Canada. Namely, research will focus on an emerging application of 3D scanning technology to accurately model and document GFRP moulds used in the tub shower manufacturing process, which have traditionally been hand-made by senior technicians, and not based on a sustainable engineering approach

Faculty Supervisor:

Abbas Milani

Student:

Armin Rashidi Mehrabadi

Partner:

Hytec Plumbing Products - Division of Kohler Canada Co

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Advanced manufacturing

University:

Program: