A PARAMETRIC MODELING APPROACH FOR REFINER PLATE DESIGN AND PRODUCTION By:

Parametric and feature-based design is a modern approach for product modeling to save time and money during the product development and manufacturing process, especially in the preliminary stages of design. Parametric modeling can be used to improve customer satisfaction by facilitating rapid product customization to achieve specific customer requirements. In this paper, we discuss a parametric and feature-based modeling approach that we are developing to facilitate design verification, reduce lead-time, and improve product customization when designing and producing a variety of refiner plate patterns for sand casting. Our primary focus in this paper is on formalizing our parametric modeling approach and comparing its implementation in two CAD modeling systems. A comparison of the cost and product lead-time using the proposed solid modeling approach and the traditional 2-D drawing approach to generate a CNC machined pattern for sand castings is also presented.