'Application of CAD, rapid prototyping and reverse engineering in handicrafts sector - A success story'

Abstract

Handicraft products constitute a significant part of the informal sector** of the Indian economy. Product innovation and improvements in design technologies is necessary for keeping this sector economically sustainable. Moradabad, a place in Northern India about 200 miles north east of New Delhi, is famous for its brassware products. This paper discusses the new and improved product design methodology to apply for these products. It is true that rapid prototyping and tooling technologies complement successfully the computer aided design technique but it is necessary to refine these technologies for successful product development especially in the case of freeform objects for which no readymade mathematical definitions are available. The components like decorative pieces, wall-hanging, Flower Vase contain free form, complex shapes and they generally have a lot of freedom to modify according to user requirement. The prototypes of these components are conventionally manufactured by hand carving, clay modeling etc. Now, using rapid prototyping and tooling as well as reverse engineering, these prototypes can be made in a far more effective manner. This paper discusses and presents an application of CAD, Rapid Prototyping and Reverse Engineering for brassware products. Product innovation and improvements in design technologies is necessary for keeping this sector economically sustainable.

Index Terms- Brassware, CAD, Handicrafts, Prototype, Rapid Prototyping, Reverse Engineering

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About the Authors:

Sudhanshu Trivedi is a PhD Scholar, UP Tech. Univ, India.

Amod Tiwari is a PhD Scholar, IIT, Kanpur, India.

Dr. Aurobinda Chatterjee is a Sr. Research Engineer, IIT, Kanpur.

Dr. Vinay Pathak is an Asstt. Prof. HBTI, Kanpur, India.

Prof. Sanjay G. Dhande is a Professor (ME & CSE), IIT, Kanpur.

Prof.Durg S. Chauhan is a Vice-Chancellor, UP Tech Univ., Lucknow, India.

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** Since the release of the report of a comprehensive the term informal sector has gained acceptance in international official documents. Initially the informal sector was considered to be mainly composed of the urban working poor migrated from rural areas in search of work. Later it was recognised as an important employment-generating sector and an important source of production and income (Hussmanns and Mehran 1989). The Fifteenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians (15th ICLS), held in January 1993, eventually adopted a resolution on concerning statistics of employment in the informal sector that provides an international statistical standard definition of informal sector.