This project will focus on the development of a design environment to rapidly design and produce toys. This environment aims to help the domestic toy industry gain competitiveness by speedily designing and producing new toys to meet changing market demands. The project will first outline an information system for model kits and their plastic injection molds with regard to the design, fabrication, storage, and setup of molds to improve the efficiency of the model kits' design and production. A method for quick mold, for improving the model design, and for making new molds by redesigning existing ones through structural information query will be investigated. The system is expected to capture the design knowledge of existing model kits and their molds, to reduce the cost and planning time required for a new design, and to reduce overall setup time for mold production.
