This paper presents a demonstration of how biological solutions to mobility in the desert can be used to drive new concepts for sand-traction tires. Biological inspiration is used to translate both camel hooves (shape) and Fennec Fox paw texture (material) into design concepts for tire traction that are prototyped and tested. The steps used in this are captured in a case study of bio-inspired design, with the resulting concepts compared in terms of their performance. It was found that the camel hoof inspired “concave” shaped tire improved traction that the Fennec Fox paw textured “miner’s moss” surface on tires improved traction, and that the integrated solution of the two also improved traction. The greatest improvement was seen with the Fennec Fox textured concepts. Recommendations are made for improvements to steps of bio-inspiration for ideation and future traction concepts.

When postforming machining operations are required on high-strength structural components, tool life becomes a costly issue, often requiring external softening via techniques such as laser assistance for press-hardened steel components. Electrically assisted manufacturing (EAM) uses electricity during material removal processes to reduce cutting loads through thermal softening. This paper evaluates the effect of electric current on a drilling process, termed electroplastic drilling, through the metrics of axial force, and workpiece temperature when machining mild low carbon steel (1008CR steel) and an advanced high strength press hardened steel. A design of experiment (DoE) is conducted on 1008CR steel to determine primary process parameter effects; it is found that electricity can reduce cutting loads at the cost of an increased workpiece temperature. The knowledge generated from the DoE is applied to the advanced high strength steel to evaluate cutting force reduction, process time savings, and tool life improvement at elevated feedrates. It is found that force can be reduced by 50% in high feedrates without observing catastrophic tool failure for up to ten cuts, while tool failure occurs in only a single cut for the no-current condition. Finally, the limitations of the developed model in electroplastic drilling are discussed along with future suggestions for industrialization of the method.

This paper focuses on evolving an absorptive capacity (ACAP) assessment tool designed to help firms understand their ACAP maturity in processing external knowledge. ACAP maturity is evaluated based on a firm's capacity and willingness to do relevant ACAP practices. Although an earlier version of the ACAP tool was able to evaluate maturity and highlight immature practice, it could not determine how critical these practices were for improvement action. Thus, a means of eliciting the importance of practices and aggregating it with their ACAP maturity evaluations is needed. This paper provides summaries of the subjective weight elicitation methods and aggregation techniques which were identified from the domain of multi-criteria decision making. Criteria for comparing these methods are defined and analyzed to determine the most appropriate methods for the current application. The SRF method for subjective weight elicitation, aggregated with the maturity evaluations through weight sum models, is deemed the most appropriate for the current application. During testing with users, the SRF procedure was found to suffer from various usability concerns which will be investigated in future work.

The following paper aims to create a classification method for design enablers which will later be used to measure the impact of design enablers on industry. First, a classification method for design enablers is developed based on a review of relevant literature. Second, this method is applied to a series of design enablers developed by the CEDAR lab strictly based on information published within literature. Finally, non-published documentation available for one of the reviewed design enablers will be considered further to better illustrate the classification method. In later work, additional unpublished documentation will be considered alongside interviews of design enabler developers to fully classify the remaining enablers. This research will later be used to map design enabler development to its impact in order to make recommendations for decision making for future design enabler development.