A knowledge base system for the design and manufacture of injection-molded plastic products

The paper presents the development and implementation of a knowledge base system (KBS) for an important polymer molding. This KBS, named Enlighten, is built on top of Web-based technology because of its ubiquity, ease of use, convenient content dissemination, its hypertext, navigation, and search capabilities, as well as the support of interactivity (via Java, JavaScript, and CGI) and multimedia (text, graphics, video, and audio). By design, the contents and tools in Enlighten can be viewed and shared by parties that are involved in the process, using any major Web browser, either locally via CD-ROM or through the Internet (intranet or extranet).