Ontology-Based Integration of Heterogeneous Material Data Resources in Product Lifecycle Management

In the context of Design for Environment (DfE) in product development, material selection is particularly important for the product. It affects its design, its manufacturing process, and the environmental impacts over its life cycle phases [1]. For technical or functional reasons, specific materials with best fitting characteristics are needed. Yet, their extraction and manufacturing process causes a substantial negative environmental impact. Material information are split or hidden in many different sources inside a company within various departments and also outside, e.g. involving information from suppliers and standardization organizations. The granularity of material information, various old and new norms, varying names for the same material, and different languages pose a problem, especially international cooperation. This paper describes a research approach for an ontology-based integration of heterogeneous material data resources from different stages of the product lifecycle.