Track: Design and Analysis

Abstract

Continuous improvement is the cornerstone of business survival as the chase to satisfy the ever-changing market demand intensifies in the midst of the reality of global competition. The improvements may be in the product, the process or both and can be minor or major changes. This paper presents a proposed roadmap and guideline for the product and process re-design when migrating from joining processes to monolithic parts in the production of sheet-metal components. The research focuses on replacing TIG welding as a joining process with deep drawing to produce monolithic components. A hypothetical cylindrical cup of height 56 mm and diameter 100 mm is used as a case study and superimposed in the two manufacturing methods and the end product evaluated using simulations.  The starting sheet material is aluminium 6061 of 2 mm thickness. The results show a minimum weight reduction of 5% for the deep drawn component. The weight reduction also results in corresponding cost reduction. A five-step roadmap with specific work packages is proposed for smooth migration. The proposed steps are product redesign, process design, tool design, tool manufacture and product manufacture.