Product development of a gripping mechanism for a flexible 3D stretch bending machine for industrial applications - Exploring the concepts of set-based concurrent engineering
Master thesis
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http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2577001Utgivelsesdato
2018Metadata
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Sammendrag
High strength aluminum components are increasingly popular in the automotive industry. Development of novel manufacturing machines for these components is required to gain acompetitive edge. An automotive parts manufacturer has previously constructed a flexiblethree-dimensional stretch bending machine for aluminum extrusions. The manufacturer isgoing to develop a new machine of similar design, but with a new gripping mechanism.
Set-based concurrent engineering (SBCE) is a design methodology which regards sets of design possibilities for each sub-system of the product. Sets refer simply toareas in the design space. This area is gradually narrowed through-out the developmentprocess by considering all aspects of the engineering effort concurrently. The sets convergeslowly towards an intersection of each sub-system sets. This is intended to increaseflexibility to optimise the system. SBCE is fairly new to western societies and requiresmore industrial case studies to gain credibility.
This paper presents a case study of SBCE at an automotive parts manufacturer regardingproduct development of a novel gripping mechanism for a new flexible threedimensionalstretch bending machine. The researcher was co-located with the automotiveparts manufacturer over a duration of four months to observe and interview selected employees.
A literature study of SBCE was conducted which identified principles, activities and aprocess model for the product development. Additionally, research gaps were identified.The product development process was structured and conducted according to the findingsof the literature study. Broadly speaking, this involved identifying the project s valuefor the customer to correctly position the product development, identifying the feasibleregion wherein 845 different system concepts were generated and gradually narrowed to asingle, final concept. The novel gripping mechanism was evaluated through CAE and performswithin the requirements. Detailed design specifications are presented in the paper.
Based on experience from the case study, SBCE is discussed and observations andsuggestions regarding the research gaps are presented. Design considerations for the continued development of the novel gripping mechanism are presented.