Search Results for production capability

Concurrent engineering is product development that is done by concurrently utilizing all of the relevant information in making each decision. This article discusses the three aspects that must be taken into account for all product development decisions. The aspects include product functionality, production capability, and field-support capability. The concurrent process is carried out by a multifunctional team that integrates the specialties. The article schematically illustrates product design team configurations with subsystem teams and team of subsystem leaders. It discusses the three-step decision-making process, such as requirements, concepts, and improvement, followed by multifunctional product development teams. The article describes the two types of requirements development by multifunctional teams, namely, quality function deployment and functional analysis. It schematically illustrates the integration of product requirements and concept development. The article concludes with a discussion on the improvement of concepts in terms of robust design and mistake minimization.

This article discusses the classification, characteristics and temper designations of wrought aluminum alloys. Wrought aluminum products are available as flat-rolled products such as sheets, plates, and foils; rods, bars, and wires; tubular products such as tubes and pipes; extruded shapes; forgings; and impacts. The article provides information on product economics, design and selection, including product dimension and dimension tolerances, and design and use of wrought product capabilities. Finally, it tabulates the specifications and standards for aluminum mill products.

This article describes the four basic steps of the purchasing process of cast components. These steps include defining requirements and developing a purchasing plan; requesting and evaluating bids from potential sources; selecting a source and negotiating contract terms; and carrying out the contract and pursuing continuous improvement. It provides guidance on purchasing cast components and explains specific issues and approaches that have proven to be useful in purchasing castings. The article presents a list of the most significant considerations when attempting to determine the overall cost and design requirements of a metal casting.

This article describes the process and advantages of no-bond methods of vacuum molding and magnetic molding, with schematic illustrations. It also discusses the characteristics of plastic film and dimensional specifications of vacuum molding.

Thermoforming is a manufacturing process in which thermoplastic sheets are heated, softened, clamped onto a mold, and made to conform to the shape of the mold or forming tool. It is ideally suited to large-volume runs of small items. This article focuses on major phases of thermoforming, namely, sheet transportation, heating, forming/cooling, and trimming, and different thermoforming techniques: basic female forming; basic male forming; matched-mold thermoforming; plug-assist thermoforming; pressure bubble plug-assist vacuum thermoforming; vacuum snapback thermoforming; air-slip thermoforming; and trapped-sheet, contact heat, and pressure thermoforming. It concludes with a discussion on machines and the economic concerns of thermoforming.

The objective of dimensional management is to create a design and process that absorbs as much variation as possible without affecting the function of the product. This article describes the steps followed by the dimensional management process. These include defining product dimensional requirements, determining process and product requirements, ensuring accurate documentation, developing a measurement plan that validates product requirements, establishing manufacturing capabilities versus design intent, and establishing production-to-design feedback loop. The article discusses the simulation model in terms of a functional feature product model, component part variation, assembly method variation, measurement schemes, and assembly sequences.

This article introduces the design and manufacturing implications of additive manufacturing (AM) on part characteristics as well as on design opportunities and on manufacturing practices, supply chains, and even business models. In addition, it describes how they relate to the fundamental nature of AM processes and discusses the characteristics and purposes of AM processes and the parts they fabricate.

Thread rolling is a cold-forming process for producing threads or other helical or annular forms by rolling the impression of hardened steel dies into the surface of a cylindrical or conical blank. Methods that use cylindrical dies are classified as radial infeed, tangential feed, through feed, planetary, and internal. This article focuses on the capabilities, limitations, and machines used for these methods. It describes the three characteristics, such as rollability, flaking, and seaming, used in evaluating and selecting metals for thread rolling. The article explores the factors affecting die life and explains the effect of thread form on processing. It provides information on various fluids used in thread rolling to cool the dies and the work and to improve the finish on the rolled products. The article provides a comparison between thread rolling and cutting, as well as between thread rolling and grinding.

The purpose of continuous casting is to bypass conventional ingot casting and to cast to a form that is directly rollable on finishing mills. The use of this process has resulted in improvement in yield, surface condition, and internal quality of product when compared to the ingot-made material. This article outlines the advantages of steel continuous casting, along with its developments and challenges for improvement. It provides a general description of the continuous casting process and the design and layout of a continuous casting steelmaking facility. It reviews process enhancements such as near-net shape casting, tundish metallurgy, and pouring stream protection. The article discusses the use and capabilities of different molds for steel continuous casting, including thin-wall tube-type molds, solid molds, and plate molds. The article explains the methods for enhancing productivity and improving quality in steel continuous casting. It evaluates the applications of horizontal continuous casting in casting steel. The article concludes by outlining priorities for future development such as enhanced control systems and automation.

This article presents a detailed account on the process flow, composition, alternative sources, and the advancement of ironmaking, steelmaking and secondary steelmaking practices. Some steels, such as bearing steels, heat-resistant steels, ultrahigh strength missile and aircraft steels, and rotor steels have higher quality requirements and tighter composition control than plain carbon or ordinary low-alloy steels. The production of special-quality steels requires vacuum-based induction or electric remelting and refining capabilities. The article explores the types and characteristics of various steel manufacturing processes, such as ingot casting, continuous casting, and hot rolling. It provides an outline of specialized processing routes of producing ultralow plain carbon steels, interstitial-free steels, high strength low-alloy steels, ultrahigh strength steels, stainless steels, and cold-rolled products, and briefly explains the analytical techniques for liquid steels.

Roll forging is a process for simultaneously reducing the cross-sectional area and changing the shape of heated bars, billets, or plates. This article provides an overview of the process capabilities, production techniques, machines and machine size selection considerations, and types of roll dies and auxiliary tools for the roll forging. It concludes with information on the production examples of roll forging.

Cold heading is typically a high-speed process where a blank is progressively moved through a multi-station machine. This article discusses various cold heading process parameters, such as upset length ratio, upset diameter ratio, upset strain, and process sequence design. It describes the various components of a cold-heading machine and the tools used in the cold heading process. These include headers, transfer headers, bolt makers, nut formers, and parts formers. The article explains the operations required for preparing stock for cold heading, including heat treating, drawing to size, machining, descaling, cutting to length, and lubricating. It lists the advantages of the cold heading over machining. Materials selection criteria for dies and punches in cold heading are also described. The article provides examples that demonstrate tolerance capabilities and show dimensional variations obtained in production runs of specific cold-headed products. It concludes with a discussion on the applications of warm heading.

Turning is a machining process for generating external surfaces of revolution by the action of a cutting tool on a rotating workpiece, usually in a lathe. This article discusses the process capabilities of turning over other machining operations and describes the classification, controlling methods, attachments, and accessories of a lathe machine. It reviews the design and various operations of single-point cutting tools in turning. In addition, the article discusses the influence of various factors on selection of equipment and machining procedure for a specific part. These include the size and configuration of the workpiece, equipment capacity, production quantity, dimensional accuracy, number of operations, and the surface finish. It presents examples that describe or compare equipment and techniques for production applications. Finally, the article provides a discussion on the classification and compatibility of cutting fluids.

Metal injection molding (MIM) is a metalworking technology that has its origins as a commercial technology only dating back to the early 1970s. This article explores why the MIM is the preferred solution for many fabricated components. It illustrates the MIM components required for different end-use markets such as electronics and telecommunications, medical, automotive, power hand tools, industries, and firearms.

Neutrons are a principal tool for the study of lattice vibrational spectra in materials. This article provides a detailed account of fission and spallation methods of neutron production that are capable of producing sufficient intensity to be useful in neutron scattering research. It describes the instrumentation required for, and advancements made in, neutron powder diffraction. The article further explains the texture and residual stress (macrostresses and microstresses) problems that are analyzed using the neutron powder diffraction method. It also outlines the single-crystal neutron diffraction technique, and provides examples of the applications of neutron diffraction.

The vacuum arc remelting (VAR) process is widely used to improve the cleanliness and refine the structure of standard air melted or vacuum induction melted (VIM) ingots. It is also used in the triplex production of superalloys. This article illustrates the VAR process and the capabilities and variables of the process. It also presents a discussion on the melt solidification, resulting structure, and ingot defects. The article concludes with a discussion on the VAR process of superalloy and titanium and titanium alloy.

The Replicast process is developed to overcome the formation of lustrous carbon defects and carbon pickup observed in conventional evaporative pattern casting processes. This article provides a discussion on the pattern production, process capabilities, advantages, and limitations of Replicast process.

Ultrahigh-strength steels are designed to be used in structural applications where very high loads are applied and often high strength-to-weight ratios are required. This article discusses the composition, mechanical properties, processing, product forms, and applications of commercial structural steels capable of a minimum yield strength of 1380 MPa (200 ksi). These include medium-carbon low-alloy steels, such as 4340, 300M, D-6a and D-6ac steels; medium-alloy air-hardening steels, such as HI1 modified steel and H13 steel; high fracture toughness steels, such as HP-9-4-30, AF1410, and AerMet 100 steels; and maraging steels.

This article focuses on the production methods, properties, and applications of two main types of commercially available continuous-length ceramic fibers, namely, oxide fibers based on the alumina-silica system and on alpha-alumina, and nonoxide fibers based primarily on beta-phase silicon carbide. It provides a discussion on factors that are considered in understanding thermostructural capability of ceramic fiber for high-temperature ceramic-matrix composites (CMC) applications. The article tabulates other commercial oxide and nonoxide fiber types for CMC reinforcement.