Digital models of manufacturing : with emphasis on titanium welding for early product development

Abstract: This thesis work is part of the BTH research lab, focusing on developing the early product development, by analyzing how to integrate the manufacturing process with the early design process. A known problem in the manufacturing industry is the knowledge gap between the designers and the manufacturing process. Where in the early stages of the product development a knowledge regarding the manufacture process is needed. This is in many cases ignored by the designers because it is commonly thought that the responsibility of selecting the manufacturing processes for a product falls upon the manufacturers, despite the fact that the manufacturing processes in reality is highly dependent upon the design choses such as materials, size, shape, finishing and tolerances of the product. To mitigate this problem a variations of product ‘team’ approaches have been used where the idea is to involve a multitude of people with the necessary experience to produce a ‘production friendly product’. Those approaches have a few drawbacks mainly the problem of finding people with the relevant experiences or that the expertise only covers the manufacturing processes already used in the organization, losing the opportunity to benefit from any alternative manufacturing process. This thesis focuses on how the welding manufacturing technic, analysis can be integrated into the design process with the help of a digital model? To improve the communications between the manufacturers and designers, two excel files were developed. The first excel file aimed at the manufacturers where they can present the specific machines used in the workshop. Focusing on specific machine and workshops instead of on the general welding method will give the designers a better understanding of the feasibility of producing their design in a specific workshop instead of focusing on a specific manufacturing method. The second excel file is aimed at calculating and comparing the weld methods where the cost and requirements are derived for general welding methods and compared with the machine specifications gathered from the manufacturers using the first excel file. To assess the excel files, a parametrized CAD model of the rear engine turbine structure was developed, and three different cases were used to evaluate the developed excel files. The values used are presented in Appendix A: Table 11–15, and were gathered from public sources. Values were also approximated using regression analysis.