Product Manufacturing Cycle Research Articles

Integrated model of product manufacturing cycle time estimation

In modern business conditions, companies engaged in individual and small-batch production are faced with one of the key tasks of production management, which refers to weekly and, very often, daily production planning. Short delivery times, limited prices, and high requirements regarding the quality and method of product delivery all require timely planning of production capacities, tools, and devices, as well as the number of workers and their allocation to individual jobs. In such production conditions, which are determined by the market, it is of particular importance to determine the production time of the product quickly and qualitatively, including the production price, within the framework of making an offer according to the customer's demand. The paper presents a cycle time estimation model as a part of the overall product manufacturing time, using ANN and fuzzy neural networks.

Study on casting design and analysis of magnesium alloy wheel

PurposeThis research establishes a suitable casting model for magnesium alloy wheel. The casting of the wheel is an element that must be considered in the design of the wheel. Casting is an important basic process and technology in the field of machinery which is widely used in production, transportation, national defense, social life and other aspects. Computer numerical simulation of the casting process can shorten the product manufacturing cycle, reduce product costs, reduce casting defects and ensure product quality. The casting material in this study is AZ91 magnesium alloy used for wheel lightweight.Design/methodology/approachLightweight research of automobile is a significant trend, and people are paying attention to the lightweight design of automobiles. Higher requirement was proposed on design and casting performance of the wheel which is an important part of lightweighting vehicle. In order to achieve better quality, the parametric studies of alloy wheel and casting are necessary. This research designs a new model of automobile wheel, to ensure energy efficiency, the wheels must be as lightweight as possible, using magnesium alloy material for lightweight.FindingsAnalysis of casting process is a very complex issue. This research based on finite element theory and actual production, designed reasonable casting model, instant filling and solidification data were obtained. Aiming at reducing casting defects, process improvement of casting riser structure was designed. On the basis of the foundation, it has important guiding significance for actual foundry production.Originality/valueThis research establish a suitable casting model for magnesium alloy wheel. Aiming at reducing casting defects, process improvement of casting riser structure were designed.

Model-based definition capabilities and its impact on industrial productivity

The need for optimization of the product manufacturing cycle and data management resulted in the creation of the model-based definition technology. The beneficial impact in most processes (CAD, CAE, CAPP, CAM, etc.) of a product manufacturing cycle, made the MBD technology implemented in various industries. The following paper has the purpose of highlighting the benefits and limitations of the current MBD capabilities and makes its impact on the industrial collaboration known by summarizing the communication file formats, which support this technology. Special interest is attributed to lightweight collaboration files, especially 3D PDFs, which are capable to deliver information and data to the domains of a company inside or outside of the manufacturing cycle and support all the necessary downstream activities of the product.

Developing of a manufacturing cycle architecture for fused deposition modeling technique

3D printing (3DP) and data analytics are emerging technologies of today's manufacturing enterprises and have a great attraction in their development. A great amount of real-time data of product manufacturing cycle (PMC) is generated which needs to be properly stored and evaluated. In the present study, an architecture of data analytics for product manufacturing cycle of fused deposition modeling (FDM) technique of 3D printing was proposed. By using this architecture, data accessibility and 3DP product related knowledge had been realized. Concentrating on FDM method of the PMC, the main technologies were established to implement the data analytics. A case study was presented for architecture verification and discussed in details. It is concluded that the projected architecture helped manufacturers and customers, and also beneficial for improvement of product quality with the enhancement in productivity.

Novel Co-processing Methodology To Enable Direct Compression of a Poorly Compressible, Highly Water-Soluble Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient for Controlled Release

Herein we introduce an innovative process for the preparation of a directly compressible active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and excipient agglomerates for an extended-release formulation of a highly water soluble drug, demonstrated with metformin HCl. Metformin is poorly compressible and currently employs wet granulation for tablet manufacturing, resulting in long cycle times. We have co-processed metformin HCl with hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) and sodium carboxymethylcellulose (NaCMC) in a solvent medium to generate agglomerates that were tableted via direct compression, thereby reducing the drug product manufacturing cycle time and cost while maintaining the extended-release dissolution profile. The intimate mixing of HPMC and NaCMC with metformin HCl through co-processing reduces the risk of segregation during downstream handling and tableting. Additionally, this process reduced the excipient load required to achieve the target dissolution profile and bioequivalence, leading to reduced tabl...

The Conformal Forging Technology of Major Steam Inlet Tube Special-shaped Part

This paper discusses a thermal processing technology that about nuclear power equipment manufacturing oisture Separator Reheated (MSR) main steam inlet tube, it replaces the previous way of manufacturing uch products with a cold process technology. This product is forged through the mould with the shape, reatly reducing the product manufacturing cycle, reducing manufacturing costs, greatly improving the roduct's mechanical properties. The technology has reached world leading level, replaced foreign mports successfully and realized the key components to the nuclear power equipment manufacturing domestically.

Integration of product design, process planning, scheduling, and FMS control using XML data representation

An efficient model for communications between CAD, CAPP, and CAM applications in distributed manufacturing planning environment has been seen as key ingredient for CIM. Integration of design model with process and scheduling information in real-time is necessary in order to increase product quality, reduce the cost, and shorten the product manufacturing cycle. This paper describes an approach to integrate key product realization activities using neutral data representation. The representation is based on established standards for product data exchange and serves as a prototype implementation of these standards. The product and process models are based on object-oriented representation of geometry, features, and resulting manufacturing processes. Relationships between objects are explicitly represented in the model (for example, feature precedence relations, process sequences, etc.). The product model is developed using XML-based representation for product data required for process planning and the process model also uses XML representation of data required for scheduling and FMS control. The procedures for writing and parsing XML representations have been developed in object-oriented approach, in such a way that each object from object-oriented model is responsible for storing its own data into XML format. Similar approach is adopted for reading and parsing of the XML model. Parsing is performed by a stack of XML handlers, each corresponding to a particular object in XML hierarchical model. This approach allows for very flexible representation, in such a way that only a portion of the model (for example, only feature data, or only the part of process plan for a single machine) may be stored and successfully parsed into another application. This is very useful approach for direct distributed applications, in which data are passed in the form of XML streams to allow real-time on-line communication. The feasibility of the proposed model is verified in a couple of scenarios for distributed manufacturing planning that involves feature mapping from CAD file, process selection for several part designs integrated with scheduling and simulation of the FMS model using alternative routings.

Feasibility study of a new rapid tooling process

The requirements for faster product development cycles, lower product cost and environmental sustainability are ever increasing in today’s globally competitive market. Tooling is a very important phase in the product manufacturing cycle. To overcome the shortcomings of long lead-time and high cost associated with conventional tooling processes, new tooling methods with shorter lead-time and lower cost are strongly under demand. In this study, the feasibility of the proposed new rapid tooling process based on back support of a metal shell with packed metal powders is examined. First, the effect of metal powder properties, such as powder shape, size, and size distributions, on powder-packing behaviour is investigated experimentally. Then, the compressive behaviours of the metal shell and the shell-powder assembly are analysed numerically with different compressive loading. The study indicates that the proposed new rapid tooling method can potentially be used for injection moulding applications.

Testing Applications in Uncompressed HDTV Signals

This paper focuses on testing methods and applications for the uncompressed high-definition television (HDTV) signal, SMPTE 292M. It includes a description of the signal's electrical characteristics, digital format, and special protocols for embedding auxiliary information. This is followed by an explanation of testing methodologies and tools used to verify compliance to the SMPTE specification. Finally, the author suggests two specific areas for automatic testing in the product manufacturing cycle: design verification and manufacturing test.