Search results for "Tooling"
showing 3 items of 3 documents
On the use of SLS tools in sheet metal stamping
2003
Abstract A few rapid tooling technologies have been recently proposed and among them Selective Laser Sintering is probably one of the most relevant and promising. In the paper, the authors report some results of a wide experimental research on the application of SLS tools in sheet metal forming. A wear test was earned out to investigate the progressive degradation of laser-sintered materials in comparison with traditional cold-work steels. In particular SLS tools were utilized in a sheet metal stamping process of S-shaped parts: their performances (in terms of tool wear and dimensional quality of the stamped part) were compared with the ones of traditional tools.
Incremental forming of friction stir welded taylored sheets
2006
In the last decade sheet metal forming market has undergone substantial mutations since the development of more efficient strategies in terms of flexibility and cost reduction is strictly due. Such requirements are not consistent with traditional metal stamping processes which are characterized by complex equipment, capital and tooling costs; thus the industrial application of such processes is economically convenient just for large scale productions. For this reason most of the research work developed in the last years has been focused on the development of new sheet forming processes able to achieve the above discussed goals. Contemporary, with particular reference to the automotive indus…
A hierarchic approach to production planning and scheduling of a flexible manufacturing system
1999
Abstract The paper deals with the problem of improving the machine utilization of a flexible manufacturing cell. Limited tool magazine space of the machines turns out to be a relevant bottleneck. A hierarchic approach for this problem is proposed. At the upper level, sets of parts that can be concurrently processed (batches) are determined. At the lower levels, batches are sequenced, linked, and scheduled. Methods taken from the literature are used for the solution of the latter subproblems, and an original mixed integer programming model is formulated to determine batches. The proposed methods are discussed on the basis of computational experience carried out on real instances.