scholarly journals FEA Application in Sheet-Metal Assembly Process As A Senior Team Project

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gene Liao
2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Jack Hu ◽  
Yufeng Long ◽  
Jaime Camelio

Abstract Assembly processes for compliant non-rigid parts are widely used in manufacturing automobiles, furniture, and electronic appliances. One of the major issues in the sheet metal assembly process is to control the dimensional variation of assemblies throughout the assembly line. This paper provides an overview of the recent development in variation analysis for compliant assembly. First, the unique characteristics of compliant assemblies are discussed. Then, various approaches to variation modeling for compliant assemblies are presented for single station and multi-station assembly lines. Finally, examples are given to demonstrate the applications of compliant assembly variation models.


Author(s):  
Gene Y. Liao

In sheet metal assembly process, welding operation joins two or more sheet metal parts together. Since sheet metals are subject to dimensional variation resulted from manufacturing randomness, gap may be generated at each weld pair prior to welding. These gaps are forced to close during a welding operation and accordingly undesirable structural deformation results. Optimizing the welding pattern (the number and locations of weld pairs) of an assembly process was proven to significantly improve the quality of final assembly. This paper presents a Genetic Algorithm (GA)-based optimization method to automatically search for the optimal weld pattern so that the assembly deformation is minimized. Application result of a real industrial part demonstrated that the proposed algorithm effectively achieve the objective.


2009 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 358-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sun Jin ◽  
Kuigang Yu ◽  
Xinmin Lai ◽  
Yinhua Liu

2010 ◽  
Vol 34-35 ◽  
pp. 1039-1045 ◽  
Author(s):  
An Cui ◽  
Hai Peng Zhang

Traditionally, tolerance and maintenance designs have been studied separately in manufacturing systems. An integration optimization model of tolerance and maintenance for multi-station sheet metal assembly was presented in this work. Based on the variation propagation state space model, a quality loss model of multi-station assembly processes was built. This model considered the effect of process loss. It built the function of fixture tolerance, replacement cycle and total cost. The nonlinear tolerance optimization of locating holes (slots) in multi-station sheet metal assembly was achieved. The optimization model was calculated with practical data in a vehicle body side assembly. Compared with the same type model, it’s verified correct and rational of the model in multi-station sheet metal assembly process quality control.


Manufacturing ◽  
2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Lian ◽  
Zhongqin Lin ◽  
Fusheng Yao ◽  
Xinmin Lai

In the assembly process of auto-body, variations in the geometrical dimensions of sheet metal parts and fixtures are inevitable. These variations accumulate through the multi-station assembly process to form the dimensional variations of the final products. Compared with the assembly of rigid parts, the assembly process of the elastic parts is more complex because the variation accumulation patterns rely much on the variations of fixture, jointing methods and mechanical deformation. This paper aims at analyzing the variation transformation mechanism and accumulation characteristics for the assembly of sheet metal parts based on the analysis of dimensional coordination relations among parts and fixtures. Finite element method (FEM) and Monte-Carlo Simulation (MCS) were used to analyze the effect of jointing contact on variation transformation, while a state equation was developed to describe the variation accumulation mechanism. The result of the analysis indicates that the main characteristics of elastic assembly jointing are the overlap jointing methods and elastic contacts action. The fact that the variation transform coefficients (VTC) are variable makes the assembly variation distribution Non-Gaussian even if the dimension variation of parts is Gaussian distribution. The analysis conclusions have potential value for more reasonable tolerance synthesis of elastic parts assembly.


2013 ◽  
pp. 173-190
Author(s):  
Johan Segeborn ◽  
Anders Carlsson ◽  
Johan S. Carlson ◽  
Rikard Söderberg

Work ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Marie Dale ◽  
A.E. Rohn ◽  
A. Burwell ◽  
W. Shannon ◽  
J. Standeven ◽  
...  

1997 ◽  
Vol 119 (3) ◽  
pp. 368-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Charles Liu ◽  
S. Jack Hu

Traditional variation analysis methods, such as Root Sum Square method and Monte Carlo simulation, are not applicable to sheet metal assemblies because of possible part deformation during the assembly process. This paper proposes the use of finite element methods (FEM) in developing mechanistic variation simulation models for deformable sheet metal parts with complex two or three dimensional free form surfaces. Mechanistic variation simulation provides improved analysis by combining engineering structure models and statistical analysis in predicting the assembly variation. Direct Monte Carlo simulation in FEM is very time consuming, because hundreds or thousands of FEM runs are required to obtain a realistic assembly distribution. An alternative method, based on the Method of Influence Coefficients, is developed to improve the computational efficiency, producing improvements by several orders of magnitude. Simulations from both methods yield almost identical results. An example illustrates the developed methods used for evaluating sheet metal assembly variation. The new approaches provide an improved understanding of sheet metal assembly processes.


Author(s):  
Johan Segeborn ◽  
Daniel Segerdahl ◽  
Fredrik Ekstedt ◽  
Johan S. Carlson ◽  
Mikael Andersson ◽  
...  

Sheet metal assembly is investment intense. Therefore, the equipment needs to be efficiently utilized. The balancing of welds has a significant influence on achievable production rate and equipment utilization. Robot line balancing is a complex problem, where each weld is to be assigned to a specific station and robot, such that line cycle time is minimized. Industrial robot line balancing has been manually conducted in computer aided engineering (CAE)-tools based on experience and trial and error rather than mathematical methods. However, recently an automatic method for robot line balancing was proposed by the authors. To reduce robot coordination cycle time losses, this method requires identical reach ability of all line stations. This limits applicability considerably since in most industrial lines, reach ability differs over the stations to further line reach ability and flexibility. Therefore, in this work we propose a novel generalized simulation-based method for automatic robot line balancing that allows any robot positioning. It reduces the need for robot coordination significantly by spatially separating the robot weld work loads. The proposed method is furthermore successfully demonstrated on automotive stud welding lines, with line cycle times lower than that of the corresponding running production programs. Moreover, algorithm central processing unit (CPU)-times are mere fractions of the lead times of existing CAE-tools.


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