Alessio Tomasella

Computer-Integrated Engineering and Design

Virtual product development aims at the use of information modeling techniques and computer-aided (CAx-) tools during the product development process, to represent the real product digitally as an integrated product model (Anderl and Trippner 2000). Thereby, data related to the product as well as product properties are generated and stored as result of the product development process (e.g., product planning, conceptual design) (Pahl et al. 2007; VDI 2221 1993). Within virtual product development CAx process chains have been established. They comprise the concatenating of the applied tools and technologies within the steps of the virtual product development process enabling the consistent use of product data (Anderl and Trippner 2000). The computer-aided design (CAD) technology aims at the integration of computer systems to support engineers during the design process such as design conceptualization, design, and documentation. It provides the geometry of the design and its properties (e.g., mass properties, tolerances) which is abstracted to be used in computer-aided engineering (CAE) systems (e.g., finite element method (FEM)) for design analysis, evaluation, and optimization. The computer-aided process planning (CAPP) technology provides tools to support process planning, Numerical Control (NC) programming, and quality control (Hehenberger 2011; Lee 1998; Vajna 2009). The advantages are continuous processing and refinement of the product model, minimizing the modeling efforts regarding time as well as costs and avoiding error sources. In addition, all relevant data and information related to the product can be provided for subsequent processing (Anderl and Trippner 2000). CAx technologies have been widely established within the product development processes in industry. They have been further developed in the last years; however efforts to integrate and to automate them are still a topic of research. Especially, with the introduction of innovative manufacturing technologies such as linear flow and bend splitting require new methods and tools for the virtual product development process. These technologies enable the production of a new range of sheet metal products with characteristic properties (e.g., Y-profile geometry, material properties) that are not addressed in state-of-the-art methods and tools.

Manufacturing Induced Properties: Determination, Understanding, and Beneficial Use

Based on its procedural principle, every manufacturing technology affects a variety of properties of the workpiece or product in a characteristic way (Sect. 2.3). The sum of all those properties which comprise geometrical as well as material-related ones is considered as manufacturing-induced properties. While the geometric manufacturing-induced properties are often the reason why a specific technology is chosen by the designer for the manufacturing of a certain product, the material-related manufacturing-induced properties are often seen as by-products of the process. With regard to metal forming, all manufacturing processes inherently influence the mechanical properties of the manufactured material. In many cases, these mechanical manufacturing-induced properties are merely regarded in terms of restrictions in product development. However, with respect to a manufacturing-integrated product development approach, the mechanical properties are of special interest, since we aim at utilizing their full potential to maximize the product performance.