A dynamic programming approach for minimizing the number of drawing stages and heat treatments in cylindrical shell multistage deep drawing

In this paper, the problem of minimizing the number of drawing stages and heat treatments needed for the multi-stage deep drawing of cylindrical shells is addressed. A conventional rule-based computer-aided process planning (CAPP) is utilized within a dynamic programming approach to generate a set of alternative optimal process plans. A finite element analysis is carried out to guide the selection of the appropriate process parameters and to verify the applicability of the selected process plans. A case study is presented to demonstrate the developed approach, and the results suggest that the combination of rulebased CAPP, dynamic programming and finite element validation could be a valuable, reliable and quick computer aided process planning approach to this complicated problem.