A planner for a self adaptable and reconfigurable fixture system is proposed. The system is composed of mobile support agents that support thin sheet metal parts to minimize part dimensional deformation during drilling and milling operations. Compliant sheet metal parts are widely used in various manufacturing processes including automotive and aerospace industries. The main role of the planner...

Raschig Super-Pak is a novel development in structured packing product technology that is fundamentally different to the well known corrugated perforated or nonperforated, textured sheet metal structured packings. It comprises of a systematic sequence of smooth sinusoidal waves above and below the plain of the metal sheet. Total reflux distillation tests with Raschig Super-Pak 300 were conducte...

This paper presents a new fixture design methodology for sheet metal assembly processes. It focuses on the impact of fixture position on the dimensional quality of sheet metal parts after assembly by considering the effect of part variation, tooling variation and assembly springback. An optimization algorithm combines finite element analysis and nonlinear programming methods to determine the op...

The focus of this publication is a review of the state of the art in tolerance analysis, synthesis and transfer for geometric and dimensional tolerances (GDT) in sheet metal forming and the integration solutions with computer-aided process planning systems. In this context, the general tolerance methods are first described. Then the mathematical models for sheet metal tolerance analysis and syn...

An expert system for design of progressive die (ESPDIE) has been developed for die designers working in sheet metal industries. Production rule based expert system is utilized for constructing system modules. All modules are user interactive and designed to be loaded in AutoCAD. System is capable of automating all major activities (checking design features of sheet metal parts, design of strip-...

The design of multi stage deep drawing processes requires the evaluation of many process parameters such as the intermediate die geometry, the blank shape, the sheet thickness, the blank holder force, friction, lubrication etc..These process parameters have to be determined for the optimum forming conditions before the process design. In general sheet metal forming may involve stretching drawin...