Estimation of tack-welding and welding cost during design of heavy earthmoving equipment

摘要

Cost estimation is important in Design for Manufacture. Cost can be used to quantify the manufacturability of a design. Cost estimation tools that relate manufacturing cost to design features must guid the designer in identifying cost critical aspects of a design. Heavy earthmoving equipment, such as dragline and front-end loader buckets, are peculiar products that require special consideration in formulating cost estimation models. This paper presents cost estimation models for two specific aspects of manufacturing this type of equipment, i.e. tack-welding (preliminary assembly) and welding (completing the assembly). The models focus on the time required to complete these operations and relate these times to design features. The paper proposes new models for the estimation of non-arc times, which are typically about 66