'Distortion Engineering': A System-Oriented View on the Distortion of Component-Parts

摘要

The removal of component-part distortion by a final grinding operation as the last step of a production process is a cost and time consuming strategy. only In the area of transmission technology, for example, the costs for the removal of component-part distortion by a final grinding operation added up to EUR 850m in Germany in 1995. So far, in industry the main cause for the component-part distortion at the end of the production process was seen in the hardening process. However, today it is commonly known that this is not fundamentally right and that the hardening process only sets the distortion potential free, which was accumulated in the workpiece during the production process along the various process steps such as casting, turning, milling, hardening and grinding. The superordinate approach of the Collaborative Research Center SFB 570 "Distortion Engineering", which has been established at the University of Bremen and which is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, is a system-oriented analysis of the distortion of component-parts. The Collaborative Research Center compruses some 12 subprojects and involves more than 20 researchers from materials science, manufacturing technology, mathematics and process control engineering. According to the system-oriented approach, within the of a single step of the production process is considered being of secondary importance in comparison with the optimization of the whole production process (process chain) of a component-part. In order to promote the system-oriented approach and to guarantee a continuous and harmonized exchange of knowledge and information between the 12 subprojects focussing on the various process steps and technologies within the SFB 570, a working group on systems modeling has been established. The focus of this working group is to elaborate and further develop on the system-oriented approach and to harmonize the procedures and methodologies being applied in the subprojects. Beside others the overall approach includes measures like life-cycle analysis of component-parts, Cause and Effect Analysis, FMEA (Failure Mode and Effect Analysis), DOE (Design of Experiments). In addition to a new concept for a distortion potential, also a concept for a compensation potential of production processes has been developed. The overall approach, including related methods and tools as well as results achieved so far, will be discussed and demonstrated.