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A computer aided chaining approach for predicting the shape accuracy in manufacture of automotive structures

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Abstract

The increasing competition and the urge to reduce costs and shorten product-life-cycles in the automotive industries imply the application of virtual manufacturing mock-ups. Computer aided engineering methods including simulations of the structural behavior during manufacturing and assembly contribute to eliminate trial-and-error along the production chains of vehicle structures. Such digital mock-ups also provide an input for additional tolerance analyses and allow the identification of the pending quality of structure components in advance. In this way large numbers of experiments and adjustments on the existent production lines can be avoided. In this paper an approach is introduced, which allows the replication of the physical effects along manufacturing chains based on thermo-mechanical models. The rendered results after considering successive operational steps provide the basis for initial estimations regarding the shape accuracy of structure assemblies. For a specific example of the automotive body-in-white a first run of a manufacturing process chain is investigated in order to predict the shape quality of a probable production cycle by applying a tolerance chain analysis. The results enable the scrap identification due to non-satisfied quality of assemblies. Finally, based on the achieved results a re-engineering of the manufacturing chain is suggested in order to fulfill quality requirements.

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Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the AUDI AG, Ingolstadt, Germany for providing the necessary support and for encouraging further research activities in the area of the “Simulation chains of structure effects in the automotive body-in-white”.

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Correspondence to L. Papadakis.

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Papadakis, L. A computer aided chaining approach for predicting the shape accuracy in manufacture of automotive structures. Prod. Eng. Res. Devel. 4, 349–355 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11740-010-0249-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11740-010-0249-y

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