Manufacturing Challenges for Smart Processing
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Manufacturing Challenges for Smart Processing David Crawford The following is an edited transcript of the plenary talk presented by David Crawford at the Smart Processing of Materials session of the 27th International SAMPE (Society for the Advancement of Materials and Process Engineering) Technical Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, October 10,1995.
rigs. However, computer simulation reduced the time to 12 months. Within Pratt & Whitney, we view process simulation as a strategic technology. In many cases, our manufacturing engineers can understand the science the old paradigms higher, faster and farther which underpins our processes. We use are still in place, but a new paradigm, computer-aided-design (CAD) tools to cost, is forcing tradeoffs to be made, espe- model the geometry of a workpiece and tooling, then we use finite-element comcially in manufacturing. puter-aided-engineering (CAE) tools to In response, Pratt & Whitney has set three major goals which impact speed, cost simulate process behavior as a function of and quality. Not long ago we were target- time, temperature, and pressure. ing 18-24 months to actually get an In summary, smart processing by using engine out. We now target about four process simulation offers numerous benefits. months. Spare parts used to take 30 days; It helps us develop innovative new manuwe're talking hours now. Development of facturing processes and to optimize current hardware used to take 36 months; now it processes. Our speed is improved both in takes less than 12 months. The idea of terms of faster production throughput and smart processing primarily relates to quicker introduction of new designs. The achieving certified processes which con- best way to understand the strategic value of sistently produce defect-free parts at a this technology is by reviewing a few examhigh rate of speed. It means one-piece ples of our applications. flow through the processing steps which During the past 10 years, we applied is the key to being the low-cost producer. process simulation to all of these applicaSo, how does smart processing help us tions and developed a small team of speachieve certified processes? cialists who worked closely with manufacturing engineers and with materials Smart processing relates to understandengineers. In a few instances, such as for ing the physics and behavior of the prodisk forging, we trained manufacturing cessing elements which include the material, tooling, and equipment. This under- engineers to do their own process simulation. Some of our materials engineers are standing can be gained via expensive and time-consuming experimental work; how- beginning to use this technology to predict process metallurgy and to help them ever, today's computer simulation tools design more effective alloys. enable us to gain a deeper understanding than time and money would not permit if The disk forging application from the we relied only on trial-and-error. To give mid-1980s was widely publicized and an example, we recently used computainvolves simulating metal f
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