| Abstract [eng] |
Sheet metal parts are in exceptionally high demand from various industries, such as automotive, aircraft, furniture or electronics. These parts are often produced by progressive dies, because they are precise and has high manufacturing speed. Since the costs of design, manufacturing and assembly of progressive dies themselves are relatively high, such tools are usually selected when the required volumes for sheet metal part is high. Naturally, because of this, even small errors in the progressive die design may lead to large quantities of wasted raw material, flawed sheet metal parts or other problems. Based on global industry interest in moving towards sustainability, this research project attempts to analyse progressive die structure, its design phase and to review recent advancements in these fields. It was found out, that most of the recent improvements were related to software development and process simulations, such as blank layout optimization system development, trim line optimization, advanced springback predictions and more. Physical improvements were related to increased use in modular progressive dies and adaptation towards servo-driven presses. With gathered knowledge modernization methods were reviewed and blank layout optimization was applied to a strip layout of existing progressive die, since it has most impact on raw material utilization. 6 alternative layout solutions were considered, and the solution with best material utilization was selected while still being feasible. New strip layout and progressive die design was created using designated software for progressive die creation Logopress3. 2.15% increase in material utilization was achieved for researched strip layout. Finally, progressive die cost estimations were carried out, using modern software FTI Forming Suite and its cost estimation tool based on sheet metal part feature length. Total progressive die cost was estimated to be 15915.49€ and payback period if the existing progressive die was replaced with the newly developed one, which was equal to 5.88 years. |
