INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGINEERING AND PRODUCT DESIGN EDUCATION

13-14 SEPTEMBER 2007, NORTHUMBRIA UNIVERSITY, NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, UNITED KINGDOM

NEW TOOLS FOR THE SELECTION OF

TECHNOLOGIES; APPLICATION TO SHEET
METAL FORMING
1

David Cortes and Carles Riba

1
2

Department of Engineering Design (PE). Technical University of Catalonia

Design Centre of Industrial Equipments (CDEI). Technical University of Catalonia

ABSTRACT

The development of new technologies and equipment for manufacturing processes

contributes short term benefits that are reflected in diverse areas of production. For this
reason, it is necessary to develop teaching/training tools able to transmit the new
competitive advantages for future designers.
At the present time, diverse designing tools (software) have been developed; these tools
optimize and accelerate the resources to allow the designer to obtain prototypes and
calculations faster and more efficiently. However, these tools (generally graphical
systems) are limited only for the design of a piece which parameters are known and the
manufacturing process has been selected.
Process selection is one of the most difficult decisions that occurs in the design and
manufacture of a new product. A competitive advantage before entering the design is to
know each one of the manufacturing processes with its possibilities and relative
advantages. This knowledge will help to select the best option.
Within our research area of sheet metal forming, we have observed that there exists a
great necessity of tools that can offer detailed and precise information of the
characteristics of the different forming technologies, which can be applied to small
series, and can be an effective aid at the time of choosing the most appropriate process
as well.
This article discus the necessity of process selection tools and proposes the development
of an expert system for the selection of sheet metal forming processes that can be
applied to small series.
Keywords: Training Technologies, Expert Systems, Design, Sheet Metal Forming
1

INTRODUCTION

Manufacturing processes vary enormously between different industries, according to the

type of goods and the size of the series to produce. A small batch of sheet metal
components has to be flexible and capable to quickly adapt to market demands.
Consequentially, new technologies and manufacturing concepts are developing and
evolving in order to enable a fast and reliable production of complex components and
parts. Today we are facing increasing investigations on new sheet metal forming
technologies [1-2], tools [3] and process parameters [4].

The increase of small series production by sheet metal forming processes shows the
necessity of knowing the diverse processes in order to be used correctly. With the
diversity of processes we will have a great amount of information that will be necessary
to characterize and analyze (advantages, boundaries, costs, etc.).
This article discus the necessity of these tools and proposes the development of an
expert system for the selection of sheet metal forming processes that can be applied to
small series. This tool will have to display the advantages and opportunities that offer
the diverse forming processes. In addition to this information, this tool will have to
contain a process selection procedure that permits making a comparative analysis
between the processes.
The article is organized as follows: The discussion is presented in next subsection.
Section 2 shows a summary of the present tools that the designer has to his disposition
to select the forming process. Section 3, introduces the proposed system. Finally in
Section 4 some conclusions are presented.
1.1 Discussion

Process selection is one of the most difficult decisions that occurs in the design and
manufacture of a new product. In most current design cases, the only process
considered is one that has been used on similar products. Sometimes other processes or
new technologies are not considered, because they have not been analyzed or compared
with alternative solutions, that is to say, the selection of a process can change when
processes that can be more efficient are considered.
When a decision is made about the manufacturing process, most of the product life
cycle costs will have been determined. Thus, it is extremely critical that the correct
process decision be made to keep costs competitive. The major difficulty in comparing
processes is that the process criteria are different for the major processes.
In sheet metal forming is extremely difficult to compare processes, and considerable
specialized knowledge is required. The traditional approach is to compare the product
process requirements with the process performance criteria of different processes in a
reference source to find a match. A major problem is that the reference sources often do
not list the process performance criteria required by the product.
For this reason, it is essential to count on new tools that will help to select appropriately
the sheet metal forming process, assistance tools / expert systems which can provide
information of processes, engineering, costs, or production data.
2 ASSISTANCE TOOLS FOR THE SELECTION OF SHEET METAL
FORMING PROCESSES

In this part a summary of two assistance tools are presented: Sheet Metal Design
Software and Knowledge Bases.
2.1 Sheet Metal Design Software

Many systems of this type have been developed to assist in the design of sheet metal
pieces. Some of these tools offer advice [5] on how to avoid manufacturing errors.
These types of tools can detect design defects and give resolution suggestions.
2

Furthermore there are systems [6] that in addition to virtual design capabilities permit
making calculations of costs. Yet another group of computer-aided design tools exists
that include a technology database or parameters table.
In general, these systems are used for the design of a piece which parameters are known
and the manufacturing process has been selected.
2.2 Knowledge Bases

A Knowledge Base is a collection of facts, rules, and procedures organized in schemes

that can be processed by a computer. In the sheet metal forming field, these kinds of
bases have been developed as assistance tools in the design process.
An example of this kind of system or information base is the Sheet Metal Forming
Knowledge Base [7], developed by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. In addition
to the information on metal forming processes, it contains interactive equations that
help to calculate, among others; forces, diameters, sizes of press, and deformation
limits.
In spite of having an ample number of subjects (2300 pages of information), it is an
informative tool oriented to large series production, that does not decide or compare the
forming processes.
3

PROPOSED SYSTEM

An important trend in industry has been the use of expert systems to aid designers in
different aspects of the design phase. The task of matching product features with
process capabilities and studying the tradeoffs inherent in using different processes to
produce the same part are some of the most difficult a designer faces.
An expert system is a computer program designed to imitate a human expert,
mimicking the knowledge base and the decision making process of a human expert.
Most expert systems organize information into two bases, a knowledge base and an
inference engine or rule interpreter. Applying this to the selection of forming processes,
the knowledge base contains all of the various characteristics, parameters and rules the
designer uses throughout the process, and the inference engine represents the method
used to select which process or processes to invoke.
The proposed system should make use of a database which contains several processes.
Each record contains data for the attributes of the process: Geometric Properties
(greatest wall thickness, dimensions (length, width, height), weight, shape and
complexity), Technological Properties (tolerances, surface finish), Production /
Economic Properties (processing cost/part, production volume, time-to-market, capital
cost, tooling cost, and rate of production).
The starting point is the idea that all processes are potential candidates until shown
otherwise. First, a short-list of candidates is extracted eliminating those processes which
cannot meet the design specification (engineering data and product data) and then
ranking the survivors by economic criteria (cost information).

In general, an enlarged classification system, that takes the factors affecting the forming
process in consideration, is needed to allow objective search in the product database.
With the aid of this system, any new product could be inspected, classified, and the
parameters required for the process could be concluded. Figure 2 shows the scheme of
an enlarged classification system.

Figure 1 Enlarged Classification System

Many process selection procedures have been proposed [8-9] as a result of it, the
following phase of the investigation is to define a procedure that fulfils the
characteristics of the enlarged classification system.

CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK

The development of an expert system for the selection of sheet metal forming processes
in small series production has been proposed. It is proposed to continue this work by
setting the process selection procedure in order to develop this system.
REFERENCES
[1] Cai, Z-Y. and Li, M-Z. Multi-point forming of three-dimensional sheet metal and the
control of the forming process. Elsevier Science Ltd, International Journal of Pressure
Vessels and Piping (UK). Vol. 79, no. 4, pp. 289-296. Apr. 2002.
[2] Yoon, S. J.; Yang |h D. Y. Investigation into a new incremental forming process using an
adjustable punch set for the manufacture of a doubly curved sheet metal. Proceedings of the
Institution of Mechanical Engineers B, Journal of Engineering Manufacture (UK). Vol.
215, no. B7, pp. 991-1004. 2001.
[3] Liu, J. and Mo, J. Tool path generation based on STL file for sheet metal dieless forming.
Chinese journal of mechanical engineering, Vol. 17, no. 2 pp. 230 -232. 2004.
[4] Gutscher, G., Wu, H-C., Ngaile, G. and Altan, T. Determination of flow stress for sheet
metal forming using the viscous pressure bulge (VPB) test. Journal of Materials Processing
Technology. Vol. 146, no. 1, pp. 1-7. 15 Feb. 2004.
[5] Society of Manufacturing Engineers. An Expert System Aid for Technological Decisions in
Planning Sheet Metal Forming Operations. TECHNICAL PAPERS, 10 pp. 2002.
[6] Onespace Designer Modeling Sheet Metal. cocreate Software gmbh & Co. KG, 2005.
[7] Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Sheet Metal Forming Knowledge Base. 2002.
[8] Vosniakos, G., Segredou1, I. and Giannakakis, T. Logic programming for process planning
in the domain of sheet metal forming with progressive dies. Journal of Intelligent
Manufacturing Vol. 16, no. 4-5, pp. 479-497, October, 2005.
4

[9]

Lin Z-C. and Horng J-T. Sheet metal products: database in support of their process planning
and surface development. International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, Vol.
11, no. 6, pp. 524-533,1 November 1998.

David CORTS
Department of Engineering Design (PE),
Technical University of Catalonia.

Carles RIBA
General Manager of the Design Centre of
Industrial Equipments (CDEI), Technical
University of Catalonia.
Llorens Artigas, 4. Edifici U, 08028
Barcelona, Spain
riba@cdei.upc.edu
http://www.cdei.upc.edu
934010834

C. Doctor Ferran 178, 08226 Terrassa

Barcelona, Spain
davidcortess@gmail.com
937875077