Exergy analysis of incremental sheet forming

Research in the last 15 years has led to die-less incremental forming processes that are close to realization in an industrial setup. Whereas many studies have been carried out with the intention of investigating technical abilities and economic consequences, the ecological impact of incremental sheet forming (ISF) has not been studied so far. Using the concept of exergy analysis, two ISF technologies, namely single sided and double sided incremental forming, are investigated and compared to conventional forming and hydroforming. A second exergy analysis is carried out with the purpose of examining the environmental impact of different forming technologies from a supply chain perspective. Therefore, related upstream activities (die set production, aluminum sheet production and energy conversion and supply) are included into the exergy analysis. The entire supply chain is modeled with Matlab/Simulink. The results of both analyses suggest that ISF is environmentally advantageous for prototyping and small production runs.United States. Dept. of Energy (Award DE-EE0003460

The CRC666 Approach: Realizing Optimized Solutions Based on Production Technological Innovation

Finding technical solutions for given problems is one of a designer’s key challenges. The task is especially demanding since the designer tries to find not only one possible solution but also the best possible solution, taking all existing conditions, limitations, and requirements into account (Pahl et al. 2007). There are many product development approaches that support the designer in this. The focus and drivers of the approaches differ: - Reduction of complexity (Suh 1998) - Integration of product development in company processes (Ehrlenspiel and Meerkamm 2013) - Methodical approach based on analysis and synthesis steps (VDI 2221 1993) - Cross-domain development of systems with a focus on mechatronic systems (VDI 2206 2004) - Sustainable product design (Birkhofer et al. 2012) - Effectiveness and efficiency (Lindemann 2009) - Flexibility (Lindemann 2009) - Cost and time reduction; quality improvement (Eder and Hosnedl 2010) - Computer-aided automatization (Weber 2005