Enabling Variation of Manufacturing Process Parameters in Early Stages of Product Development

Currently, mechanical design of aero engine structural components is defined by dimensioning of Design Parameters (DP's) to meet Functional Requirements (FR's). FR's are typically loads, geometrical interfaces and other boundary conditions. Parameters from downstream processes are seldom actually seen as DP's. This paper proposes that downstream process parameters are treated as DP's which calls for engineering methods that can define and evaluate these extended set of DP's. Using the proposed approach manufacturing process alternatives can be used as DP's in early stages of product development. Both the capability to quantitatively assess impact of varying manufacturing DP's, and the availability of these design methods are needed to succeed as an early phase design method. One bottleneck is the preparation time to define and generate these advanced simulation models. This paper presents how these manufacturing process simulations can be made available by automating the weld simulation preparation stages of the engineering work. The approach is based on a modular approach where the methods are defined with knowledge based engineering techniques-operating close to the CAD system. Each method can be reused and used independently of each other and adopted to new geometries. A key advantage is the extended applicability to new products, which comes with a new set of DP's. On a local level the lead time to generate such manufacturing simulation models is reduced with more than 99% allowing manufacturing process alternatives to be used as DP's in early stages of product development.