Model-based design automation and process automation in titanium sheet metal manufacturing

Two modeling techniques are employed to study two automation goals for a manufacturing process; automation of the design of custom-engineered dies and automation of the manufacturing process that uses them. In both cases the objective is to improve energy efficiency and throughput of a manufacturing process known as “Hotsizing”. Finite Element Modeling (FEM) is used to study the surface temperature distribution of dies used to form titanium blanks into finished parts. First-order analytical modeling is used to study the heat transfer mechanisms at work in heating the blanks and moving them through air from a preheat oven to a forming press. FEM results show that contrary to our hypotheses, die surface temperatures are quite uniform and model-based design of the dies to guide sensor placement so as to minimize surface temperature variation is not justifiable. Analytical modeling reveals unforeseen, potentially substantial energy and throughput improvement and justifiable manufacturing process automation.