E. Raj Kumar et al.

/ International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)

AN OVERVIEW OF VIRTUAL MANUFACTURING WITH CASE STUDIES

E. Raj Kumar,
Assistant Professor (Senior),Design division, SMBS,VIT UNIVERSITY

K.Annamalai,
Professor, Design division,VIT UNIVERSITY, Vellore. Tamil nadu, India. Abstract: Technologies such as virtual prototyping could give manufacturers the power to react more quickly to changes in consumers preferences and tastes by shortening the design and manufacture cycle. With the advent of high resolution graphics, high speed computing and user interaction devices could give a suitable manufacturing process for achieving final product shape by providing the user the option of designing the appropriate dies and molds and then carrying out the analysis and visualizing the manufacturing process in an immense and interactive environment. It describes characterization, remote access and simulation of some machines and process integrated with a remote virtual environment. This environment will allow external collaborates to perform real time equipments and to interactively use simulations and modeling tools. The main aim of this paper is to describe how machines, software and people can be efficiently and effectively networked together to improve productivity and faster innovation at all the levels of a real manufacturing enterprise. The paper aims at providing a brief overview of recent developments in the field of virtual manufacturing and generates interest in this potential research area. Keywords: Virtual manufacturing; Virtual prototyping; visualization; Simulation. 1. Introduction: The term virtual manufacturing first came into prominence in the early 1990s in part as a result of the US Department of Defense virtual Manufacturing initiative. Both the concept and the term have now gained wide international acceptance and have broadened in scope. Recently accelerating worldwide market interest has become evident. Fueled by price and performance improvements in the hardware and software technologies required and by increased awareness of the huge potential of virtual manufacturing. Virtual manufacturing can be considered one of the enabling technologies for the rapidly developing information technology infrastructure. Manufacturing systems and processes are being combined with simulation technology, computer hardware, and operating systems to reduce cost and increase company profitability. Virtual manufacturing involves simulation of a product and the processes involved in its fabrication. Simulation technology enables companies to optimize key factors directly affecting the profitability of their manufacturing products. This includes manufacturability, final shape, residual stress levels, and product durability. They directly affect profitability by reducing cost of production, material usage and warranty liabilities. Virtual manufacturing eliminates material waste and faulty design. It provides better understanding of a process without having to resort to costly build and break testing of prototypes. Virtual Manufacturing greatly reduces the product development cycle. It also provides a platform to train new operators on a particular machine without having to waste precious machine time. Virtual manufacturing is an integrated computer based model, which operates the physical and logical scheme and the behavior of real manufacturing systems. Virtual Manufacturing systems contain manufacturing environment model, a product model and a virtual prototyping. Using virtual manufacturing system, many manufacturing processes can be integrated and realized into one system, and thus manufacturing cost and time-to-market can be reduced and productivity can be improved dramatically.

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2. Literature Survey: Virtual manufacturing systems can predict problems in a tool design before tool manufacture, thereby eliminating the very costly traditional trial and error design method and reducing the time taken to design, develop and produce a tool [16]. During the past several years many analytical based techniques (Isermann et al, 1997) have been proposed for the fault diagnosis of technical plants. The important aspect of these approaches is the development of a model that describes the cause and effect relationships between the system variables using state estimation or parameter estimation techniques. The problem with these mathematical model based techniques is that under real conditions, no accurate models of the system of interest can be obtained. In that case, the better strategy is of using knowledge based techniques where the knowledge is derived in terms of facts and rules from the description of system structure and behaviour. Today there is a high demand for highprecision products. Precision Manufacturing provides an introduction to precision engineering and manufacturing with an emphasis on the design and performance of precision machines and machine tools, metrology, tooling elements, machine structures, sources of error, precision machining processes and precision process planning. The Virtual Reality and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing Lab in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Washington State University has been working on Virtual Manufacturing in the following areas: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Three-dimensional calibration for virtual environments Assembly path planning using VR techniques Virtual assembly design environment Knowledge-based systems Virtual environments for ergonomic design Telerobotics.

The Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory (MEL) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology serves as a central research laboratory for manufacturing infrastructure technology, measurements, and standards. They provide industry-needed manufacturing engineering tools, interface standards, manufacturing systems architectures, and traceability. 3.Virtual Reality Virtual Reality is a computer-generated interactive three-dimensional environment to simulate reality. Virtual Reality can take us into an imaginary world that appears remarkably similar to our own. To design a virtual reality system, one deals with concepts of spatial relationships and computer graphics which in turn are related to math,physics, art, and also human psychology. In the virtual or synthetic environments, one must take into account the laws of physics, like gravity, air resistance, and speed. To create and render models, one has to use mathematics and graphical concepts. The efforts made to create visualization media of complex data have already been the interest of researchers for several years. Virtual Reality has practically revolutionized the way one interprets certain complex data. Virtual manufacturing can be made possible by the use of tools like VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) [3]. VRML is a language by itself and is governed by a specific syntax. 4. Problem Description: The needs of companies are faster solutions, better simulations, more refined and accurate simulations. The primary limitation today is reaching optimum solution based on the problem size. The requirements of the market need can be satisfied through virtual manufacturing simulations and it leads to the unquenchable demand for more computational power. 5. Research Methodology: In order to answer the research questions, this study focused on Collaborations with prospective manufacturing industries/Institutions in India and Overseas. Virtual manufacturing requires a robust information infrastructure that comprises rich information models for products, processes and production systems. Despite the large effort of the International Standards Organization (ISO) to develop product information models, there has been a substantial lag in the adoption of these models by CAD vendors and industry. Furthermore, although modeling of manufacturing processes has been the subject of vast research in the engineering and material science fields, there has been little work to use sophisticated process models in an integrated fashion with

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product design. Finally, there are at least two views of the production system that needed to be supported for virtual manufacturing: Representation of the system's capabilities and performance (static view), and representation of the system's dynamical behavior(dynamic view). The existing work in this area needs to be enhanced and integrated.

Flow chart for the proposed methodology

6. Factors influencing outcomes: Virtual manufacturing can be achieved by the following proposed methodologies. 1. 2. Cultivate the practice of modeling and analysis before any product design is certified for manufacturing in Industries. Evaluate the performance of any end product, model the performance characteristics, simulate and experiment the performance of the model for the changes in the operating parameters (effect the improvement in the performance of the end product). Analyze the existing processes/system through modeling and experimentations, diagnose the causes for poor performance and suggest process modifications. The resulting effect of process modification on the equipments/machinery/product will also be studied through modeling and simulation of the relevant subsystems for any change in the system design (ensure the optimum functioning of the overall system). Indigenize the critical components/spares of the imported machinery through reverse engineering (validate the design procedure through simulation of the model created with the help of 3D scanning and rapid prototyping).

3.

4.

The tools used for accomplishing the above mentioned tasks are given below: 1. 2. 3. 4. Case 1: VIRTUAL MANUFACTURING OPTIMIZE THE ROLL FORMING PROCESS: Cold-formed roll profiles are important structural elements in almost any area of engineering. This includes automotive, and construction, where large variety of open or closed section bar shaped profiles are used. In the continuous roll forming process, flat sheet metal is formed by driving pairs of contoured rolls into a HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) CGI in C (Common Gateway Interface in C Language) JAVA (a programming language) VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language

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finished profile through several stages without any intended reduction in sheet thickness. The final profile shape can be influenced by longitudinal strains causing sheet edge waviness and bowing. Also, residual stresses in the profile produce spring-back, and can deform the final profile shape. In order to speed up tool design, virtual manufacturing based techniques are required to aid in planning of the pass sequence development, calculation of the spring-back angle, and estimation of the strip edge elongation. SOLUTION: The planning for a new part begins with a definition of the finished section, the design of the pass sequences, and the sizing of the different rolls in the CAD system. The results were analyzed to determine the deviations in shape and dimensions of the finished section. The longitudinal strains of the sheet edge revealed the quality of the roll forming process. Some of the characteristics that were checked included, dimensional tolerances, angular tolerances, longitudinal bow, twist sheet edge waviness, and profile end deformation. After optimizing the manufacturing process in this virtual environment, the manufacturer was able to manufacture the tools and run a test in the mill. This analysis avoids high costs derived from improperly designed tools needing adjustment and reworking the mill to fit a new profile.

Fig :1

Case 2. DEEP DRAWING SIMULATION REVEALS MANUFACTURING DEFECTS PROBLEM: Deep drawing is a process to manufacture high quality stamped metal products. During the process, an initially flat sheet is clamped between the die and the blank holder after which punch moves down to deform the clamped blank into the desired shape. The shape of the part depends on the geometry of the tools, the material behavior of the blank, and the process parameters. FEA can provide detailed in sight into tool design and manufacturing parameters. After simulating Deep Drawing of an s-shaped rail, wrinkles were discovered along the edge. SOLUTION: The edge wrinkles can be observed in the shadow of the last image. This potentially costly mistake was avoided prior to committing resources to tooling. To achieve an accurate analysis, we have to simulate the contact and friction between the sheet and die, and to calculate the plastic deformation of the work piece. The punch velocity and other parameters were optimized to avoid tearing and to monitor the final thickness distribution leading to a high quality part. The virtual lighting capabilities facilitated visualization of the wrinkles while post processing the FEA results.

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Fig :2

Case 3. RUBBER BOOT REDESIGN WILL GIVE LESSER REPAIR COSTS PROBLEM: An existing constant velocity joint seal design exhibited unsatisfactory life-cycle performance when it was modified to a split seal configuration for ease of installation. The purpose of the seal, which is used on frontand four-wheel drive vehicles, is to keep grease in the joint and keep dirt and moisture out. However, when failure of a part occurs due to wear, fatigue, or road hazards, it usually cannot be replaced without first removing the entire Cajon and associated axle. This results in a repair bill that is 90% labor and 10% parts. By providing boot with a seam, which could be mounted over an installed joint, the consumer would be saved much of the installation costs. It was expected that introducing a seam into the existing boot design would lower the life expectancy of the boot. The original replacement design had a life expectancy of about 70,000 miles, and if a life of 30% to 50% of this value could be achieved with the split designs, that would be acceptable. The logic behind this was that while the customer who used the split boot would have torn place it more often, he could do so at much lower cost. SOLUTION: A stress analysis of the design was performed to gain some understanding of the mode of failure. After an accurate model of the existing seal was created, changes were made to the design in an effort to reduce the critical stresses. A modified design resulted which was then built and tested. The actual behavior of the new seal agreed with the predicted behavior and product cycle-life was increased to an acceptable level.

Fig: 3

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Case 4. CONNECTING ROD FORGING PROCESS DEVELOPED IN VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT PROBLEM: In the field of hot forging technology, developments of new forming processes are difficult due to the large number of parameters constituting the process. Forming a connecting rod requires several single forming processes resulting in a precision forming operation. During this multi-step process, there is the risk of gap formation. Gaps contain the danger of material flowing into them making the forging useless. The timing of the tool and the force closing the gap influences its formation. If the force is too low, the gap can open again during the forming operation. Other process goals include reducing the number of forging steps, minimizing tool abrasion, reducing the contribution of flash material, and ensuring the stability of the forming process with a minimum of rejects. SOLUTION: Experimental testing is one method of forging process development, but usually requires much time and money, especially during development of new processes. Time and costs of developing the forging process for the connecting rod was reduced with the help of the forging simulation packages. The result was new process knowledge, which never would appear in such evident form during physical testing. These virtual tools allowed tuning of the forging process to avoid potential trouble areas, like gap formation, before the manufacturing of the tools took place.

Fig: 4

Case 5. IMPACT ANALYSIS OF CAR DOOR REDUCES INJURIES PROBLEM: In car accidents, side impacts result in numerous injuries because the side structure of the car, including the occupant compartment, is crushed. It is a common belief that improvements in the strength of the door itself are quite effective for passenger safety, particularly in collisions from the oblique direction, or with fixed objects. Simulation techniques used for static compression analysis and dynamic impact analysis to understand the crash worthiness of the door. In addition, the effectiveness of the door beams, which were installed within the doors, was analyzed. SOLUTION: The door panels, hinges, locks, and other necessary mechanisms were used, while the windows and door trims were removed. Hinges and latches were constrained. For static compression and dynamic impact, the loading device was applied laterally on the center of the door. The door contacts with the center pillar and side sill; hence, the force on the door is distributed rather than concentrated on the latch. In fact, experimental results of the door within the car body showed cracks in the latch part. The importance of the strength of the latch part should be stressed for the strength of the door itself. The static compression analysis and dynamic impact analysis of a door and from the experiments showed that the crush resistance of the door affects the strength of the door hinge and door latch. If, once crack propagation occurred in the latch, the force drastically decreased. It was also found that by attaching a door-beam, absorption of the deformation energy increased and deformation of the door decreased upon impact.

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Fig: 5

Case 6. VIRTUAL PROTOTYPING IMPROVES BUCKLE PERFORMANCE PROBLEM: In designing a snap buckle, several objectives must be addressed including load required to open and close, fatigue life of the clasp, acoustic profile, weight, and cost. For this design, the fatigue life was a critical component. In many consumer products, the prevention of failure is important. By adjusting the geometry in the design phase, one can insure that the product is both reliable and has the correct feel to the user. SOLUTION: The analysis included large deflection with sliding contact plus friction, which can easily handle with its automatic load stepping algorithm and ease of defining the contact bodies. The products performance was measured by monitoring the maximum strains in the plastic, the insertion force required, as well as other variables, all within the virtual environment. These results used in conjunction maybe used to predict the product life cycle. This virtual prototyping application demonstrates how consumer product can be optimized and tested before being manufactured and subjected to physical testing.

Fig :6

7. CONCLUSION: The application of VR in manufacturing possesses immense potential and challenges, both for research and industrial applications, as seen through the developments reported so far. It can easily be perceived as the next generation interface, as indicated by the current trend in use of multi-media and network technology. The intuitive immersive perception that VR allows, can be expected to enhance the capabilities of many current systems used in manufacturing such as CAD, CAM, and CAPP both independently as well as concurrently. The simulation industry has now matured to the point that almost all manufacturing processes and flow of materials through the enterprise can be modeled and validated. Characterization and simulation effects are integrated with remote access capability. These will provide external collaborators with the ability to perform real time experiments. This technology has many potential applications in manufacturing such as conferencing, training, remote observation, control of distributed manufacturing systems, and shared use of limited resources. As the

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profitability is more due to the less cost of production virtual manufacturing will serve the absolute needs of the global manufacturing.

Fig 7: Virtual paint

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