Producibility and Design for Manufacturing of Aerospace Engine Components

Purpose and goal

The project has contributed to establish conditions for a structured and systematic method to increase producibility and robustness for planned manufacturing processes during product desing. The focus has been on fabricated components and in particular the quality of the weld joints. The goal has been to develop and demonstrate a model and an engineering method to better understand the relations between the product requirements and how the quality can be controlled in a sequence of manufacturing operations.

Expected results and effects

Extensive studies have been done to understand and document the knowledge about fabrication and its related processes, together with theories for a scientific approach to answer the research questions. The result is the proposed method to support the systematic assessment of design issues related to product geometry critical to the welding process, the Welding Capability Assessment Method (WCAM). The work is planned to proceed in NFFP7 with the goal to verify a more complete engineering method.

Planned approach and implementation

Based on lessons learned from previous project, the apporach was to primarily focus on quality related aspects of the weld joints, and that a structured approach to map causes and effacts was needed. The theoretical work supported by literature studies, step by step helped to design the WCAM method. In parallel, studies of design procedures, test and production data, best practice etc. supported the theoretical work. This has helped to build a solid base which confidence for the next phase.