Thursday 11 January 2024

The technologies that are transforming the manufacturing industry in 2024 and beyond

3D printing: 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, can create complex and customized products with less material waste, lower production costs, and faster delivery times. It can also enable on-demand manufacturing, mass customization, and distributed production which is a game changer in r&d and small batch production.


Robotics and automation: Robots can perform various manufacturing tasks, such as assembly, painting, welding, and inspection, with high speed, accuracy, and efficiently. They can also reduce human intervention, labor costs, and errors and lead the efficiency in production.

The Internet of Things (IoT): IoT can connect and collect data from sensors on the factory floor and industrial equipment, enabling real-time monitoring, optimization, and automation of manufacturing processes. It can also improve supply chain visibility, product quality, and predictive maintenance, help in decision making and optimize the business processes efficiently.



Sunday 27 June 2021

Limitations of VAVE in Indian Domestic Market

Similar to other technique, value engineering has its own limitations. The most common limitations are that the man-made excuses are the blocks in implementing these plans of value engineering. The most common limitations are as follows.

·       Lack of motivation
·       Resistive to change or adopt new techniques
·       Inertia to do something innovative
·       Lack of knowledge and patience
·       Attitude of ‘It will not work in India
·       We are very small or very big industry
·       This has been tried earlier and failed
·       The change is too big
·       Let competitors try before we try
·       Difficulty of teams meeting or team meeting for getting consensus



 

Sunday 13 September 2020

DISTORTION IN CARBONITRIDING AND NITRO-CARBURIZING HEAT TREATMENT PROCESS

 Hardening of a material is to be done to increase the strength and wear properties.


Case Depth = Distance from Surface to Hardness Limit




Distortion is the major concern in heat treatment process and it is the unexpected or inconsistent change in size and shape of the part.

Size distortion is the result of changes in the metallurgical structure that accompany phase transformations. In Heat treatment, the volume expansion and contraction associated with the crystal structure results in change to the volume and linear dimensions of the part such as elongation, shrinkage, thickening, and thinning. Shape distortion originate from the applied stresses that exceeds the elastic limit of the material and results change the geometrical form of the part, which can include twisting, bending, and non symmetrical dimensions.


Carbonitriding and Nitro-carburizing are both thermo-chemical diffusion process, which utilize the diffusion of carbon and nitrogen to increase the hardness and wear resistance at the surface. Although, both the processes takes place at different temperatures and lead to distortion in the part. However, the main advantage of nitro-carburizing is the minimal distortion associated with the process due to the absence of the phase transformation from austenite to martensite.


In gas nitro-carburizing, the part is heated at the temperature around 570 degrees Celsius, mixed gases with the main ingredient of ammonia gas is added which creates carbides and nitrides to form a compound layer on the surface of the material and resulting in a diffusion layer underneath. This formative nitride layer improves mechanical properties such as wear resistance and strength of the steel part.

Gas nitro-carburizing process can accommodate the trend towards lightening more compact parts from the popularization of electric vehicles and it is considered more eco-friendly heat treatment method that is why it continues to increase and is adapted by the manufacturing industries.


In carbonitriding, parts are heated in a sealed chamber into the austenitic range around 850 degrees celsius before nitrogen and carbon are added. The part is heated into the austenitic range of temperature, a phase change in the steel’s crystal structure takes place which allows carbon and nitrogen atoms to diffuse into the part.




Experimental Results











ConclusionThe Nitro-carburizing process can be the perfect replacement of carbonitriding heat treatment when low carbon steel(SAE 1010, SAE 1018, IS513 etc) is subjected to the light load applications, close fitting assemblies where wear resistance is required at part surface. Nitro-carburizing of low carbon steel gives you less dimensional changes in size and shape as compared to carbonitriding. The minimal changes associated with nitrocarburizing process lays in lower temperature and lack of phase transformation from austenite to martensite.

Wednesday 15 April 2020

GRAB THE BENEFITS OF AUTODESK INVENTOR NASTRAN

Autodesk Inventor Nastran embedded with FEA Technology is a mechanical simulation tool, which was developed by Autodesk Inc. USA. Initially, the Nastran software was developed for NASA but now adopted by Autodesk as well which offers FEA simulation capabilities. This software simulates the mechanical structures and analyze the environmental conditions in order to check the responses of the structure. This tool is useful to simulate the linear and nonlinear FEA studies.


Apart from general engineering materials, Nastran can also be used to simulate and analyze the latest advanced materials, including composites, plastic, nonlinear elastic, shape memory, hyperelastic, viscoelastic, and brittle materials such as concrete.


It considers the unit system from the CAD, which is attached to the simulation, or else you can also set the units as per the requirements.

If we talk about the number of analyses capabilities, which we can perform, using Inventor Nastran then it supports a wide range of it. First, it is important that you understand the requirements, outputs, and limitations of the analysis type before using it. You can perform the below analysis types by using the software such as;
  1. Linear Static
  2. Normal Modes
  3. Linear Buckling
  4. Prestress Static
  5. Prestress Normal Modes
  6. Nonlinear Static
  7. Nonlinear Buckling
  8. Direct Transient Response
  9. Modal Transient Response
  10. Nonlinear Transient Response
  11. Direct Frequency Response
  12. Modal Frequency Response
  13. Random Response
  14. Shock/Response Spectrum
  15. Multi-Axial Fatigue
  16. Vibration Fatigue
  17. Linear Steady State Heat Transfer
  18. Nonlinear Steady State Heat Transfer
  19. Nonlinear Transient Heat Transfer


Inventor Nastran has also enabled the solution for contact analysis; you can set the contact type and tolerance, performance connectors simulation such as bolt etc.. This gives you the power to optimize the mesh to obtain the accurate results.


You can generate the line mesh, which can be used in uniform cross-sectional structures, mid surface mesh and shell mesh for sheet metal parts and solid mesh to generate the solid elements in the structure.

Meshing is the critical operation in FEA so it must be done with real scenarios in the study. In Finite Element Analysis, mesh size is very important; it is closely related to the accuracy and number of the element required in the mesh. By increasing the elements in the simulation, you get better and better results but once you get the optimum size of the mesh to obtain accurate result, it will not effect or difference is very less in the results more an less, you cannot change the other parameters of the simulation.  In other words, keep refining the mesh until you see no difference in your results.



The best part of this product is, Autodesk provides the subscription based licensed for this software at a very economical price. User can subscribe the license based on the need and work, so there is no extra cost for the product. It helps a lot to the independent consultant in order to offer their services at minimum cost. User can opt for the monthly or yearly subscriptions.



Autodesk Inventor Nastran is available as a standalone and network license, which provides consistent user experience, eliminate the need for multiple simulation technologies and delivers CAD-embedded workflow. In this, you can manage the license, transfer the license and it available only in the Product Design & Manufacturing Collection. To try the software capabilities you need to download the Inventor Nastran software and use its trial version free of cost.  For downloading the software use the below given link and you can also extract the price information details, system requirements, OS etc. as per needs.




Wednesday 1 April 2020

Earned Value Analysis (EVA) or Earned Value Management (EVM)


Earned Value Analysis (EVA) or Earned Value Management (EVM) is a systematic PM methodology that allows the project manager to measure the amount of work actually performed on a project with respect to planned cost and schedule. It has the ability to combine measurements of the project triangle: scope, time, and costs.


In NASA Library, the first version of Earned Value Management (EVM) was developed by its Defence Department (DoD) to track programs during the 1960 and since 2005, EVM has been a part of general federal project risk management. Now, it is used in the private sector such as consulting firms, IT, automotive, manufacturing, aerospace, and educational establishments worldwide.


It has no relationship to the investment value or benefit of the project for which it has been funded. However, earned value matrix can be used to measure the cost and schedule inputs to Devaux's Index of Project Performance (DIPP), which integrates schedule and cost performance with the planned investment value of the project across the project management triangle.

Earned value calculations require the following input data to measure the performance of the project:

TERM
ABBREVIATION
MATHEMATICAL INTERPRETATION
DEFINITION
PLANNED VALUE
PV
Also called as Budgeted Cost for Work Scheduled (BCWS)
Authorized Budget assigned to the scheduled work
EARNED VALUE
EV
Also called as Budgeted Cost for Work Performed (BCWP)
Measure of actual work performed expressed as budget authorized for that work
ACTUAL COST
AC
Also called as Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP)
Actual cost incurred for the work performed


With this Input, you can derive the following calculations:

Project Variances:

TERM
ABBREVIATION
MATHEMATICAL 
INTERPRETATION
DEFINITION
SCHEDULE VARIANCE
SV
= EV - PV
Amount by which project is ahead or behind plan
COST VARIANCE
CV
= EV - AC
Amount by which actual cost is ahead or behind planned cost
VARIANCE AT COMPLETION
VAC
= BAC - EAC
Estimated difference in cost at the completion of the project compared to Plan


Performance Indices:

SCHEDULE PERFORMANCE INDEX
SPI
= EV/PV
Measure of Schedule efficiency expressed as Earned Value to Planned Value
COST PERFORMANCE INDEX
CPI
= EV/AC
Measure of Cost efficiency expressed as Earned Value to Actual Cost

Note: CPI < 1 Project over budget , CPI > 1 project under budget, and CPI = 1 means project is on estimated budget.

SPI < 1 Project behind schedule, SPI > 1 Project ahead of schedule, and  SPI = 1 means project is on schedule.


Project Forecasting:

ESTIMATE AT COMPLETION
EAC
Option 1)  = AC + (BAC - EV)
Option 2)  = BAC/CPI
Option 3)  = AC + [(BAC- EV)/(CPI * SPI)]
Expected Total Cost of project = sum of Actual Cost till date and Estimate To Complete remaining work
Option 1; Remaining Work will be done at the planned/budgeted rate
Option 2; Remaining Work will be done at the present CPI
Option 3; Remaining Work will be done considering present SPI and CPI
ESTIMATE TO COMPLETE
ETC
= EAC - AC
Expected Cost to finish the remaining project work
TO-COMPLETE PERFORMANCE INDEX
TCPI
Option 1) = (BAC- EV)/(BAC- AC)
Option 2) = (BAC- EV)/(EAC- AC)
Measure of the cost performance required with the remaining resources to meet goal.
Work Remaining/Funds Remaining
Option 1; Efficiency that must be maintained to complete on Planned Budget
Option 2; Efficiency that must be maintained to complete on current EAC
ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE
ECD
= Project Start Date + (Planned Duration/SPI)
Expected Completion Date of the project

Note: TCPI define as how to effectively should use resources to complete the project on budget.  TCPI < 1 is good for project.


EVM/EVA contributes to; Improve communication and visibility with stakeholders, Reduce risk, Profitability analysis, Project forecasting, Better accountability and Performance tracking.


You can comment us about this article and EVM template that help you to understand Earned Value Analysis (EVA) or Earned Value Management (EVM) and compute the performance of the project. Moreover, help us to write more about engineering technologies and methodologies.



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Sunday 29 March 2020

Value Maximization Approach in Manufacturing

Value Maximization Approach in Manufacturing

There are several steps to achieve and by doing you can add the value in your product.

[A] Cleanup the Unnecessary Parts from the component

[B] Design the component for optimum factor of safety

[C] Select alternative material for your assembly, in order to maintain the value of the product

[D] Reduce tooling cost by 25 % in resulting sustainable manufacturing cost of the product.

In this way, you can reduce the product cost by 20%. But, it is not like I have written....

Battery Electric Vehicles cost of ownership

Take a moment to understand this table which shows a total cost of ownership comparison between gasoline vehicles and #FullElectricVehicles