Computer-Aided Planning and Optimisation of Manufacturing Processes for Functional Graded Components

In this paper, a comprehensive framework for the computer-aided planning and optimisation of process chains for functional graded components is presented. The framework is divided into three modules – the component description, the expert system, and the modelling and process chain optimisation. The component description module enhances a standard CAD model by a voxel-based representation of the graded properties. It allows the target properties to be defined. The expert system proposes process chains capable of producing components according to the requirements of the enhanced CAD model. They usually consist of a sequence of heating, forming, and cooling processes. The dependencies between the applied manufacturing processes need to be considered. Therefore, the robustness of the property distributions achieved in a process step with respect to variations in the input properties is analysed in the third module, in which the process chains are optimised. A method to accomplish this task by performing a model-based sensitivity analysis and subsequent Monte-Carlo simulations of the important parameters is proposed in this paper. The applicability of the method is shown for a thermo-mechanically coupled compression moulding process.