Advanced manufacturing system for forging products

The demand of the industry for high quality parts that are provided with a high-level delivery performance is constantly growing. For increasing the product quality without raising the cost in many cases new processes have to be introduced. For providing those products flexible and responsive to the market advanced manufacturing systems need to be introduced to quickly and reliably deliver to customers in-time. Using precision forging combined with an advanced manufacturing system for forging parts that used to be forged traditionally requires changes in the design of products and processes. Not only the different stages need to be formed with a high precision, the positioning of the inserted parts in the tool needs to be performed with a high-level of accuracy as well. In the best-case this is done with an automated positioning gear. For gaining flexibility the tools are supposed to be replaced quickly by a changing system as well. Besides a flexible and automated forging line for the production of precision forging parts, a high-performance production management system is required that is specifically tailored to the individual requirements of the advanced manufacturing system for precision forging. Therefore a bi-directional integration of the software modules tool management, production planning and material management needs to be realized. It is essential for the precision forging process to monitor a number of process data which can be processed by the production management system. This facilitates the linkage of technical process data to logistical data of the product management system to increase the logistical performance concerning efficiency, lead-time and in-time delivery of the advanced manufacturing system. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.