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Presents the results of a survey into the nature and scale of tool management problems within the UK manufacturing industry and outlines strategies to improve the management and control of tooling. Discusses the qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques used to collate data. Describes the characteristics of the sample to provide a better understanding of their operations. Identifies most common tool management problems and reports their impact on the efficiency of manufacturing systems. Claims that more than 65 per cent of the sample acknowledge that the management of control of tooling is a significant operational problem. Provides an insight into the major causes of lack of interest in tool management. Identifies computerized tool management systems as a potential solution. Stresses that systematic analysis of tooling problems and identification of root causes are essential prior to implementation of computerized systems.

Regarding the assembly of the fuselage panel, this paper aims to illustrate a design of pre-assembly tooling of the fuselage panel for the automatic drilling riveting machine. This new prototype of pre-assembly tooling can be used for different types and sizes of fuselage panels. Also, apply to the automated drilling and riveting machine of the fuselage panels.

Based on the different structures of the fuselage panel, the position of the preassembly tooling components, location of the clamp and position of the fuselage panel are determined. After that, the overall structure of the preassembly tooling is designed, including the movable frame and the cardboard. The cardboard positioning module and the clamping module formulate a detailed design scheme of preassembly tooling for the fuselage panel. The structure of the pre-assembled tooling is optimized by static analysis. The result of the overall design is optimized by using MATLAB and CATIA-V5 software, and the results meet the condition of the design requirements.

The traditional assembly process of the fuselage is to install the fuselage panel on the preassembly tooling for positioning the hole and then install it on the automated drilling and riveting tooling for secondary tooling. Secondary tooling can consume assembly errors of the fuselage panel. The new prototype of flexible tooling design for the fuselage panel not only avoids the secondary tooling error of the fuselage panel but also meets the preassembly of different types of fuselage panels.

The further development of the flexible tooling design of the fuselage panel is to reduce the error of sliding tooling due to friction of the sliding components. Because if the assembly cycle is increased, the sliding parts will lose material due to corrosion. As a result, the repeated friction force is the root cause of the positioning error of sliding parts. Therefore, it is necessary to engage less corrosive material. Also, the lubricant may be used to reduce the corrosion in minimizing the positioning error of the sliding tool components. In addition, it is important to calculate the number of assembly cycles for efficient fuselage panel assembly.

According to the structure and assembly process characteristics of the fuselage panel, the fuselage panel preassembly tooling can optimize the assembly process of the fuselage panel and have certain practical application values.

This article focuses on the comparative study of annular wire‐coating flows with polymer melt materials. Different process designs are considered of pressure‐ and tube‐tooling, complementing earlier studies on individual designs. A novel mass‐balance free‐surface location technique is proposed. The polymeric materials are represented via shear‐thinning, differential viscoelastic constitutive models, taken of exponential Phan‐Thien/Tanner form. Simulations are conducted for these industrial problems through distributed parallel computation, using a semi‐implicit time‐stepping Taylor‐Galerkin/pressure‐correction algorithm. On typical field results and by comparing short‐against full‐die pressure‐tooling solutions, shear‐rates are observed to increase ten fold, while strain rates increase one hundred times. Tube‐tooling shear and extension‐rates are one quarter of those for pressure‐tooling. These findings across design options, have considerable bearing on the appropriateness of choice for the respective process involved. Parallel finite element results are generated on a homogeneous network of Intel‐chip workstations, running PVM (Parallel Vitual Machine) protocol over a Solaris operating system. Parallel timings yield practically ideal linear speed‐up over the set number of processors.

Rapid tooling (RT) integrated with additive manufacturing technologies have been implemented in various sectors of the RT industry in recent years with various kinds of prototype applications, especially in the development of new products. The purpose of this study is to analyze the current application trends of RT techniques in producing hybrid mold inserts.

The direct and indirect RT techniques discussed in this paper are aimed at developing a hybrid mold insert using metal epoxy composite (MEC) in increasing the speed of tooling development and performance. An extensive review of the suitable development approach of hybrid mold inserts, material preparation and filler effect on physical and mechanical properties has been conducted.

Latest research studies indicate that it is possible to develop a hybrid material through the combination of different shapes/sizes of filler particles and it is expected to improve the compressive strength, thermal conductivity and consequently increasing the hybrid mold performance (cooling time and a number of molding cycles).

The number of research studies on RT for hybrid mold inserts is still lacking as compared to research studies on conventional manufacturing technology. One of the significant limitations is on the ways to improve physical and mechanical properties due to the limited type, size and shape of materials that are currently available.

This review presents the related information and highlights the current gaps related to this field of study. In addition, it appraises the new formulation of MEC materials for the hybrid mold inserts in injection molding application and RT for non-metal products.

The purpose of this paper is to develop digital flexible pre-assembly tooling system for fuselage panels.

First, the paper analyzes the technological characteristics of fuselage panels and then determines the pre-assembly object. Second, the pre-assembly positioning method and assembly process are researched. Third, the panel components pre-assembly flexible tooling scheme is constructed. Finally, the pre-assembly flexible tooling system is designed and manufactured.

This study shows the novel solution results in significantly smaller tooling dimensions, while providing greater stability. Digital flexible assembly is an effective way to reduce floor space, reduce delivery and production lead times and improve quality.

The tooling designed in this case is actually used in industrial application. The flexible tooling can realize the pre-assembly for a number of fuselage panels, which is shown as an example in this paper.

The paper suggests the fuselage panel pre-assembly process based on the thought including pre-assembly, the automatic drilling and riveting and jointing, and constructs a flexible tooling system for aircraft fuselage panel component pre-assembly.

PLASTICS tooling has been accepted progressively in the aircraft industry, particularly during the past decade, mainly because of its elementary manufacturing equipment requirements and the saving it provides in time and labour. However, its continued success depends on knowledge of the properties of these materials and skill in applying them. Although metals are the traditional materials for machining or fabricating tools, it is now being realized more than ever before that certain advantages can be gained by the use of plastics in tooling, particularly when considered in the light of job or batch production—these being most significant in the aircraft field—and resulting in improved efficiency and economics. It must, however, also be appreciated that these materials have certain limitations, for in the past they have been adopted by tool designers all to readily as direct alternatives to conventional materials for reasons which were not always well founded.

Rapid prototyping technologies have introduced a new generation of rapid tooling processes. Many of these rapid tools have been used for injection moulding where the thermal properties of the tool material are critical to the quality of parts produced. Rapid tools are often made from materials with substantially different thermal properties than conventional metal tools. Engineers wishing to make use of these technologies to produce technical prototypes must be aware of the effect this will have on final part properties. Some previous research has been undertaken in this area. Reviews the work done in the field of rapid tooling used for injection moulding. The review shows that, whereas a range of techniques and final part materials has been studied, the results obtained are incomplete and often unexplained. The authors draw conclusions as to why this is so and go on to identify areas for further work that will be pursued.

This paper details the development of a rapid tooling manufacturing route for the gravity and high‐pressure die‐casting industries, resulting from an EPSRC funded collaborative research project between the Universities of Warwick, Loughborough and DeMontfort, with industrial support from, amongst others, MG Rover, TRW Automotive, Sulzer Metco UK Ltd and Kemlows Diecasting Products Ltd. The developed process offers the rapid generation of mould tools from laser‐cut laminated sheets of H13 steel, bolted or brazed together and finish machined. The paper discusses the down‐selection of materials, bonding methods and machining methods, the effect of conformal cooling channels on process efficiency, and the evaluation of a number of test tools developed for the industrial partners. The paper also demonstrates the cost and time advantages (up to 50 and 54 per cent, respectively) of the tooling route compared to traditional fabrication methods.

Rapid tooling has numerous advantages when prototyping injection molded components, but the effects of the tooling on the resulting part properties are often overlooked. The purpose of this paper is to consider the effect of tooling on the final part properties and morphology.

Digital polyacrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) tooling and aluminum tooling were used to mold test specimens from isotatic polypropylene (iPP). Tensile behavior, impact strength, shrinkage, surface roughness and porosity were evaluated for both sets of samples. Additionally, differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) were used to assess the crystallinity of the samples.

Characterization of the molded parts showed that slower cooling rates in the Digital ABS inserts promoted the formation of ß-PP, while this crystal structure was not found in the parts molded using aluminum tooling. Additionally, parts molded on the digital ABS inserts exhibited higher mold shrinkage and SEM images identified microscopic shrinkage voids within the material. The change in morphology and the presence of voids significantly affected the tensile behavior with the parts molded in Digital ABS, which broke with little cold drawing and exhibited higher tensile moduli and higher yield strengths.

The results show that the choice of rapid tooling technique plays an important role on determining the properties of the final parts.

Previous studies have not characterized the effect of rapid tooling on the morphology of the molded articles fully or over a variety of processing conditions. This study builds on prior work by using both WAXS and DSC to characterize morphological changes over a wide range of processing conditions and comparing results to mechanical property and shrinkage data.

The strategic integration of rapid prototyping and rapid tooling is being used for getting product to the market quickly by resolving a long‐standing conflict between design and manufacturing. Currently rapid tooling can be produced at such reduced cost and time that the tool is considered to be disposable. The ability to produce inexpensive tooling allows the life cycle to be fundamentally changed, incorporating the concept and tooling review into one development phase and allowing both design and manufacturing requirements to be identified. This approach has allowed management to release product based on competitive market strategy rather than an estimated deadline.