Offering Description

  • Product/Process Improvement
  • In-depth analysis of a product or process related problem to find underlying key problems
  • Solution development suitable for different time lines (incremental as well as disruptive ideas)
  • Much more comprehensive than Tech Scouting
  • Solutions substantiation (reasons to believe)
  • Support for IP (patent) preparation

Background

  • A car body includes number of aluminum sheet parts with complex shape.
  • The current technology includes sheet extrusion, multi-step stamping and welding.
  • Due to large number of operations and applying complex equipment, the current technology is too expensive
  • It is necessary to reduce operation cost dramatically
  • What should be done?

Trimming and Physical Contradiction

  • The problem:
    • How to reduce the operation cost?
  • Trimming:
    • It is necessary to exclude majority of operations from the technological process and delegate their useful functions to one operation: extrusion
  • Trimming problem:
    • How to extrude an aluminum sheet with complex shape?
  • Physical contradiction:
    • The die should have one particular shape to provide specific cross-section of the aluminum sheet, but it should have another shape to provide another cross-section
    • Separation in time: the die should be able to change its shape in the process of aluminum sheet extrusion
    • Inventive Principle: Dynamicity (divide an object to parts capable to move relatively each other.

Solution: Dynamic Extrusion

Idea Description:

  • Extrude aluminum sheet with complex shape using existing dies and additional equipment

Benefits:

  • Reduced number of steps in the technological process
  • Reduced tooling costs
  • Productivity close to that of conventional extrusion
  • Higher quality of the produced components, which are shaped when aluminum is in a malleable solid state; stamping aluminum in a solid state leads to high stress areas
  • Option to change the shape (design flexibility) in terms of thickness and profile
  • Weight savings due to improved mechanical performance