Papers by Author: Angela Göschel

Abstract: Energy and resource efficiency is a pressing issue for technological markets in the 21st century. In the field of production technology the development of energy and resource efficient processes and process chains is of particular importance. In order to meet these needs sustainable methods and standards have to be developed. This paper presents a new procedure to calculate and evaluate the energy and resource efficiency of process chains. The method consists of 4 stages that proceed from the real world to the quantitative calculation and qualitative evaluation of material and energy flows. The method is explained and validated using press hardening process chains as an example. The procedure enables the user to systematically capture and structure the press hardening process chain and subsequently develop a comprehensive model of the whole process chain. As a result, it allows to calculate the energy requirements for each stage of the process chain, and later on the process chain as a whole. The intention of the developed procedure is to provide a tool to detect the most energy efficient variant from a range of possible process chains.

Abstract: Today's automotive manufacturers are required to meet ever greater demands for increased flexibility due to decreasing batch sizes. Solutions to meet these demands will bring about far-reaching changes to the mass productions methods which currently dominate automotive manufacturing. In addition to the current need for sheet metal components, such trends will also have an effect on assembly and joining techniques used. The paper describes the challenge for production engineering resulting from current and future market demands.

Abstract: The focus of forming high-strength steel at elevated temperature is to improve its forming properties like elongation and to reduce the power requirements during the forming process in opposite to cold forming. Because of the undefined and large spring-back effects parts made by cold forming are not able to achieve the demanded dimensional accuracy, which is necessary for laser welding operations in car body assembly. The reduction of the spring-back behavior is another advantage of the temperature controlled forming technology. On the other side the forming at elevated temperatures requires increased costs for forming tools and tempering equipment. For a fundamental evaluation of this technology, expenditures for the complete process chain have to be considered.