Prozesskette zur flexiblen herstellung leichter tragwerkstrukturen steigerung der qualität und zuverlässigkeit

Increasing quality and reliability of a process chain for the flexible production of light-weight space frame structures. A process chain for the product-flexible small-batch production of space-frame structures is built up in the collaborative research center Transregio 10 (SFB/TR 10) titled "Integration of forming, cutting and joining processes for the flexible production of light-weight space-frame structures". This research project includes institutes of the Universities of Dortmund (TU), Munich (TU) and Karlsruhe (TH). To improve quality and reliability of the process chain at an early stage in the process, a Process FMEA was carried out for the individual subprocesses by a cross-university quality research group. It served to define potential main errors during the course of the project and to initiate adequate countermeasures based on the results. This article describes the error avoidance countermeasures for all processes and procedures incorporated in the SFB/TR 10 project. These processes include multi-axis circular form bending during extrusion and the subsequent flying cutting process for the production of frame elements, a flexible and intelligent clamping system in combination with a handling and machining kinematic mechanism for machining and, lastly, the processes joining by hydroforming, friction stir welding and bifocal hybrid laser welding to join the individual components into a frame structure.