Data based automated manufacturing control of fabricated components

Research Project, 2017 – 2022

To meet the increasing demand on reduced fuel consumption, noise, cost and weight of jet engines, the use of fabrication, where several smaller parts are joined through welding is a common approach.

However, this leads to more complex production systems with more sources of variation, since processes such as metal forming, machining, welding and additive manufacturing are combined.

The approach in this project to handle this increased complexity is to apply concepts and strategies from Industry 4.0 and Digitalization. Both geometrical and sensor data will be fed back from all process steps to a database that also includes digital twins of the production system and produced parts. Having access to process and geometry data from all manufacturing steps will enable handling and analysis of variation in which downstream operations can be adapted to process outcome from upstream operations.

The main goal of the project is to develop new methods and tools for on-line monitoring and control of a production operation sequence for fabricated components, with the long term vision of having a fully autonomous and self-optimizing automated manufacturing and fabrication production system. This “system” should be able to demonstrate the flow of data, data analysis and methods for process control and Root Cause Analysis, something that will be performed in laboratory environment. The goal is also to show and quantify the impact on quality, throughput, and cost.