R.V.

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, BANGALORE-560059

(Autonomous Institution Affiliated to VTU, Belgaum)

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Design for Manufacturing and Assembly

SELF STUDY REPORT

SUBMITTED BY: SUBMITTED TO:

Himanshu Sahni (1RV16ME141) Prof. Gangadhar
Karshit Takhtani (1RV16ME134) (Assistant Professor)
 1. INTRODUCTION

WHAT IS DESIGN FOR MANUFACTURE AND ASSEMBLY?

The term "design for manufacture" (or DFM) means the design for ease of manufacture
of the collection of parts that will form the product after assembly and "design for assembly"
(or DFA) means the design of the product for ease of assembly. Thus, "design for manufacture
and assembly" (DFMA) is a combination of DFA and DFM.
DFMA is used for three main activities:
1. As the basis for concurrent engineering studies to provide guidance to the design team
in simplifying the product structure, to reduce manufacturing and assembly costs, and
to quantify the improvements.
2. As a benchmarking tool to study competitors' products and quantify manufacturing and
assembly difficulties.
3. As a should-cost tool to help negotiate suppliers contracts.

DESIGN FOR MANUFACTURING:

Design for manufacturing is the general engineering art of designing products in such a
way that they are easy to manufacture. The basic idea exists in almost all engineering
disciplines, but of course the details differ widely depending on the manufacturing technology.
This design practice not only focuses on the design aspect of a part but also on the productivity.
In simple language it means relative ease to manufacture a product, part or assembly.
DFM describes the process of designing or engineering a product in order to facilitate
the manufacturing process in order to reduce its manufacturing costs. DFM will allow potential
problems to be fixed in the design phase which is the least expensive place to address them.
The design of the component can have an enormous effect on the cost of manufacturing. Other
factors may affect the manufacturability such as the type of raw material, the form of the raw
material, dimensional tolerances, and secondary processing such as finishing.
PRODUCT DESIGN GUIDELINES
A number of general design guidelines have been established to achieve higher quality,
lower cost, improved application of automation and better maintainability. Examples of these
DFM guidelines are as follows:

1) Reduce the number of parts to minimize the opportunity for a defective part or an assembly
error, to decrease the total cost of fabricating and assembling the product, and to improve the
chance to automate the process

2) Foolproof the assembly design (poka-yoke) so that the assembly process is unambiguous

3) Design verifiability into the product and its components to provide a natural test or
inspection of the item

4) Avoid tight tolerances beyond the natural capability of the manufacturing processes and
design in the middle of a part's tolerance range

5) Design "robustness" into products to compensate for uncertainty in the product's

manufacturing, testing and use

6) Design for parts orientation and handling to minimize non-value-added manual effort, to
avoid ambiguity in orienting and merging parts, and to facilitate automation

7) Design for ease of assembly by utilizing simple patterns of movement and minimizing
fastening steps

8) Utilize common parts and materials to facilitate design activities, to minimize the amount of
inventory in the system and to standardize handling and assembly operations

9) Design modular products to facilitate assembly with building block components and sub-
assemblies

10) Design for ease of servicing the product

 In addition to these guidelines, designers need to understand more about their own
company's production system, i.e., its capabilities and limitations, in order to establish
company-specific design rules to further guide and optimize their product design to the
company's production system. For example, they need to understand the tolerance limitations
of certain manufacturing processes.

GOALS OF DFM:

1) Early cost estimating

2) Material selection and Process planning

3) Early visualization of manufacturing process and impact on product design

4) Avoiding expensive and time consuming manufacturing process

5) Considering environmental issues

DESIGN FOR ASSEMBLY

DFA is a systematic analysis process primarily intended to reduce the assembly costs of a
product by simplifying the product design. It does so by first reducing the number of parts in
the product design, and then by ensuring that remaining parts are easily assembled. This close
analysis of the design is typically conducted by a team of, design and manufacturing engineers,
although other functional groups such as field service and purchasing may also be involved. DFA
techniques can be applied manually or with software. Both approaches lead to a simpler
product structure and assembly system. DFA is used for discrete manufacturing products, and
primarily for durable goods, but occasionally for consumer products. DFA was developed with
the assumption that the bulk of manufacturing costs are set in the design stage, before any
manufacturing systems analysis and tooling development is undertaken. DFA provides a
quantitative method for evaluating the cost and manufacturability of the design during the
design stage itself. DFA analysis roughly calculates expected unit material and labor (and/or
equipment) assembly cost, and also finds an efficiency which is a relative measure of the
product's ease of assembly.
 PRINCIPLES OF DFA

1) Minimize part count

2) Design parts with self-locating features

3) Design parts with self-fastening features

4) Minimize reorientation of parts during assembly

5) Design parts for retrieval, handling, & insertion

6) Emphasize ‘Top-Down’ assemblies

7) Standardize parts

8) Encourage modular design

9) Design for a base part to locate other components

10) Design for component symmetry for insertion

SOFTWARE
DFM Concurrent Costing is a software tool to generate cost estimates for both piece part cost
and tooling investments. Unlike existing parametric cost estimating models, DFM Concurrent
Costing does not rely on historical data and therefore allows you to generate accurate cost
estimates for new designs and explore alternative materials and processes.

DFM complements Design for Assembly (DFA). Engineers use DFA software to reduce the
assembly cost of a product by consolidating parts into elegant and multifunctional designs. DFM
software then allows the design engineer quickly to judge the cost of producing the new design
and to compare it with the cost of producing the original assembly. Used together, DFM
and DFA software give engineers an early cost profile of product designs, providing a basis for
planning and decision making. Such analysis, when performed at the earliest stages of concept
design, has the potential to greatly influence manufacturing and other life cycle costs before
they are locked in.

Product engineers know that 85 percent of manufacturing costs are determined in the early
stages of design. When you make informed design decisions during the concept stage, you
avoid costly corrections later on.

Design for Assembly is a methodology for evaluating part designs and the overall design of an
assembly. It is a quantifiable way to identify unnecessary parts in an assembly and to determine
assembly times and costs. Using DFA software, product engineers assess the cost contribution
of each part and then simplify the product concept through part reduction strategies. These
strategies involve incorporating as many features into one part as is economically feasible. The
outcome of a DFA-based design is a more elegant product with fewer parts that is both
functionally efficient and easy to assemble. The larger benefits of a DFA-based design are
reduced part costs, improved quality and reliability, and shorter development cycles.

DFA complements Design for Manufacture (DFM). Engineers use DFA software to reduce the
assembly cost of a product by consolidating parts into elegant and multifunctional designs. DFM
software then allows the design engineer quickly to judge the cost of producing the new design
and to compare it with the cost of producing the original assembly. Used together, DFM and
DFA software gives engineers an early cost profile of product designs, providing a basis for
planning and decision making. Such analyses, when performed at the earliest stages of concept
design, have the potential to greatly influence manufacturing and other life-cycle costs before
the costs are locked in.
 FOLDING CHAIR

INTRODUCTION TO FOLDING CHAIR

A folding chair is a light, portable chair that folds flat, and can be stored in a stack, row, or on a
cart. Folding chairs are generally used for seating in areas where permanent seating is not
possible or practical. This includes outdoor and indoor events such as funerals, college
graduations, religious services, and sporting events and competitions. Folding chairs are also
used in the home for any situation requiring extra seating. This includes parties, card games,
and temporary seating at the dinner table.

HISTORY

Folding chairs were already being used in Sweden, Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. The frame
was mostly made of wood, and seldom made of metal. The wood was inlaid with artistic
carvings, gilded, and decorated with ivory. In Northern Europe, the remains of more than 18
folding chairs are known dating back to the Nordic Bronze Age such as the Daensen folding
chair.

The folding chair became especially widespread during the middle Ages. It was treasured as a
liturgical furniture piece. Since the 15th and 16th centuries the folding chair has mostly had arm
and head rests. Of course, newer chairs which are often found in functions and events are also
called folding chairs. The folding chairs were very easy to use and bring to different places such
as parties or family gatherings.

In the United States, an early patent for a folding chair was by John Cham in 1855. In 1947,
Fredric Arnold created the first aluminum folding chair with fabric strapping for the seat and
back. By 1957, the Fredric Arnold Company of Brooklyn, New York, was manufacturing more
than 14,000 chairs per day. Today, the folding chair is mostly made of hard plastic or metal or
wood. Folding chairs can be divided into different categories.
 OLD DESIGN

OLD DESIGN
COMPONENTS AND MANUFACTURING PROCESS

S. No Component Material used Quantity Manufacturing process

1 Frame1 Generic low carbon steel 1 Machined/cut from the

stock

2 Frame2 Generic low carbon steel 1 Machined/cut from the

stock

3 Cross braces Generic low carbon steel 3 Machined/cut from the

stock

4 Spreader Generic low carbon steel 4 Compound Die Stamping

5 Seat Generic low carbon steel 1 Compound Die Stamping

6 Back rest Generic low carbon steel 1 Compound Die Stamping

7 Stability ABS Plastic 2 Injection Moulding

caps

8 Foot caps ABS Plastic 4 Injection Moulding

9 Fasteners Generic low carbon steel 24 Assembly fabrication

Total 42 (Including Fasteners)

18 (Excluding Fasteners)

Manufacturing process and materials used for various components of old design
DFMA ANALYSIS OF OLD DESIGN

Recently, the availability of SLDPRT file outputs from CAD systems has enabled some of the
geometric data required for various models for early cost estimation to be obtained
automatically. The link between CAD systems and the DFM software is the Solid View program
that has been developed for the visualization and measurement of objects defined in SLDPRT
and other formats.
Specific routines can be used to determine the following:
 Overall envelope dimensions
 Part volume (weight)
 Projected area in the direction the die or mould closure where appropriate
 Number of surface elements or patches.
This means that cost estimates for manufacture by various manufacturing processes can be
obtained from an initial CAD description of an object.

BACK REST
Figure shows the backrest visualized from a SLDPRT file representation using SolidWorks.
Table shows the cost breakdown for manufacturing this part by Compound Die Stamping
using the DFM Concurrent Costing software tool.
CROSS BRACES
Figure shows the Cross Braces visualized from a SLDPRT file representation using SolidWorks.
Table shows the cost breakdown for manufacturing Cross Braces by Machined/cut from the stock
Process using the DFM Concurrent Costing software tool.
FOOT CAPS
Figure shows Foot Caps visualized from a SLDPRT file representation using SolidWorks. Table
shows the cost breakdown for manufacturing of Foot Caps by Injection Moulding Process
using the DFM Concurrent Costing software tool.
FRAME 1
Figure shows FRAME 1 visualized from a SLDPRT file representation using SolidWorks.
Table shows the cost breakdown for manufacturing of FRAME 1 by Machined/cut from the stock
Process using the DFM Concurrent Costing software tool.

FRAME 2
Figure shows FRAME 2 visualized from a SLDPRT file representation using SolidWorks.
Table shows the cost breakdown for manufacturing of FRAME 2 by Machined/cut from the stock
Process using the DFM Concurrent Costing software tool.
SEAT

Figure shows SEAT visualized from a SLDPRT file representation using SolidWorks.
Table shows the cost breakdown for manufacturing of SEAT by Compound Die Stamping
Process using the DFM Concurrent Costing software tool.
SPREADER

Figure Shows SPREADER visualized from a SLDPRT file representation using SolidWorks. Table
shows the cost breakdown for manufacturing of SPREADER by Compound Die Stamping
Process using the DFM Concurrent Costing software tool.
STABILITY CAPS
Figure Shows STABILITY CAPS visualized from a SLDPRT file representation using SolidWorks.
Table shows the cost breakdown for manufacturing of STABILITY CAPS by Injection Moulding
Process using the DFM Concurrent Costing software tool.

FASTENERS

Table shows the cost breakdown for manufacturing of FASTENERS by Assembly Fabrication
Process using the DFM Concurrent Costing software tool.
COST BREAKDOWN PER CHAIR

The chart shows a breakdown of cost per product

PROBLEMS WITH OLD DESIGN

 Not Efficient and Effective.

 Expensive.
 Lot of Parts.
 Difficult to manufacture as multiple processes are required on single component.
 Takes Lot of Time for Assembly.
 Difficult to stack number of chairs together.
 THE NEW CONCEPT

DESCRIPTION

The new concept is designed with an aim of reducing assembly time and effort by
keeping the number of individual parts to a minimum. The number of parts has been reduced
to three: two frames and a seat. The same material namely ABS is used for making the three
parts. This choice of material is done with a view of keeping the weight low while maintaining
the strength of the product. This also enables us to use the same manufacturing process for the
three individual parts. Similarly Polypropylene or High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) may also be
used.

New folding chair model.

 The three individual parts can be seen more clearly in the folded view on the chair
below. The backrest has been built into the frame itself. The frames form complete loops. This
eliminates the use of cross coupling for stability. The frames have more contact area with the
floor as compared to four points in the old design. The weight is distributed along the entire
length of the frame in contact with the floor. As all the parts are made of the same material,
separate parts like stability caps and foot-caps are not required.

New folding chair model in folded mode.

The main frame has been provided with filleted holes into which the second frame and
the seat are snap-fitted. The second frame and seat have been provided with peg like
projections which fit into the holes provided in the first frame. The seat has a rounded pocket
into which the second frame sits in the unfolded position. The projections locate the second
frame and seat with respect to the first frame. The projections and pocket transmit the weight
of the person to the floor through frames.
 Main Frame. Secondary Frame.

Fillet

Pocket

Seat in wireframe view showing

pocket for seating second frame.

Filleted peg for location and load

transmission.
 MATERIAL PROPERTIES

ABS is a terpolymer made by polymerizing styrene and acrylonitrile in the presence of

polybutadiene. The proportions can vary from 15 to 35% acrylonitrile, 5 to 30% butadiene and
40 to 60% styrene. The result is a long chain of polybutadiene crisscrossed with shorter chains
of poly (styrene- acrylonitrile). The nitrile groups from neighboring chains, being polar, attract
each other and bind the chains together, making ABS stronger than pure polystyrene. The
styrene gives the plastic a shiny, impervious surface. The polybutadiene, a rubbery substance,
provides resilience even at low temperatures. For the majority of applications, ABS can be used
between −20 and 80 °C (−4 and 176 °F) as its mechanical properties vary with temperature. The
properties are created by rubber toughening, where fine particles of elastomer are distributed
throughout the rigid matrix.

The most important mechanical properties of ABS are impact resistance and toughness.
A variety of modifications can be made to improve impact resistance, toughness, and heat
resistance. The impact resistance can be amplified by increasing the proportions of
polybutadiene in relation to styrene and also acrylonitrile, although this causes changes in other
properties. Impact resistance does not fall off rapidly at lower temperatures. Stability under
load is excellent with limited loads. Thus, changing the proportions of its components ABS can
be prepared in different grades. Two major categories could be ABS for extrusion and ABS for
injection moulding, then high and medium impact resistance. Generally ABS would have useful
characteristics within a temperature range from −20 to 80 °C (−4 to 176 °F).

The final properties will be influenced to some extent by the conditions under which the
material is processed to the final product. For example, moulding at a high temperature
improves the gloss and heat resistance of the product whereas the highest impact resistance
and strength are obtained by moulding at low temperature. Fibers (usually glass fibers) and
additives can be mixed in the resin pellets to make the final product strong and raise the
operating range to as high as 80 °C (176 °F). Pigments can also be added, as the raw material
original color is translucent ivory to white. The aging characteristics of the polymers are largely
influenced by the polybutadiene content, and it is normal to include antioxidants in the
Composition. Other factors include exposure to ultraviolet radiation, for which additives are
also available to protect against.
INJECTION MOULDING PROCESS

Injection moulding is a manufacturing process for producing parts by injecting material into a
mould. Injection Moulding can be performed with a host of materials, including metals, glasses,
elastomers, confections, and most commonly thermoplastic and thermosetting polymers.
Material for the part is fed into a heated barrel, mixed, and forced into a mould cavity, where it
cools and hardens to the configuration of the cavity. After a product is designed, usually by an
industrial designer or an engineer, moulds are made by a mould maker (or toolmaker) from
metal, usually either steel or aluminum, and precision-machined to form the features of the
desired part. Injection Moulding is widely used for manufacturing a variety of parts, from the
smallest components to entire body panels of cars. Advances in 3D printing technology, using
photopolymers which do not melt during the injection Moulding of some lower temperature
thermoplastics, can be used for some simple injection moulds.

Injection mould setup.

Parts to be injection moulded must be very carefully designed to facilitate the Moulding
process; the material used for the part, the desired shape and features of the part, the material
of the mould, and the properties of the Moulding machine must all be taken into account. The
versatility of injection Moulding is facilitated by this breadth of design considerations and
possibilities

DFMA ANALYSIS OF NEW DESIGN

The cost breakdowns of individual parts are shown:

FRAME 1

Table 4.1 shows the cost breakdown for manufacturing of main Frame by Injection moulding
process using the DFM Concurrent Costing software tool.

FRAME 2

Table shows the cost breakdown for manufacturing of secondary Frame by Injection
moulding process using the DFM Concurrent Costing software tool.
SEAT

Table shows the cost breakdown for manufacturing of main Seat by Injection moulding
process using the DFM Concurrent Costing software tool.

COST BREAKDOWN PER CHAIR

 CONCLUSION

DFMA analysis of folding chair was performed using DFMA software by Boothroyd
Dewhurst Inc.

Using the DFA module, the old assembly was analyzed. The assembly method for each
component was specified to the software which later calculated the cost of assembling the
product. The design was modified for ease of assemble as is observed by the reduced DFA Index
in the new design. Consequently the cost of assembly has also been reduced $4.28 to $0.17 per
product. This shows a reduction in time required for assembling the new product as compared
to the old product.

DFM Concurrent costing module was used to analyze and optimize the materials used
for manufacturing the product. The cost of individual components of final product assembly
was calculated. By selection of proper material and manufacturing processes in conjunction
with optimized assembly, we were successfully able to redesign the Folding chair for lower cost.

The cost of the Folding chair was reduced from $143.32 per product to $104.65 per
product for a product life volume of 10000.