Model Based planning of energy efficient process chains in machining processes using system entity structures

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Thorsten Pawletta
• Subject Area: Metal-Cutting and Abrasive Manufacturing Engineering
• Term: from 2010 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 170723696

Because of ecological and economic reasons, the energy and resource consumption in manufacturing are becoming increasingly important. Therefore the method for the specification, selection and optimization of energy- and resource-efficient manufacturing process chains, developed during the running project, will significantly be extended.So far the formal specification of process variants by means of so-called system entity structures (SES), a related automatic model generation and a statically coded optimal manufacturing process chain selection based on the developed process models and a genetic algorithm have been analyzed. For the project continuation additional process planning and control strategies as well as various process analysis scenarios will be described by the SES (meta modeled). For combined analyses of manufacturing technological as well as production planning and control strategic problems, the structure and user-related parameterization of the already developed manufacturing process models must be adapted and expanded in terms of the internal data and function encapsulation. Further the model basis will be extended by additional heat treatment process models, by metal forming models and by models for the material flow control such as buffers, branch-offs points and alike. The extended model basis provides the foundation for the analysis of manufacturing process chains considering various alternative variants, although the focus will still be on material removal processes with heat treatment. The combined analysis of manufacturing process chains and of production planning and control strategic aspects refers to the energy and resource-efficient manufacture of a range of products considering evaluation parameters (e.g. for quality), manufacturing inventory, the machine working load, delivery dates etc. Here it shall be emphasized that the evaluation parameters, like electrical energy consumption and machine scheduling, will not be considered as statistically averaged factors, but in terms of state-time-dependent functions. In particular the time-dependent description and analysis of the electrical energy consumption is fundamental, as peak load energy states are to be avoided or to be shifted to other periods. From this consideration significantly more complex models as well as multi criteria and diametrically opposing objectives are resulting. A solution of these complex analyses seems only feasible, if a distinct separation between the definition of the manufacturing process, the process control and the criteria of the objectives is applied.The combined analysis of various manufacturing process chains together with production planning and control aspects regarding the time-dependent energy and resource consumption considering classical manufacturing technological evaluation criteria has not been reported so far.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr.-Ing. Felix Breitenecker