Automated Manufacturing Process Integrated with Intelligent Tooling Systems (AUTOMAN)

Large 3D panels are used on the bodies of cars, trains, ships and aircraft and for building interiors and facades. The
Beijing Olympic Bird's Nest Stadium provides a high-profile example of a construction employing 3D panels. The world
market for large 3D panels is worth billions of pounds and could grow manifold if cost-effective and sustainable methods of
panel production are available.
UK companies invest billions of pounds annually in dedicated tooling to manufacture 3D panels in a variety of materials.
The dies and moulds needed to produce such panels are time consuming to fabricate, involving extensive manufacturing
trials. Tools are normally associated with specific parts and, when they change, the old tools are discarded or have to be
dismounted and then stored. Thus, there are high levels of scrapped material, space and time wastage associated with
traditional tools. This makes current panel production techniques inefficient for small-batch production which is typical in
the manufacture of high-value products (e.g. sports cars, ships and aircraft).
Multi-Point Die Forming (MPDF) is a technology pioneered at MIT to enable die surfaces to be modified to generate
different component forms without requiring tool changes. MPDF involves using a matrix of pins to represent the die
surfaces. These can be varied before the forming operation by pre-adjusting the lengths of the pins. The setting of the pin
lengths in existing MPDF systems is a laborious trial-and-error process and thus these systems are not readily
reconfigurable.
This project will develop the world's first fully reconfigurable tooling system with in-process sensing and adaptation
capability. This advanced system will incorporate pins that are actuated so that their lengths can be automatically adjusted
during forming to enable more precise control of the process. It will include sensors and on-line modelling, metrology and
reverse engineering to ensure the production of accurate and defect-free panels. This new system will be usable for press
stamping and stretch-drawing operations as well as supporting and locating flexible composite panels during assembly.
The proposed system will have the following innovative features not found in prototypes developed to date:
- full programmability, in the in-process reconfiguration of the tool to generate tool surfaces digitally and to enable different
forming operations to be carried out;
- advanced modelling to support reconfiguration to increase quality and setup efficiency;
- on-line metrology to provide in-process information on real part geometry, considering machine and tool deflection and
part spring back;
- compensation of spring back and deflection to enable net-shape manufacturing;
- measures for ensuring part integrity including accurate geometry, limited residual stresses and high quality surface finish;
- localised heating to allow forming of various materials including composites.
The reconfigurable tooling system developed in the project will demonstrate the following benefits compared to current
technology:
- an increase in 3D panel manufacturing efficiency by 50%-100%;
- panel manufacturing cost savings of over 80%;
- overall material and energy savings of 30%-50% over the product life-cycle.
This project will be carried out in the Schools of Mechanical Engineering and of Metallurgy and Materials at the University
of Birmingham, the Department of Design, Manufacture & Engineering Management at the University of Strathclyde and
three industrial partners with the support of the High-Value Manufacturing Catapult and a Knowledge Transfer Network.
This complete chain linking organisations involved in research, equipment design and manufacture, knowledge transfer
and end use ensures the relevance of the work and rapid dissemination and exploitation of the results.

(i) Beneficiaries
In addition to the academic community (see the Academic Beneficiaries section), the project will also benefit industrial
users of 3D formed panels requiring parts that are economically and sustainably produced. Another group of industrial
beneficiaries will be machinery builders planning to enter the multi-point forming (MPF) equipment market. A third group of
beneficiaries will be 3D panel suppliers who will require MPF systems to produce panels for end users.
(ii) Benefits
The project will generate both economic and environmental benefits.
The possibility to have 3D panels manufactured cost-effectively and sustainably using flexible, programmable and quickly
adaptable MPF systems will enlarge the multi-billion pound world market for 3D panels manifold. This will directly benefit
3D panel suppliers who will see increased trade and turnovers. Also, compared to traditional means, their manufacturing
will be more efficient in material and energy usage as there will be no need to scrap used tooling and build new tools each
time the panels change. Even if the MPF system proposed in this project would only be adopted in 10% of all applications,
savings in the order of hundreds of millions could be expected.
Using the MPF machine design knowledge assembled in this project, UK machine tool builders will have the opportunity to
enter the MPF market with the most adaptable and advanced MPF system ever constructed. The project will thus help to
spawn an indigenous high-technology machine building industry producing innovative MPF systems able to compete
successfully on the world stage.
Panel users from a wide range of industrial sectors (automobile, aerospace, railway, shipbuilding and construction) will
potentially benefit from an increase in panel manufacturing efficiency and a reduction in manufacturing costs. A study by
the PI and his colleagues has shown that up to 100% in efficiency gains and more than 80% reduction in costs can be
achieved. For example, the cost of panels in thermoformed PMMA (a popular cladding material for building interiors) could
potentially be brought down from 350 Pounds/sq.m to 30 Pounds/sq.m.
(iii) Ways to engage potential beneficiaries
The project will adopt a range of instruments to ensure that the potential beneficiaries mentioned above have the
opportunity to engage with it and to maximise the likelihood of the identified benefits actually being realised for them. The
instruments employed will include industrial workshops, training courses, people exchange, newsletters, trade magazine
articles, technical publications, web portals, networking and feasibility studies.
Partners in the project have wide experience of engaging with industry and other beneficiaries of their research. The
presence in the project team of a Centre in the High-Value Manufacturing Catapult will give the project immediate access to
a large pool of potential beneficiaries, ensuring that the team will be able fully to realise the potential impact of the project.