Developing a cost model for aerospace laser beam welding technology

Abstract

Consulta en la Biblioteca ETSI Industriales (Riunet)

[EN] Significant percentage of the total unit cost of the product is committed in the early stage of design phase. Therefore, developing a cost model will lead to optimise the product design estimating its cost and obtaining a cost reduction from it. Manufacturing process cost models are key elements for developing a whole aircraft engine cost model which will allow aerospace industry to achieve cost reductions in the total unit cost of the product. Laser Beam Welding (LBW) is a key process in manufacturing Gas Turbine Components for aerospace industry. Due to its advantages, greater productivity and low cost, Laser Beam Welding has been applied steadily in recent years resulting a versatile joining process. The aim of this project is to gather and analyse manufacturing data of Laser Beam Welding for developing manufacturing process cost model in order to estimate production cost during design stages in the aerospace industry. Therefore, the key cost drivers that are included in the cost model are joint weld geometry, manufacturing variables, the different labour, consumable material and machinery costs. The methodology involves capturing knowledge about LBW in the aircraft industry in order to analyse capability data understanding the influence of design and manufacturing parameters. LBW cost model is built from deep statistical analysis of historical data which was used to develop the parametric equations driven by relevant process variables. Subsequently, the cost model was validated with several weld assays in order to guarantee its high fidelity estimation of total unit cost and total unit time. The main benefit of the LBW cost model is the fact that it accurately estimates the manufacturing cost during early design stages leading to reduce and optimise the manufacturing time and cost of the whole aircraft engine. Moreover, it will be used as a manufacturing guideline for performing design parameters improving interactions and performances between manufacturing and design processes. Therefore, the proposed cost directly leads to accurate cost estimation and product quality improvement.