PROGRESS DURING SAFE, REPRODUCIBLE DRAWING PROCESS FOR CAR BODY MANUFACTURING

R. Neugebauer

IWU Chemnitz

1 Introduction

Car making is a key industry in most industrialized countries. This in particular holds true for Germany were almost every seventh job, including automotive subcontracting industry, depends directly or indirectly on the automotive industry [1].
The conflict that really exists in the automotive industry between the continuously increasing demands for better driving safety, more comfort, flexibility, etc., and the legal, ecological and economic restrictions such as reduction of environmental pollution, light-weight design, minimization of noise pollution and emissions results in increasing requirements to the manufacture of parts. Stability and reproducibility of the manufacture of car body parts are important factors for the level of costs and quality. These factors have an essential influence on the productivity of a pressing plant. The investment volume of approx. 300 million DM required for the erection and equipment of the pressing plant [2] makes it clear that there is a demand for an efficient utilization of the plants capacity just for economical reasons. However, process stability is not only a question of economic efficiency. Concealed defects in quality which are not detected immediately result in a reduced functional value of the product for the customer. This gives him reason enough to be dissatisfied. Finally, the sales figures may decline. Therefore, the constant improvement of quality in any place of the process chain has top priority.