 | 2014 |
Abstract:
The small batch production of space-frame-structures is realized with an innovative manufacturing process chain. This process chain allows the production of three-dimensionally curved extrusion profiles. Profiles are shaped directly after leaving the extrusion press and guided through the room by industrial robots. Currently profiles are extruded one at a time. The deficit of the actual manufacturing installation is the material waste at the beginning and at the end of the extrusion of one profile. To increase the sustainability, a new approach is to reduce this material waste through continuous manufacturing. An optimization algorithm for an automatic determination of the manufacturing sequence of diverse profiles was developed. In this way multiple profiles are produced in only one extrusion batch and the material waste is drastically reduced.