IATF 16949 and Quality Management in Automotive Industry

IATF 16949 is a quality management standard tailored specifically for the automotive sector. It delineates the requirements for the establishment, implementation, maintenance, and continuous enhancement of a quality management system. The primary objective of the standard is to improve customer satisfaction by ensuring that organizations consistently fulfill customer and regulatory expectations. The key focus areas include:

Leadership Commitment: A strong emphasis on the involvement of top management.

Risk Management: A focus on identifying and mitigating potential risks.

Customer Focus: Prioritizing customer satisfaction within organizational processes.

Continuous Improvement: Promoting the ongoing enhancement of processes and systems.

IATF 16949 is integrated with ISO 9001 and is vital for suppliers within the automotive supply chain to guarantee quality and reliability.

The standard underscores several fundamental quality management tools and processes that are crucial for maintaining product quality in the automotive industry. Below is a overview of each:

APQP (Advanced Product Quality Planning): A systematic approach to product development that emphasizes quality planning throughout the product lifecycle, enabling teams to identify and resolve potential quality issues at an early stage.

FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis): A structured technique for assessing processes to pinpoint potential failures and evaluate their consequences. This method is utilized to prioritize risks and implement necessary corrective measures.

SPC (Statistical Process Control): A technique for monitoring and controlling processes using statistical methods. It aids in detecting variations and enhancing process performance to ensure consistent product quality.

MSA (Measurement System Analysis): A procedure for assessing the accuracy and reliability of measurement systems. It guarantees that measurements are consistent and valid, which is essential for effective quality control.

PPAP (Production Part Approval Process): A standardized process to ensure that suppliers meet the required quality standards before mass production begins.

The technologies that are transforming the manufacturing industry in 2024 and beyond

3D printing: 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, can create complex and customized products with less material waste, lower production costs, and faster delivery times. It can also enable on-demand manufacturing, mass customization, and distributed production which is a game changer in r&d and small batch production.

Robotics and automation: Robots can perform various manufacturing tasks, such as assembly, painting, welding, and inspection, with high speed, accuracy, and efficiently. They can also reduce human intervention, labor costs, and errors and lead the efficiency in production.

The Internet of Things (IoT): IoT can connect and collect data from sensors on the factory floor and industrial equipment, enabling real-time monitoring, optimization, and automation of manufacturing processes. It can also improve supply chain visibility, product quality, and predictive maintenance, help in decision making and optimize the business processes efficiently.

Electric Motor and its application

 

Limitations of VAVE in Indian Domestic Market

Similar to other technique, value engineering has its own limitations. The most common limitations are that the man-made excuses are the blocks in implementing these plans of value engineering. The most common limitations are as follows.

·       Lack of motivation
·       Resistive to change or adopt new techniques
·       Inertia to do something innovative
·       Lack of knowledge and patience
·       Attitude of ‘It will not work in India
·       We are very small or very big industry
·       This has been tried earlier and failed
·       The change is too big
·       Let competitors try before we try
·       Difficulty of teams meeting or team meeting for getting consensus

 

DISTORTION IN CARBONITRIDING AND NITRO-CARBURIZING HEAT TREATMENT PROCESS

 Hardening of a material is to be done to increase the strength and wear properties.

Case Depth = Distance from Surface to Hardness Limit

Distortion is the major concern in heat treatment process and it is the unexpected or inconsistent change in size and shape of the part.

Size distortion is the result of changes in the metallurgical structure that accompany phase transformations. In Heat treatment, the volume expansion and contraction associated with the crystal structure results in change to the volume and linear dimensions of the part such as elongation, shrinkage, thickening, and thinning. Shape distortion originate from the applied stresses that exceeds the elastic limit of the material and results change the geometrical form of the part, which can include twisting, bending, and non symmetrical dimensions.

Carbonitriding and Nitro-carburizing are both thermo-chemical diffusion process, which utilize the diffusion of carbon and nitrogen to increase the hardness and wear resistance at the surface. Although, both the processes takes place at different temperatures and lead to distortion in the part. However, the main advantage of nitro-carburizing is the minimal distortion associated with the process due to the absence of the phase transformation from austenite to martensite.

In gas nitro-carburizing, the part is heated at the temperature around 570 degrees Celsius, mixed gases with the main ingredient of ammonia gas is added which creates carbides and nitrides to form a compound layer on the surface of the material and resulting in a diffusion layer underneath. This formative nitride layer improves mechanical properties such as wear resistance and strength of the steel part.

Gas nitro-carburizing process can accommodate the trend towards lightening more compact parts from the popularization of electric vehicles and it is considered more eco-friendly heat treatment method that is why it continues to increase and is adapted by the manufacturing industries.

In carbonitriding, parts are heated in a sealed chamber into the austenitic range around 850 degrees celsius before nitrogen and carbon are added. The part is heated into the austenitic range of temperature, a phase change in the steel’s crystal structure takes place which allows carbon and nitrogen atoms to diffuse into the part.

Experimental Results

Conclusion: The Nitro-carburizing process can be the perfect replacement of carbonitriding heat treatment when low carbon steel(SAE 1010, SAE 1018, IS513 etc) is subjected to the light load applications, close fitting assemblies where wear resistance is required at part surface. Nitro-carburizing of low carbon steel gives you less dimensional changes in size and shape as compared to carbonitriding. The minimal changes associated with nitrocarburizing process lays in lower temperature and lack of phase transformation from austenite to martensite.

GRAB THE BENEFITS OF AUTODESK INVENTOR NASTRAN

Autodesk Inventor Nastran embedded with FEA Technology is a mechanical simulation tool, which was developed by Autodesk Inc. USA. Initially, the Nastran software was developed for NASA but now adopted by Autodesk as well which offers FEA simulation capabilities. This software simulates the mechanical structures and analyze the environmental conditions in order to check the responses of the structure. This tool is useful to simulate the linear and nonlinear FEA studies.

Apart from general engineering materials, Nastran can also be used to simulate and analyze the latest advanced materials, including composites, plastic, nonlinear elastic, shape memory, hyperelastic, viscoelastic, and brittle materials such as concrete.

It considers the unit system from the CAD, which is attached to the simulation, or else you can also set the units as per the requirements.

If we talk about the number of analyses capabilities, which we can perform, using Inventor Nastran then it supports a wide range of it. First, it is important that you understand the requirements, outputs, and limitations of the analysis type before using it. You can perform the below analysis types by using the software such as;

1. Linear Static
2. Normal Modes
3. Linear Buckling
4. Prestress Static
5. Prestress Normal Modes
6. Nonlinear Static
7. Nonlinear Buckling
8. Direct Transient Response
9. Modal Transient Response
10. Nonlinear Transient Response
11. Direct Frequency Response
12. Modal Frequency Response
13. Random Response
14. Shock/Response Spectrum
15. Multi-Axial Fatigue
16. Vibration Fatigue
17. Linear Steady State Heat Transfer
18. Nonlinear Steady State Heat Transfer
19. Nonlinear Transient Heat Transfer

Inventor Nastran has also enabled the solution for contact analysis; you can set the contact type and tolerance, performance connectors simulation such as bolt etc.. This gives you the power to optimize the mesh to obtain the accurate results.

You can generate the line mesh, which can be used in uniform cross-sectional structures, mid surface mesh and shell mesh for sheet metal parts and solid mesh to generate the solid elements in the structure.

Meshing is the critical operation in FEA so it must be done with real scenarios in the study. In Finite Element Analysis, mesh size is very important; it is closely related to the accuracy and number of the element required in the mesh. By increasing the elements in the simulation, you get better and better results but once you get the optimum size of the mesh to obtain accurate result, it will not effect or difference is very less in the results more an less, you cannot change the other parameters of the simulation.  In other words, keep refining the mesh until you see no difference in your results.

The best part of this product is, Autodesk provides the subscription based licensed for this software at a very economical price. User can subscribe the license based on the need and work, so there is no extra cost for the product. It helps a lot to the independent consultant in order to offer their services at minimum cost. User can opt for the monthly or yearly subscriptions.

Autodesk Inventor Nastran is available as a standalone and network license, which provides consistent user experience, eliminate the need for multiple simulation technologies and delivers CAD-embedded workflow. In this, you can manage the license, transfer the license and it available only in the Product Design & Manufacturing Collection. To try the software capabilities you need to download the Inventor Nastran software and use its trial version free of cost.  For downloading the software use the below given link and you can also extract the price information details, system requirements, OS etc. as per needs.

Autodesk Inventor Nastran