An Experimental Study to Determine the Feasibility of Implementing Process Control to Reduce Part Variation in a Stamping Plant

Minimization of part variation has been a challenging topic for both researchers and engineers. Variations in final stamping parts could come from numerous sources such as incoming material, lubricant, processing parameters, environment, automation, etc. Identifying the cause of the variations is not only time consuming, but also a continuously changing process. In this paper, experiments are reviewed which were conducted to examine the feasibility of implementing closed-loop process control to reduce dimensional variations on an in-production 3D part. Specifically, the effects of punch force (PF) and binder force (BF) on part dimensions are studied. For our particular application, proper control of both PF and BF is necessary to control the dimensional variations of the part.