Technical Cost Modeling Methodology for Novel Manufacturing

The automotive industry’s interest in utilizing composites within mainstream production vehicles continues to expand as it seeks methods to meet increasingly strict mileage and emissions regulations. However, traditional costing methods are incapable of determining the manufacturing costs associated with the novel materials and manufacturing processes required for high volume production of composite parts due to the lack of historical manufacturing information. This research effort develops a method that reduces the complex composite manufacturing systems to fungible, upgradable, and linkable individual processes. Employing Technical Cost Modeling (TCM), this method shall accurately quantify the value of pursuing composite manufacturing by integrating technical data from computer-aided part design simulation tools and manufacturing process modeling to deliver an accurate cost estimate. We investigate one high-volume capable, novel manufacturing process appealing to the automotive industry: hybrid molding. In hybrid molding, a structural preform is over-molded with a thermoplastic to create the final part. The Composite Manufacturing & Simulation Center has developed an intensive part performance design model to determine optimal processing conditions which are used as process inputs for the TCM.