Reengineering of production process of pressing long-length products from high-strength aluminium alloys

A hybrid technology of reengineering of the existing hot-pressing production process of long-length products from high-strength aluminium alloys is suggested. At the first stage of design functional and structural models of the existing process are constructed, through the analysis of which functional and structural models of the designed production process are formed. The construction of models involves IDEF-design methods which are a further development of SADT methodology of structured analysis and design of complex systems. The structural model of the designed process is presented in graphical language IDEF3. Further, by means of methods of functional and structural, functional and constructive, structural and constructive integration search and optimization of the technological devices realizing the required production functions is carried out. Such technologies have been used in the development of complex aerospace systems. In the process of reengineering the existing production process of pressing products from high-strength aluminium alloys, a design of an energy and material-saving automated production process has been developed, in which, unlike the existing process on one unit in a continuous process flow, the main technological operations of plastic deformation, additional heating, heat hardening and straightening of the pressed products are carried out directly on the output bed of the press. A part of the technical solutions of the project passed industrial testing on a the press complex with a force of 50 MN. The suggested production process is universal and can be applied both in production of long-length products from high-strength and low easily deformable aluminium alloys.