Ford Enhances Manufacturing Efficiency with Altair Knowledge Studio

Sheet metal stamping is a crucial process in the automotive manufacturing industry, with a variety of tool, die, and process combinations used to create a diverse range of components. Traditionally, identifying the optimal stamping process for a specific part design has been a labor-intensive and time-consuming task, heavily reliant on the knowledge and skill level of the stamping engineer. Ford Mexico sought to address this issue by documenting successful metal stamping production runs over a five-year period. The goal was to capture in-house domain knowledge and best practices to expedite the selection of the best stamping process for future production runs. This would enable increased plant efficiency and part quality, reduction of scrap material, and the ability to rapidly train new personnel. However, the challenge lay in the growing design complexity, non-conventional material types, and numerous process combinations that could challenge even the most experienced process engineer, necessitating a labor and material intensive trial-and-error prove-out process.

Ford Motor Company is a Fortune 50 automotive company that operates plants all over the world and produces millions of vehicles every year. Quality, efficiency, and time-to-market are all critical to its profitability and sales growth. More than 30 years ago, Ford began working with Altair to support the company’s product development activities. Today, the company employs Altair software globally to support the development of Ford cars, trucks, and heavy equipment. In many production facilities, there are multiple sheet metal stamping processes available to form nested and individual parts. These include progressive, transfer and tandem press lines.