Die Manufacturing Process: the best flow from the idea to the delivery

This thesis is the result of my six months internship at FCA Mirafiori Die Shop. The objective of my internship is to study current die engineering and manufacturing workflow and weak point elimination activities. At the beginning of my internship, I attended a training period regarding all activities in stamping technology department, die engineering department and die manufacturing department, in order to understand the internal die development process, including die feasibility, die process, die design, die simulation, milling path design, machining, assembly, benchwork, try-out and quality control. Moreover, some basic knowledge of project management and validation method have been acquired. After this period, I started to follow weak point elimination activities. I participated in some exhibitions and visits to find new technologies and benchmarks to make up our weak point. Having acquired a panoramic vision of die manufacturing process and some thoughts for the improvement, I began my activities contained in this thesis. Chapter 1 briefly introduces the main procedures of automotive production, the process of metal parts stamping, the operation and classification of different automotive dies, in order to explain what we are talking about in this thesis. Chapter 2 gives an overview of the complete die development process in FCA die shop at the beginning. And then describes each operation in detail, especially manufacturing activities which is the focus of this thesis. Chapter 3 indicates a weak point in current die manufacturing workflow and introduces three innovative technologies alternative in market which can be potential solutions. Chapter 4 further studies the technology we selected, including its components, its software, its installation, its benefits and benchmark of other die makers. Chapter 5 shows the new die manufacturing process and new machining area lay-out after using the technology we selected. Calculates the improvement of working time and manufacturing cost. Finally, makes a conclusion of the improvements for the complete die manufacturing process after using the selected new technology.