Process Control for Post-Form Heat Treating Parts for an Assembly Operation
AssigneeFord Motor Company
InventorsBrett D. Irick, Jerome A. Berendt, Richard J. Hare, Stephen Kernosky, Laurent Bernard Chappuis, James Engle
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A manufacturing process including a quality control procedure for verifying the completion of forming processes, heat treating and chemically treating parts. Sheet formed blanks, tubular blanks, extrusions and casting are traced through a manufacturing process from the time the parts are received. Metallurgical data relating to parts as received is recorded and marked on the parts. Forming data, heat treating data and chemical treating data may also be recorded by scanning and marking parts throughout the manufacturing process.
Claims18
A manufacturing process for a part made from a blank of age-hardenable material, the process comprising:
- recording blank data relating to the blank in a database;
- forming the blank into a part and recording part data relating to forming the part;
- and
- heat treating to artificially age the part and recording heat treating data relating to a time of treatment and a temperature of the heat treating to verify that the part is hardened.
A part manufacturing process comprising:
- selecting a blank formed of an age-hardenable material and recording blank data in a database relating to a metallurgical condition of the blank;
- forming and trimming the blank into a part having a desired shape in a plurality of forming and trimming steps and recording forming data relating to the completion of the forming and trimming steps in the database;
- heating the part to artificially age the part and recording heating data relating to a time and a temperature of the heating step in the database;
- and
- chemically treating the part to apply a conversion coating to the part and recording chemical treating data relating to the chemically treating step in the database.
A manufacturing process comprising:
- selecting a blank and recording blank data in a database relating to a metallurgical condition of the blank;
- forming and trimming the blank into a part having a desired shape in a plurality of forming and trimming steps and recording forming data relating to the completion of the forming and trimming steps in the database;
- and
- chemically treating the part to apply a conversion coating to the part and recording treating data relating to the chemically treating step in the database.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.