2016 , Gonzalez-Ojeda, Roberto , Quintana, MarÃa José , Verdeja, Luis Felipe
DMAIC in the automotive sector is applied to the design and manufacturing processes of structural steel parts in order to assess variability in mechanical properties of the raw materials, use of different types of steel in the same part, modifications in thickness of the steel sheet and even changes in geometry to produce lighter and stronger parts. The work presents an example of three stamped automotive structural components, mechanically interacting together when deformed under load. Minitab design of experiments module was used to evaluate two level factors, one of them being the thickness of each part, and the other the material properties: DP600, DP780 steel or a boron-based steel alloy. A FEM model of the three parts, with structural supports and loads, was performed to evaluate displacement of the system, max. equivalent stress, strain and total weight, allowing data correlation to determine best practices to accomplish low weight, high stiffness designs. Copyright © 2016 MS&T16®.