Development in broaching technology. Part I. Development of broaching machines and tooling devices

The paper structured into three parts outlines the present state of the broaching technology. The first part highlights possible process variants for internal and external operations and designs of broaching machines as well as CNC control systems and other advanced automatization forms. The second part will be devoted to the progressive broaching methods such as rotary broaching, hard broaching and MQL application. The third part will discuss some important directions of experimental investigations carrying out for more efficient and reliable broaching processes.

A Framework and Tool Support for Managing a Family of Business Process Variants

Business organizations maintain business processes with multiple variants because of varied business requirements of which the support of these multiple business process variants constitutes a big challenge. BPPLE tool demonstration presents an extension of Eclipse BPMN modeller to cope with the modelling, and customization of business processes at build time and run time to compose the business process variants it may have. BPPLE tool is based on the Business Process Product Line Engineering (BPPLE) approach, our proposed approach for managing a family of business process variants. We have applied BPPLE in the scenarios such as the student registration in a higher education institution. Tests carried out showed that BPPLE tool enables the customization of business process models or instances to compose business process variant models or instances, respectively.

Targeted residual stress generation in single and two point incremental sheet forming (ISF)

The mechanical properties and the operating life of a formed component are highly dependent on the residual stress state. There is always a high magnitude of residual stresses in the components formed by incremental sheet forming (ISF) due to the localized deformation mechanism. Hence, a thorough understanding of the generation of the residual stresses by ISF is necessary. This study investigates the residual stress generation mechanism for two process variants of ISF, i.e., Single Point Incremental Forming (SPIF) and Two Point Incremental Forming (TPIF). This understanding is used to control and targetedly generate the residual stresses to improve the part performance. In this regard, the residual stress state in a truncated cone geometry manufactured using SPIF and disc springs manufactured using TPIF was experimentally analyzed. Validated numerical models for both process variants were developed to study the residual stresses in detail. The residual stress state in SPIF is such that the tool contact side develops tensile residual stresses and the non-contact side undergoes compressive residual stresses. The tool step-down variation was used to control residual stresses and improve the fatigue strength of truncated cones manufactured using SPIF. For TPIF, two different forming strategies were used to analyze the residual stress generation mechanism and the role of major process parameters. The residual stresses for TPIF are pre-dominantly compressive in both directions of forming tool motion. For both process variants of the ISF process, it is shown that the residual stresses can be beneficially utilized to improve mechanical properties of the components.

Flexible Process Model Mapping using Relaxation Labeling

Computing a mapping between two process models is a crucial technique, since it enables reasoning and operating across processes, like providing a similarity score between two processes, or merging different process variants to generate a consolidated process model. In this paper we present a new flexible technique for process model mapping, based on the relaxation labeling constraint satisfaction algorithm. The technique can be instantiated so that different modes are devised, depending on the context. For instance, it can be adapted to the case where one of the mapped process models is incomplete, or it can be used to ground an adaptable similarity measure between process models. The approach has been implemented inside the open platform NLP4BPM, providing a visualization of the performed mappings and computed similarity scores. The experimental results witness the flexibility and usefulness of the technique proposed.