The alloy wheel manufacturing process starts with ingots which form the input into the furnace of the melting section.
The whole wheel manufacturing process will involve some four tonnes of aluminium, which Trimet is supplying in liquid form (did you know that aluminium is shipped as a liquid? No, me neither).
Open image in new window Fig. 1 Process flow chart of A356 aluminum alloy wheel manufacturing process.
Residual stresses generated during wheel manufacturing and fitment of wheel onto axle are considered in the study.
The stability of wheel microstructures during thermo-mechanical loading and the effects of alloying elements commonly used in wheel manufacturing are reviewed.
The rim chill/quench process used in wheel manufacturing aims to produce fine pearlitic microstructures to improve the hardness at the rim surface.
CNC machining is of prime importance in the process of alloy wheel manufacturing, because it is at this place where the shaping of critical dimensions takes place.
The best approach is therefore to avoid the presence of mixed microstructure during wheel manufacturing phase through optimising both composition and heat treatment procedures.
This paper starts with introduction and literature survey on DMAIC procedure in "Introduction" section and followed by mapping of manufacturing process flow of alloy wheels in "Alloy wheel manufacturing process flow study" section.
It can be concluded that the present DMAIC methodology can be readily horizontally deployed as a disciplined problem solving approach for the process engineers to solve the process-related problems in the other manufacturing cells of the A356 aluminum alloy wheel manufacturing process.
