DFMA (Design for Manufacture and Assembly)

DFMA stand for “Design for Manufacture and Assembly” and is a methodology that Engineers/Designers can use when creating new products. When applying the DFMA practices up front in product design, the Designer will be looking to create parts that are both cost effective to manufacture and assemble. One high impact way to reduce assembly times and the associated costs is to reduce the part count in the final assembly. The Steiner Autofacer can help in some of these instances by allowing for the machining of features that may have not been previously possible or cost effective to machine.

In the simplified example below, a 12 piece housing assembly is made up of two halves in order to machine the bearing bores inside of the housing. This requires two individual machined housing parts to be manufactured and inventoried, and when assembling requires the time to install 7 cap screws.

However if upfront during the design process the Engineers/Designers are aware of manufacturing solutions such as the Steiner Autofacer, they may have been able to significantly reduce the overall costs of the assembly. In the revised example, the two halves of the housing have been combined into a single part. With the use of a Steiner Autofacer the bearing bores can be accurately machined from the outside of the part while piloting off of the smaller thru hole. The new housing assembly has only 4 parts and a significantly reduced assembly time as all the fasteners have been eliminated.

At some point in time most all product designs there are going to be a need to go through a cost reduction analysis. An excellent methodology to use when going about this is the principles of DFMA. The Steiner Autofacer can be an excellent tool to help apply some of these methodologies and remove costs from your parts and assemblies. For more information on DFMA check out www.dfma.com

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