Foldable load carrier : Product development and prototyping

Sammanfattning: Keywords: Material management, load carrier, product development process, CAD, CAE, CAM In this master thesis a foldable load carrier was developed as part of improved material management at AQ Components in Västerås. One of their product lines involves service hatches for trains that are transported within the facility throughout the manufacturing process. Currently, a custom-built load carrier is used to transport the hatches between assembling and painting stations. Unfortunately, the carrier has design and systematic flaws that needs to be resolved. The current carrier is not very protective and occupies a lot of space. The hatches also return from the painting station in an unpredictable order. Before investing in solutions, the subject of material management was studied further. This is a branch within logistics that focus on the internal material flow within industries. Companies that wish to stay competitive continuously invest in improved material management to achieve more profitable material flow, increased capacity, increased regularity and availability, better ergonomics and goods protection. The thesis work followed a classic product development process with focus on a synthesis-analysis loop. After establishing a project plan, the current solution was investigated where the customer need was identified in a product specification. Five concepts were generated and screened, where the most objectively advantageous concept was developed. The new carrier was designed using CAD, in parallel to structural analysis using both CAE and theoretical calculations. The manufacturing process utilizes the sheet metal specialization of AQ Components, where the components were tactically nested using CAM for material efficient laser cutting. Prototyping was carried out before hand over, to ensure the carrier works as well in practise as in theory. The developed load carrier is designed with an outer protective frame, with scratch resistant arms for inserting the service hatches. The frame is foldable with two lockable positions for in and out of use. Once folded, the width is reduced to 1/3rd of the original width. With further safety analysis the carrier can then also be hanged away (with forklift) so that it practically occupies no space at all. The carrier can be transported by forklift in pairs or more, with a total capacity of at least 20 service hatches. The carrier is equipped with an intuitive tracking system, where the carriers and slots are marked. This allows the hatches to return in the order they were sent. The carrier and solution deliver not only on the product specification, but also on the key objectives of improved material management.