Cost estimating sheet metal manufacturing and fabricated parts and products generally consists of a few basic manufacturing processes namely, cutting a blank to size, brake forming, welding, grinding, deburring and finishing (whether it be chemical coating or painting.)
This sheet presents a method for the feature oriented quotation costing of sheet metal parts based
on a specifically extended, cost oriented product model.
The manufacturing of sheet metal parts in large scale production is mostly done with progressive dies. The design and production of such progressive dies leads to an essential part of the menufacturing costs. The quotation costing for this manufacturing technology must intergrate a special estimate of the tool costs.
At the moment a computer-aided modular system for quotation costing of sheet metal parts is being developed and implemented at the Chair of Manufacturing Technology. The original CAD-model of the workpiece is supplemented towards a cost oriented product model in the module "feature analysis" by evaluating the form features with cost information.