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Assembly

Geometry or Cost Engine Changes that Could Impact Configured Digital Factories

The following changes might impact costing, even for Digital Factories that use earlier cost model versions.

  • ContactRegion and ContactGroup GCDs: This release introduces new GCD types that support the modeling of welding, sealing, and bonding (see Cost Model Changes that Do Not Affect Configured Digital Factories , below). The extraction of the new GCD types does not affect users of old cost models, except for the appearance of the new GCDs in the Geometric Cost Drivers pane.

    All GCD types that were previously extracted are still extracted in this release, so the logic of old cost models is compatible with the new extraction behavior. However, users of old cost models who do not wish to incur the extra extraction time required for contact analysis can set the site variable enableContactAnalysis to false, which disables extraction of the new GCD types.

    Note:

    Scenarios created with previous releases of aPriori are not compatible with the latest cost model. Users of the latest cost model must re-extract GCDs using the latest release of aPriori.

  • Weld Recognition: This release introduces the site variable maxDistanceFromWeldToRegionMm, which specifies the maximum distance at which a Weld is considered to Lie On a ContactRegion. The site variable's default value is 10mm, since Pro fillet welds may be represented as an angled surface located some distance (the design throat) from the joint to be welded. Users who do not model welds as Creo Weld features may wish to set maxDistanceFromWeldToRegionMm to 0.

Bug Fixes or Small Improvements to Prior Cost Model Versions

The following changes might impact costing for Digital Factories that use earlier cost model versions.

  • NO IMPACT

Cost Model Changes that Do Not Affect Configured Digital Factories

The following changes do not affect costings with Digital Factories that use earlier cost model versions. The changes are available only in the latest cost model version.

  • Pick and Place Process Load Operation (impacts Cycle Time and Labor Time): This release improves estimates of the time and labor required to load the assembly Subcomponents.

    In the previous release, Load labor times were looked by weight in the lookup table componentLoadTime. Cycle times were the result of dividing labor time by the number of operators (which was specified by a machine property).

    In this release, Load cycle times are looked up in componentLoadTime by weight and Subcomponent's largest dimension (length, width, or height). Labor time is now the product of cycle time and the number of loading operators, which is also looked up in componentLoadTime by weight and Subcomponent's largest dimension.

    The lookup table componentLoadTime includes updated data. The Load Time column now contains cycle times rather than labor times (as mentioned above). In addition, the table includes the new columns Part Max Dimension, Num Operators, and Equipment Description.

    As a result of these changes, Load operation cycle time and labor time may change.

  • Pick and Place Assembly Unloading (impacts Cycle Time and Labor Time): This release improves estimates of the time and labor required to unload the completed assembly.

    In the previous release, unload labor time was looked up by assembly weight in the lookup table unloadWeldmentAlowance. Cycle time for unloading was the result of dividing labor time by the number of operators (which was specified by a setup option or machine property).

    In this release, unloading cycle time is looked up in componentLoadTime by weight and assembly's largest dimension (length, width, or height). Labor time is now the product of cycle time and the number of unloading operators, which is also looked up in componentLoadTime by weight and assembly's largest dimension.

    As a result of these changes, Pick and Place cycle time and labor time may change.

  • Pick and Place Process Labor Time and Cycle Time: This release updates assumptions about task parallelism in the Pick and Place process.

    In the previous release, tasks were assumed to be sped up or slowed down by an increase or decrease in the number of operators (as specified by a setup option or machine property), so process cycle time was process labor time divided by the number of operators.

    In this release, cycle time is no longer assumed to be affected by the number of operators. Labor time for a given task is the product of cycle time and the number of operators for that task. The number of operators for clamping is specified by machine property Number of Operators. The number of operators for loading and unloading is looked up in the lookup table componentLoadTime. The setup option Number of Operators has been removed.

    These changes affect labor time and cycle time for the Pick and Place process.

  • Pick and Place Clamping Operation: (impacts Cycle Time and Labor Time): This release improves clamping time estimates by using two new GCDs:

    • ContactRegion GCD: represents a region of contact between two parts in an assembly.
    • ContactGroup GCD: represents the group of ContactRegions between a pair of Subcomponents. In previous releases, the Pick and Place process Clamping operation was performed once on each Subcomponent of an assembly with welds, and clamping time was looked up by Subcomponent weight in the lookup table xtraLoadTime. In this release, Clamping is performed on each ContactGroup GCD that has an associated weld. Clamping time is now based, by default, on an estimate of the number of clamps required for all the ContacGroup's welded ContactRegions. (Clamping associated with adhesive bonding is now accounted for by the new Clamping operation of the Adhesive Bonding process--see Adhesive Bonding, below.) The lookup table xtraLoadTime is no longer used by the Assembly process group. The new lookup table clamps stores assumptions about clamp spacing and default application times for different clamp types (manual or automatic).

  • Assembly Reorientation (impacts cycle time and labor time): This release improves estimates of the time and labor required to reorient an assembly (for example, to apply welds to joints which are not accessible from the original orientation).

    In the previous release, the user specified the number of reorientations by manually assigning the Rorient operation (of the Pick and Place process) to one or more Subcomponents. Each operation instance modeled one reorientation. The labor time per reorientation was specified by setup option or cost model variable.

    In this release, the user specifies the number of reorientations with a setup option defined by the welding processes. The Reorient operation of the Pick and Place process has been removed. The per-reorientation cycle time depends, by default, on a number of factors, including assembly weight and largest dimension and whether the welding process is automated.

    This change can impact labor time and cycle time for welding processes and for the Pick and Place process.

  • Welding Operator Positioning (impacts manual welding cycle time and labor time): This release improves the estimate of the time required for welder positioning and repositioning.

    In the previous release, the cost model assumed that welders position themselves once per weld segment. In this release, for manual welding, the number of positions per weld segment is based on the length of the segment and on the value of the new machine property Welder Reach.

    In addition, this release increases from 2 to 10 seconds the time per reposition, which is specified by the machine property Gun Placement Time.

    Note:

    If you are using the latest Assembly cost model, use the latest Regional Data Libraries or manually add the property Welder Reach and update the value of Gun Placement Time for the machines in you Digital Factory.

    As a result of this enhancement, the cycle time for welds shorter than 6 inches increases by 8 seconds compared to the previous release. Welds longer than 6 inches increase by 10 seconds for every additional 6 inches of length (in addition to the 8-second increase for the first 6 inches).

  • Adhesive Bonding (impacts cycle time and expendable tooling cost): this release improves cost estimates for adhesive bonding by using the new ContactRegion GCD, which represents a region of contact between two parts in an assembly.

    In the previous release, users included adhesive bonding in a scenario by manually including the Adhesive Bonding process in the process routing. Adhesive bonding was then assumed to be applied to a certain percentage of the assembly's total surface area (where the percentage was specified by cost model variable or setup option).

    In this release, you include adhesive bonding by manually assigning the new operation Adhesive Bonding to those ContactRegion GCDs that represent the regions of contact to which bonding should be applied. Bonding times and costs depend on the area of each ContactRegion.

    In addition, in this release, a new Clamping operation is automatically included for all ContacRegions assigned to Adhesive Bonding. Clamping time is based, by default, on an estimate of the number of clamps required for the length and width of each ContactRegion.

    The new lookup table clamps stores assumptions about clamp spacing and default application times for different clamp types (manual or automatic).

    Note:

    For scenarios created with previous releases, if you are using the latest cost model you must do one of the following:

    • Re-extract GCDs using the latest release of aPriori (recommended).
    • Use the new setup option Total Area Being Bonded (under the Adhesive Bonding process node in the process options editor) to enter an estimate of the total area to be bonded.

  • Fay Sealing (impacts cycle time and expendable tooling cost): this release improves cost estimates for fay sealing by using the new ContactRegion GCD, which represents a region of contact between two parts in an assembly.

    In the previous release, users included fay sealing in a scenario by manually including the Fay Sealing process in the process routing. Fay sealing was then assumed to be applied to a certain percentage of the assembly's total surface area (where the percentage was specified by cost model variable or setup option).

    In this release, you include fay sealing by manually assigning the new operation Fay Sealing to those ContactRegion GCDs that represent the regions of contact to which sealing should be applied. Sealing times and costs depend on the area of each ContactRegion.

    Note:

    For scenarios created with previous releases, if you are using the latest cost model you must do one of the following:

    • Re-extract GCDs using the latest release of aPriori (recommended).
    • Use the new setup option Total Area Being Sealed (under the Fay Sealing process node in the process options editor) to enter an estimate of the total area to be sealed.