Detta examensarbete på C-nivå har genomförts i samarbete med Kongsberg Automotive i Mullsjö som utvecklar och tillverkar komponenter till fordons-industrin.Företaget har fått reklamationer på en växelväljare i deras sortiment och är en produkt som sitter i kundens lastbilar och bussar. Felen har uppträtt relativt sällan men med tillräckligt stor marginal för att de ska klassas som allvarliga fel. Dessa fel är kopplade till den magnetarm som kommunicerar med transmissionen i fordonet och konsekvensen av dessa fel blir att fordonet blir obrukbart och måste bärgas bort.Syftet med detta examensarbete är att författaren på ett ingenjörsmässigt sätt ska angripa problemen med magnetarmen till växelväljaren på så sätt att grundorsaken bakom kan säkerställas. Målet för arbetet är att hitta dessa grundorsaker till varför magnetarmen går sönder, eller hoppas ur sitt läge, samt att ta fram en design som hindrar att problemen uppstår igen.För att strukturera arbetet har författaren använt sig av en problemlösningsmetod som heter Six Sigma DMAIC. Det är den här metoden som hela projektet och därmed rapporten är uppbyggt kring.Författaren kom fram till att grundorsakerna till problemen som uppstått med magnetarmen hade grundat sig i konstruktionen av de komponenter som sköter funktionen med produktens växelknappar. Deras konstruktion har gjort det möjligt för föraren att felaktigt kunna aktivera två knappar samtidigt vilket ledde till att produkten påverkats på fel sätt.Examensarbetet resulterade i ett koncept som tillsammans med företagets egna framtagna lösning tar bort de bakomliggande grundorsakerna och förhindrar att problemen kan uppstå igen. / This bachelor thesis has been executed in cooperation with Kongsberg Auto-motive AB, Mullsjö, who develop and produce parts to the automotive industry.The company has received complaints on a gear lever unit which they produce and which sits in the customers’ trucks and buses. The failures have occurred relatively infrequently, but with enough margins to classify them as serious failures. These failures are connected to that magnet arm in the product which communicates with the transmission of the vehicle and leads to the consequence of an unusable truck that is in need of towing.The intent with this thesis is that the author should tackle the problems with the magnet arm on an engineering basis so that the root causes to the problems can be ascertained. The goal is to find these root causes to why the magnet arm breaks, or dislocates, and generate a design that prevents the problems from reappearing.To structure the work the author has used a method for problem solving called Six Sigma DMAIC which is the base for the whole project and therefore the thesis.Through extensive analyzes the author ascertained that the root causes for the problems with the magnet arm came from the design of parts, relating to the knob of the product, that enables two buttons to simultaneously be activated.The thesis resulted in a concept which together with the company´s solution removes the underlying root causes and prevents the problem from reappearing.

In recent years, the field of design has met new grounds with the growing awareness among design researchers of the potential relationships between cognitive studies of creativity and computational modeling. The turn of the studies has given rise to the emergence of a new paradigm of modeling and understanding mental processes in creative design. This study tries to gain further insight into the creative occurrence by blending virtual experiences with designer actions in a model of creative thinking in concept generation phase based on the Geneplore Model by Finke et al. (1995) and supported by analogy construction incorporating the implementation of a computer based tool (Black Box) running on PC platform as a potential immanent part of the concept generation phase. Black Box is devised in such a way that the core of the constructive process of the analogy relies on the designer&amp / #8217 / s expressional, perceptual and conceptual actions which are presented in the traditional methods of sketching and writing, whereas the change and expansion of the design space is realized through the virtual worlds the tool offers via the computer screen. The research method is based on the development of Black Box tool and its subsequent implementation in a study with eight experienced design consultants, utilizing a procedure composed of preliminary interview, observational protocol analysis, questionnaire and retrospective interview. Through encoding actions of individual designers by means of their maps in the computational tool, the study yields significant results in revealing differing thinking maps of different designers which have been used to propose a general creative thinking map of concept generation in Black Box presented in a way to be adapted for further studies. Moreover, the study provided insight on the methods used to assist creativity in concept generation by different designers, on the selection of inspirational material and on the integration of analogies as knowledge transformers to evoke design concepts.

Secondary level engineering education is a relatively new field of study. This report evaluates an activity in which high school students experience simulated disabilities as they interact with and redesign consumer products. These activities are also known as empathic experiences, in which the designer is challenged to place himself or herself in the position of a lead user who pushes a product to its extremes and experiences various customer needs sooner and more acutely than the typical user. The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not these types of empathic experiences help high school students develop more innovative product ideas in a concept generation activity. The results of this study are compared with similar studies that use college students for the subject pool. Differences between subject pools are examined to identify implications for secondary engineering education and assessment. / text

Design-by-Analogy is a powerful tool to augment the traditional methods of concept generation and offers avenues to develop innovative and novel design solutions. Few tools exist to assist designers in systematically seeking and identifying analogies from within design repositories such as the United States Patent and Trademark Office patent database. A new tool for extracting functional analogies from patents has been developed to perform this task utilizing a Vector Space Model algorithm to quantitatively evaluate the functional similarity between design problems and patent descriptions of products. Initially, a Boolean Search approach was evaluated and several limitations were identified such as a lack of quantitative metrics for determining search result relevancy ranking as well as inadequate query mapping methods. Next, a Vector Space Model search tool was developed which includes extensive expansion of the Functional Basis using human-based term classification and automated document indexing techniques. The resulting functional patent controlled vocabulary consists of approximately 2,100 unique functions extracted from 65,000 randomly selected patents. The patent search database was generated by indexing 275,000 patents selected from the over 4 million patents available in digital form. A graphical user interface was developed to facilitate query vector generation, and the accompanying search result viewing interface provides data clustering and relevancy ranking. Two case studies are conducted to evaluate the efficacy of the search engine. The first case study successfully replicated the functional similarity results of a classic Design-by-Analogy problem of the guitar pickup winder. The second case study is an original design problem consisting of an automated window washer, and the results illustrate the range of analogically distant solutions that can be extracted ranging from very near-field, literal solutions to the far-field cross domain solutions. Finally, the search tool’s efficacy with regard to increasing quantity and novelty of ideas produced during Concept Generation is experimentally evaluated. The two factors evaluated are first whether analogies improved performance and second how the functionality level of the analogy impacted performance. The experimental results showed an increase in novelty for high functionality analogies compared with the control and other experimental groups. No statistically significant difference was found with regard to quantity of ideas generated. / text

SEW-Eurodrive (SEW) är ett företag som tillverkar och säljer produkter inom området elmotorer, växellådor, decentraliserad elektronik, motion control (styrning av drivsystem), frekvensomformare och servosystem. SEW-Eurodrive har i dagsläget ett flertal olika demoutrustningar för att visa olika produkters funktioner för kunder på industrimässor. Under år 2017 lanserade SEW sin nya produktfamilj, MOVI-C, inom drivelektronik. På grund av detta har en ny en komplett demoutrustning för MOVI-C utvecklats i detta projekt för att visa upp funktionerna av produktfamiljen för kunder på industrimässor. Det var sedan tidigare bestämt av teknikavdelningen på SEW hur den nya produktfamiljen skulle demonstrera sina funktioner. Projektet började med att utveckla en kravspecifikation med de krav som ställdes på demoutrustningen. Det var krav så som att den ska passa i en transportlösning och på ett tydligt sätt visa vad som demonstreras. Utifrån denna kravspecifikation har sedan en konceptgenerering gjorts. För att hitta så många helhetskoncept som möjligt har problemet brutits ner i delproblem som sedan försöktes lösas med flera dellösningar. Dellösningarna utvärderas först enskilt för att eliminera olämpliga dellösningar. I samråd med teknikavdelningen på SEW valdes några helhetskoncept ut för vidare urval genom en viktad urvalsmatris. Den viktade urvalsmatrisen betygsatte de olika helhetskoncepten inom olika kriterier och genom detta har ett helhetskoncept valts ut. En 3D-modell skapades av det utvalda helhetskonceptet och enklare hållfasthetsberäkningar, tyngdpunktsberäkningar och projekteringsberäkningar gjordes. Tillverkningsunderlag i form av ritningar och beställningslistor har tagits fram av det helhetskoncept som urvalet resulterade i. Möjliga vidareutvecklingar av det resulterande helhetskonceptet är förstyvningsvinklar som skulle göra konstruktionen mer stabil samt undersöka lösningarna för transporthjul mer. / SEW-Eurodrive (SEW) is a company that manufactures and sells products in the field of electric motors, exercise electric motors, gearboxes, decentralized electronics, motion control, frequency converters and servo systems. SEW-Eurodrive currently has a number of different demo equipment to show different product features for customers at industrial fairs. In year 2017, SEW launched its new product family, MOVI-C, in driving electronics. Because of this, a new, complete MOVI-C demo device has been developed in this project to show the features of the product family for customers at industry fairs. Before the project started the engineering department at SEW had already decided how the new demo device would demonstrate the new product family's functions. The project started with the development of a requirement specification for the demo unit. Among the requirements were that the demo unit would fit in a transport solution and clearly show what is being demonstrated. Based on this requirement specification, a concept generation was made. To find as many conceptions as possible, the main problem was broken down into sub-problems, in which multiple sub-solutions attempted to resolve. The sub-solutions were first evaluated individually to eliminate inappropriate sub-solutions. In consultation with the engineering department at SEW, some overall concepts were selected for the continued selection process through a weighted selection matrix. The weighted selection matrix rated the different concepts in a variety of criteria, and through this a whole concept has been chosen. A 3D model was created by the selected overall concept and simpler strength calculations, center of gravity calculations and design calculations were made. Manufacturing documentation in the form of drawings and order lists have been produced. Possible further developments of the resulting overall concept are stiffening angles that would make the structure more stable, as well as investigate the solutions for transport wheels more.

This master thesis treats the development of a new component in a tidal energy power plant. The technology that the component should be used in extracts energy from tidal an low velocity currents. This is done by that a turbine is placed on a kite which is pushed forward in the water due to the lifting force acting on the wing. A tether connects the kite with a bottom joint that is placed on a foundation at the seabed. The bottom joint used today is heavy and expensive, which was the main reason to that this thesis was initiated. In this work, the possibility of using a polymer based design for the connection between the tether and foundation was investigated. The optimal outcome of the project was that the polymer solution should provide a spring function to the power plant. A lot of conventional product development methods have been used in the project. The project was divided into five parts: planning, product specification, concept generation, concept choice and conceptual design. In order to understand what was required of the solution in terms of the spring function, a model that aimed to represent what effect a spring function would have on the power plant was developed. According to the model, a spring function in the tether direction could increase the velocity of the kite in its trajectory. The model is based on some simplifications which is assessed to need further investigation. The spring function was translated to that the component should be able to elongate as a response to the force acting in the tether direction. In the concept choice phase it was chosen to proceed with a design similar to that of a bend stiffener. It was decided that a spring function was not required of the component, though desirable. A material selection was performed and the most optimal material for a single part that should be able withstand the tension, allow rotation, and provide a spring function was concluded to be TPU(ester, aromatic, Shore 50D). In the attempt to understand what was needed to be considered if the spring function should be solved by a material response in a polymer component, relevant theory was collected. A numerical analysis in Abaqus was performed which indicated that such a solution was unreasonable. It was then decided to proceed with the development of a bend stiffener, where the tether should be connected directly to the foundation. The thesis finally concludes with a conceptual design of a bend stiffener. The most suitable material for a bend stiffener was concluded to be TPU(ether, aliphatic, Shore 60D). The initial dimensions were determined by the maximum angle and tension combination that the tether would be exposed to. A static analysis was performed in Abaqus to illustrate the function of the product. The analysis indicated that a bend stiffener could provide the required function. However, the stress in the component became high, which indicated that the bend stiffener material might fail due to the applied load. In order to fully evaluate this, it was concluded that a more accurate material model was required.

LKAB Wassara AB, förkortat Wassara, är ett dotterbolag till det statligt ägda LKAB. Wassara utvecklar och tillverkar borrsystem som bland annat används för spränghålsborrning i LKAB:s gruvor. Borrtekniken som Wassara utvecklat använder sig av trycksatt vatten för att driva en slaghammare vilken slår på en borrkrona. Wassaras system möjliggör rak borrning med hög precision. Nästa steg är att utveckla ett borrsystem där borrens riktning kan kontrolleras vilket ska resultera i en mer fördelaktig borrhålslayout och därmed ökad produktivitet. Detta examensarbete är en del av ett utvecklingsprojekt inom Wassara kallat ”Framtida borrsystem” som syftar till att ta fram nästa generations styrda borrsystem. Arbetet som beskrivs i denna rapport behandlar en omvärldsanalys av området styrd borrning samt konceptutveckling för den mekaniska styrprincipen vilka har till syfte att ligga till grund för ett beslut gällande möjligheten till implementering av styrd borrning i Wassaras system. Genom en omfattande omvärldsanalys lades en kunskapsgrundgrund för en konceptgenerering vilken resulterade i fem koncept för styrningsmekanismen. Koncepten analyserades och utvärderades och ledde fram till ett slutkoncept för vidare utveckling. Detta koncept visualiserades med hjälp av 3D-modeller och funktionsprototyper för att ge en bättre bild av, samt verifiera, geometrin. Vidare gjordes hållfasthetsanalyser, gränssnittsutformningar och förslag till drivsystem för den mekaniska styrprincipen.Det slutkoncept som beskrivs i rapporten uppfyllde de krav som ställdes initialt. Konceptet jämfördes med ett antal existerande system, vilka studerades i omvärldsanalysen, och visade på fördelaktiga egenskaper med avseende på de förhållanden som gäller för ”Framtida borrsystem”. / LKAB Wassara AB, abbr. Wassara, is a subsidiary of the state owned LKAB. Wassara develops and manufactures drilling technology, which is used for blast hole drilling in LKAB's mines. The drilling technique Wassara developed uses pressurized water to drive a percussion hammer which strikes on a drill bit. Wassara’s system allows straight drilling with high precision. The next step for Wassara is to develop a drilling system where the drill direction can be controlled, which will result in a more favourable borehole layout and thus increased productivity. This thesis is part of a development project at Wassara called "Framtida borrsystem" that aims to develop a next generation directionally controlled drilling system. The work described in this report covers an analysis of the area of directionally controlled drilling as well as concept development for the mechanical control principle. These are intended to be the basis for a decision regarding the possibility to implement directional drilling in the Wassara system. Through an extensive background research process, a foundation of knowledge was created and used as a basis for concept generation. The concept generation resulted in five concepts for the control mechanism which were analysed and evaluated and led to a final concept for further development. This concept was visualized using 3D models and functional prototypes to provide a better picture of, and to validate, the geometry. Furthermore, stress analysis, interface designs and a draft of an actuation system for the mechanical control principle were conducted. The final concept described in the report met the requirements that were stated initially. The concept was compared to a number of existing systems, which were studied in the analysis of the area of directional drilling, and showed advantageous properties with respect to the circumstances of the project "Framtida borrsystem”.

One of the most important decisions in the product development process is the selection of a promising design concept because of the large influence it has on the final product. A thorough search for the best design is a significant challenge to designers, who are trying to balance the objective and subjective performance of the designs they create. In this thesis, a computationally-assisted design methodology is developed and used in the early stages of design to more thoroughly search for designs that perform well according to objective physics-based models and subjective designer-specific preference-based models. The method presented herein uses an initial pool of user-created designs that is parameterized and used in a numerical search that recombines design features to form new designs in a semi-automated way. Designs are then evaluated quantitatively by objective performance calculations and evaluated qualitatively by human designers. Designer preference is interactively gathered when visual representations of new computer-created designs are presented to the designer for subjective evaluation. A mathematical model is then formed using statistical probability methods to approximate the designer's preference and incrementally updated after the designer subjectively evaluates a new set of designs at each iteration of the automated search process. The methodology uses a multiobjective approach to search for optimally performing designs, treating both the physics-based models and the preference-based models as objectives. The methodology couples the speed of computational searches with the ability of human designers to subjectively evaluate unmodeled objectives. The method is demonstrated with two product examples to find optimal designs that designers may not have otherwise discovered among the vast number of possible combinations of features. The proposed methodology brings the ability to search for and find numerous, optimal solutions across a wide solution space, in an efficient and human-centered way, and does so in the early stages of design.

Transport av maskiner och produkter över hela världen är dyrt, tidskrävande och miljömässigt belastande. Cellwood Machinery sänder idag ett 650 kilogram tungt testfilter till potentiella kunder för att de ska kunna utvärdera fördelarna med produkten Algas mikrofilter. Kunderna är pappersbruk i hela världen och Algas mikrofilter används för att filtrera det processvatten som behövs vid papperstillverkning. Företaget tycker inte att dagens metod är hållbar, varken ekonomiskt, tidsmässigt eller miljömässigt, och vill därför finna ett alternativ.Examensarbetets uppgift är att finna ett annan metod än att skicka ett testfilter. Den sökta metoden ska göra det möjligt att utvärdera egenskaper hos processvatten som filtrerats. Det behöver också förklaras vilka faktorer som påverkar dimensionering av ett Algas mikrofilter.För att finna ett alternativ till testfiltret har olika konceptförslag tagits fram. Bland dessa framstod konceptförslaget att använda en Schopper Riegler-mätare i kombination med en våg som bäst. En Schopper Riegler-mätare är ett mätinstrument som är vanligt inom pappersindustrin. Konceptet har även testats i Cellwood Machinerys laboratorium. Resultatet av dessa tester visade att konceptlösningen fungerar. Eftersom testerna gjordes i laboratorium, behövs vidare arbete för att säkerställa att den presenterade lösningen fullt ut kan fungera som ett alternativ till testfiltret. / Transporting machines and products all over the world is expensive, time-consuming, and environmentally burdensome. Cellwood Machinery is today sending a 650-kilogram test filter to potential customers so that they can evaluate the benefits of the Algas microfilter product. The customers are paper mills all over the world and Alga's microfilters are used to filter the process water needed in paper manufacturing. The company does not think that the current method is sustainable, neither financially, in terms of time or environmentally, and therefore wants to find an alternative.The task of the thesis is to find a different method than sending a test filter. The applied method must make it possible to evaluate properties of filtered process water. It also needs to be explained which factors affect the dimensioning of an Algas microfilter.In order to find an alternative to the test filter, various concept proposals have been developed. Among these, the concept proposal to use a Schopper Riegler meter in combination with a scale stood out as the best. A Schopper Riegler meter is a measuring instrument common in the paper industry. The concept has also been tested in Cellwood Machinery's laboratory. The results of these tests showed that the concept solution works. Since the tests were done in the laboratory, further work is needed to ensure that the presented solution can fully function as an alternative to the test filter.

Projektet omfattar produktutveckling av stavspets ämnad för användning på rullband. Genom utveckling av design och val av material förbättras stavens pendelrörelse. Intervjustudie med kompletterande litteraturundersökning används för att ta fram marknadens behov på en högpresterande stavspets. Underlaget används för att generera innovativa lösningar för att skapa möjliga koncept som analyseras och utvärderas med olika verktyg och digitala analyser. Rapporten beskriver framtagning av prototyper följt av fysiska tester i avancerade maskiner för att kontrollera konstruktionernas hållfasthet. Som avslutning på rapporten delges läsaren med slutliga resultat från tester på rullband samt hur väl projektet lyckats med att leverera en fungerande prototyp. / The project involves product development of a ski pole tip intended for use on a treadmill by improving the design and material selection to enhance the pole's pendulum motion. A conducted interview study with supplementary literature research is used to identify the market's needs for a high-performance ski pole tip. This information is used to generate innovative solutions to create potential concepts. The concepts are analyzed and evaluated using various tools and digital analyses. The report describes the development of prototypes, followed by physical testing to verify the strength of the designs leading to further testing on a treadmill. As a conclusion to the report, the reader is presented with the final results from treadmill tests and how well the project has succeeded in delivering a functional prototype. / <p>Betygsdatum 2023-06-28</p>