The thesis has been carried out in cooperation with Master Flow AB, Västervik owned by the EWEBE Group. The company produces and sells hot runner systems that are tailor made for the customers. The problem that MasterFlow AB has encountered is in the construction of complex hot runner systems in SolidWorks. With several different lengths, fronts and endcaps that builds the nozzles of the hot runner systems, is affecting the problems for MasterFlow AB. The purpose of this work is to automate the design of hot runner systems so it does not overload the CAD-system SolidWorks. To gain an understanding of the problem, there have been several studies and observations at the company, where the focus has been on how the work is done with the design of hot runner systems. By using help from the corporate management, enough information has been collected to find a solution to these problems. The implementation of design automation has been based on a flowchart that was created. It describes how MasterFlow AB approaches when they choose nozzles to its hot runner systems. Programming was done in Visual Studio, in the language Visual Basic. Furthermore, the program Howtomation was used to tie the programming together. An application called “Bushing Generator” has been created where automation of the design of nozzle is fully possible. The program Bushing Generator selects the options that is specific for the selected nozzle and creates one or more nozzles which is mounted to the assembly of the manifold. Master Flow AB is considered to have high potential for further automation of the hot runner system. Automation that includes the manifold and the creation of drawings is considered possible. / Examensarbetet har genomförts i sammarbete med MasterFlow AB i Västervik som ägs av EWEBE Group. Företaget tillverkar och säljer varmkanalsystem som är skräddarsydda till kunder.   Problemet som MasterFlow AB har stött på är vid konstruktion av komplicerade varmkanalsystem som belastar CAD(Computer Aided Design)-systemet SolidWorks. Med flera varierande längder, fronter och spetsar som bygger upp varmgötena till varmkanalsystemet byggs problematiken upp för MasterFlow AB. Syftet med arbetet är att automatisera konstruktionen av varmkanalsystemet så den inte överbelastar CAD-systemet SolidWorks.   För att få förståelse om problemet har det gjorts flera undersökningar och observationer på företaget, där fokus har kretsat kring hur arbetet ser ut med konstruktion av varmkanalsystem. Med hjälp av företagsledningen har det insamlats tillräckligt med information för att lösa problematiken för att finna en lösning.   Genomförandet av automatiseringen har baserats på ett flödesschema som skapades och som beskriver hur MasterFlow AB går tillväga när de väljer varmgöt till sina varmkanalsystem. Därefter programmerades automatiseringen i programmet Visual Studio där programmeringen bestått av VBA (Visual Basic for Applications). Vidare har sammankopplingen av programmeringen skett i programmet Howtomation, skapat av universitetslektorn Joel Johansson.   Resultatet av programmeringen i Howtomation har genererat ett program, kallat ”Bushing Generator”, där automatisering av varmgöt är fullt möjlig. I programmet Bushing Generator väljs det alternativ som är aktuellt för varmgötet och skapar ett eller flera varmgöten som monteras in i sammanställningen för balken.   Automatisering på MasterFlow AB anses ha stora möjlighet att utvecklas, med automation som innefattar balken och skapandet av ritningar.

This thesis work is mainly focused on the processes involved in manufacturing of aircraft engine components. The processes are especially about welding and welding methods. The basics of welding and the thesis support has been taken from the GKN Aerospace Sweden AB, a global aerospace product supplier.  The basic objective of this thesis work is to improve the usability of an automation system which is developed for evaluating the weldability of a part. A long run maintainability aspect of this automation system has been considered. The thesis work addresses the problems arising during the usage of a computerised automated system such as process transparency, recognisability, details traceability and other maintenance aspects such as maintainability and upgradability of the system in the course of time. The action research methodology has been used to address these problems.  Different approaches have been tried to finding the solution to those problems. A rule based manufacturability analysis system has been attempted to analyse the weldability of a component in terms of different welding technics. The software “Howtomation” has been used to improve the transparency of this analysis system. User recognisability and details tractability have been taken into account during the usage of a ruled based analysis system. The system attributes such as maintainability, upgradability, adaptiveness to modern welding methods has been addressed. The system suitability for large scale analysis has been considered.