A seemingly increasing trend in the automotive industry is the prevalence of hybrid and electric vehicles. For Lear Corporation, a global automotive supplier of seating and electronic systems, this has caused a decrease in quantity of their products as these types of vehicles are manufactured at lower rates of volumes. An essential element of the electronic system provided by Lear is the wire harness. The wire harness is fastened and protected through plastic components called channels or brackets. These channels are fabricated through injection molding, one of the most common plastic manufacturing processes which offer many benefits. However, injection molding entails high upfront costs which are not suitable for the lower scales of production Lear expect. This prompted the company to seek other alternative processes and thus the idea of this thesis arose.The purpose of the thesis was to identify, evaluate and present alternative manufacturing processes that could potentially replace the current process. Furthermore, the possibility of decreasing the costs of the current process and making it viable for low volume production was explored.The study presented a total of nine common plastic manufacturing processes and subsequently performed a screening where processes deemed incompatible, in terms of aspects such as part complexity, size, volume and cost, were dismissed and processes deemed compatible in relation to the desired application were evaluated further. The processes kept for further examination were injection molding and additive manufacturing.Injection molding and additive manufacturing were evaluated further and ultimately cost estimates for each process were requested to manufacturers in order to make a cost analysis and further study the feasibility of respective process.The cost estimates and subsequent cost analysis indicated that the ideal and most cost-effective option for Lear would be changing the injection molding tool to MUD, aluminum or steel grade 738. This allows Lear to utilize the benefits of injection molding while decreasing the mold cost and upfront costs for the injection molding process substantially. Another proposal presented was to merge injection molding and additive manufacturing in a method called bridge production. This would allow Lear to increase flexibility and reduce lead time.

Följande examensarbete handlar om att ta fram konstruktionsförslag för en kopplingsmekanism som möjliggör delning av SverigeGrepens stallgrep. Produkten SverigeGrepen är med sin särskilda utformning och låga vikt ett ergonomiskt mockningsredskap. På grund av dess längd och form tillkommer en avgift för skrymmande paket vilket resulterar i en hög fraktkostnad. En lösning på detta problem är att skaftet delas itu, vilket tillåter produkten att fraktas i ett mindre paket. Vid ankomst hos kund monteras produkten med hjälp av kopplingsmekanismen. Lösningen ska innebära en minimal påverkan på egenskaper jämfört med hur produkten ser ut idag, som vikt och hållfasthet. För att erhålla ett teoretiskt underlag för problemet genomfördes en litteraturstudie. Denna behandlade områden som formsprutning och konstruktionsregler, finita elementmetoden, material, konceptval samt tidigare studier. Studien fortsatte med benchmarking och framställandet av en produktkravspecifikation. Dessa användes som grund för att generera olika koncept, där de mest lovande konstruerades i CAD. Metoder för konceptval applicerades, där slutligen två av koncepten valdes att kombineras inför en vidareutveckling. Resultatet av arbetet är ett konstruktionsförslag för en pluggliknande kopplingsmekanism som monteras på skaftets insida. Denna lösning har en låg vikt, klarar vardaglig belastning och tillåter montering av SverigeGrepens delade skaft. / This thesis aim is to develop a design proposal for a coupling mechanism for SverigeGrepen’s mucking tool which enables a splitting of its shaft and thus subsequently offer the ability to reliably mount them back together. SverigeGrepen is a lightweight product with a special design that makes it an ergonomic mucking tool. Due to the products length and shape a package fee is added in conjunction with its shipping which results in a high delivery cost. A proposal to solve this problem is a splitting of its shaft, which allows the product to be shipped in a smaller package. The product is assembled upon arrival at the customer. The solution should also have a minimal negative impact on SverigeGrepen’s existing product, such as its weight and strength. A literature study was conducted to obtain a theoretical basis. The study treated areas such as injection molding and rules for plastic design, as well as the finite element method, materials, concept selection and previous research. The study continued with market research and the development of a product requirement specification. These were used as a basis for generating product concepts, of which the most promising drafts were designed in CAD. Methods for concept selection were applied, where finally two of the concepts were chosen to be combined for further development. The result is a design proposal for a plug-like coupling mechanism that is mounted on the inside of the products shaft parts. The proposed solution offers a low total weight, endure the stress associated with everyday usage and allows the assembly of SverigeGrepen’s splitted shaft parts.