Product category:
Mould, Die and Tool Making Subcontracting Services
News Release from: FSG Tool and Die | Subject: Tooling
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 02 April 2007
Tooling for 3D complex designs
To satisfy a design need for an in-car sound system, FSG developed a tooling methodology which could cope with very thin section components and assemblies in a variety of materials.
A love of music is what drove Dr Sidney Harman to found Harman International over 50 years ago During the intervening years Harman/Becker, the automotive division of Harman International, has been setting the engineering standard for in-car sound systems, developing market-leading products through ever-smarter engineering and ever-simpler design
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 15 Jan 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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When the team at Harman started to look for a partner to develop the tooling for a new in-car speaker system they knew they were looking for a World Class tooling company - they found it in Wales at FSG Tool and Die.
Harman Becker was intent on developing a new in-car sound concept which would offer surround-sound sensation, spatial sound and acoustic clarity across the frequency range.
To achieve these objectives aluminium cone speakers would provide the optimum solution - their superior sound quality has been proven in top-of-the-range home hi-fi systems for many years.
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However, up to that time production of such speakers had been too expensive for the automotive market, and there was no worldwide high-volume production.
The challenge therefore was to develop a mass production manufacturing process, at a competitive price, to create a product appealing to the top-end of the automotive market.
To achieve these ends, close co-operation would be needed by everyone in the design cycle, including suppliers with expertise in rubber compounding, adhesives, and aluminium press tooling.
The Harman team was looking for several key features in partner companies, including shared culture and values, mutual respect, respect of confidentiality and commitment to the project - and FSG Tool and Die fitted the bill.
The challenge for the toolmaker was to develop a tooling methodology which could cope with very thin section components and assemblies in a variety of materials, with complex 3D component designs.
The final design would need to be suitable for high volume production at high quality, and with outstanding repeatability - and all this to be achieved at a competitive cost and in a competitive time-frame.
The development of the design required the creation of multiple prototypes to create components that would pass the critical sound test.
Simulation software modelled the loudspeaker parameters to predict the small signal and large signal behaviour and Finite Element Analysis was used to reduce design time from initial concept to an off-tool production-level part.
The spider and cone-surround components, which were designed separately to meet the specification defined by the loudspeaker engineer, went through several design iterations to optimise their acoustic performance.
These prototype refinements resulted in further innovations, including the development of coloured cones, domes, tweeter domes and the use of new materials.
The result of all this effort was the development of what has now become a patented process to improve the sound quality of speaker cones through a combination of the effects of the cross section and material.
FSG was a key partner in developing the press tooling for this complex 3-Dimensional shape which results in a component only 125microns thick, in 99.9% pure aluminium - a material whose softness and ability to deform makes it ideally responsive in acoustic terms but proves challenging for production tooling.
An anodising process is part of the process, to improve the rigidity of the shape and therefore improve the clarity of the sound.
Now in full production, approximately 3 million speakers a year are being manufactured at Harman's Bridgend plant in sizes from 80mm diameter up to 300mm diameter.
Altogether, the outcome of the project has been more than impressive: the target cost for the cones was achieved at a globally competitive level and the product now has a home in the premium audio system offerings on the luxury vehicle set including Range Rover, BMW 7 Series and the Mercedes E Class.
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