Design For Manufacturing Related To Sheet Metal Parts

Quantified design for manufacturing (DFM) is an effective technique to lower product cost, reduce lead time, reduce tooling costs, and increase reliability. There are forms or PC-based software systems to aid the designers and engineers in their quantification effort. The sheet metal process lends itself to economical production of parts that do not require secondary operations. DFM is quickly learned and is presently used by many leading companies. Other aspects of DFM as related to sheet metal parts include use of GD&T, special techniques such as semi-perfs to locate parts, and tabs to permanently assemble parts.