Manufacturing Processes

Abstract

To produce a workpiece, a formed part, a component – in other words, a product precisely defined in terms of form, dimensions, dimensional tolerances, surface quality and mechanical-technological properties – various methods must be applied. Steel production, primary shaping (casting), secondary shaping including the necessary heat treatment processes and testing were dealt with in the previous chapters. These methods are generally assigned to production engineering, as are the further methods such as joining, coating and tensioning technology (mechanical machining such as turning, milling, planing/stamping, drilling, peeling, grinding). All of these methods of production engineering are closely linked to the history of mankind. For example, there were already drill bits or fire drills in the Stone Age over 40,000 years ago. In the Bronze Age after 3000 BC, iron ore was then smelted and processed by casting, forging and fire welding. And from the middle of the eighteenth century, increasingly scientific methods were used to improve production engineering and to develop new methods. Today, production engineering is an important field of production engineering and mechanical engineering, thus encompassing methods and facilities (tools, machining machines, etc.) for the production of products intended for the end user or to be further processed as semi-finished products (Westkämper & Warnecke, 2010; Fritz, 2015). The following is an overview of the joining and coating methods of steel as well as the most important methods of mechanical machining.